Abstract

The Atacama Desert cannot afford any longer the aggressive extraction of fresh water through the same technological system human societies have been applying for around 3,000 years. Since then there has not been qualitative technological changes in the way water is obtained. Three major technological circles in the use of fresh water can be recognized in the short-term human history in the Atacama Desert. The first started 14,000 to 13,000 years ago when ground and surface water permanently flowed in abundance from the high Andes to the Pacific coast. In this scenario very low population density social groups established a hunting and gathering way of life in the core of the Desert. This bonanza decayed around 9,000 years ago and as people did not have adequate technological response they moved to the coast and the Andes. Around 2,500 years ago a new although less abundant circle of water reactivated the ecosystem, but more complex technological devises were required. By the 18th century it was necessary to drill the earth to get underground water for a constant encasing demand. These technological systems have been taken to the extreme to supply a supernatural demand of water for farming, mining, urban and rural expansions. We cannot continue squeezing the Desert. Human societies need to build a new technological circle of water with completely new technological solutions defined here as the camanchaca revolution. This coastal fog could be an alternative, to stop squeezing the planet.