Dialogue of the Decade: The Climate of Chile and Argentina in May-June 2025
In May-June 2025, Northeastern University’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” program on “Climate Change in Emerging Economies” celebrated its tenth year by taking students to Chile and Argentina. Led by CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly, alongside program assistants and local guides, the month-long experience immersed fifteen undergraduate students in climate science, adaptation engineering, and policy discussions through classroom sessions, role-playing, and field trips to diverse locations like the Andes, Patagonia, and urban centers. The program provided hands-on learning about real-world climate challenges, engaged students with local experts and communities, and offered rich cultural experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of global climate issues and sustainable solutions.
We know you have always meant to ask questions like the following:
Climate Science:
- When human activities release carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere, do they cause high concentrations locally or do they spread evenly across the planet?
- Is water a more potent greenhouse gas compared to carbon-dioxide and if so, are we equally worried about water vapor emissions?
- What is chaos theory, and if that precludes weather prediction beyond a few weeks, why do we think we can project climate to century scales?
- Is it true that melting land glaciers of the Antarctic cause more sea level rise in Boston, Massachusetts, than in Santiago, Chile?
- When sea glaciers melt, do they contribute to sea level rise, and if so, is that only because sea water is salty?
- Is the El Nino weather phenomena caused by global warming or do they cause global warming or is there no relation?
Adaptation Engineering:
- Why is the impact of global warming not unform on floods and droughts or heat waves and cold snaps?
- Why and how are extreme weather events and the changes in their patterns important for food, water, energy, ecosystems, and infrastructures?
- Are cities more at risk from climate change or are villages equally vulnerable, and do cities contribute more to warming?
- Given that chaos seems to influence climate while cascading failures govern coupled human-natural systems, can climate decisions be risk-informed?
- Can Artificial Intelligence be a force for the good to characterize translate climate science to impacts leading to information for policy?
Policy:
- Given climate change is a global problem, and the world does not appear to be converging on emissions reduction, should we give up on climate action?
- What is more important for mitigating climate change and impacts, individual and collective action or regulations and policies for large corporations and nations?
The Program
Our students wrestled with questions like the above via classroom discussions and role-playing wargames, as well as field trips and stakeholder discussions, in Chile and Argentina. Our “Dialogue of Civilizations” (DOC) program on “Climate Change in Emerging Economies” (CCEE), which has been running since 2014 and has attracted students from all colleges at Northeastern University over the years, traveled to South America, specifically, Chile and Argentina, in 2025. This year, if we leave out the two pandemic years, our program completed a full decade!
Here’s a list of our programs till date (the SDS Lab Fun/Picture site has more details): (1) India in 2014; (2) India in 2015; (3) India in 2016; (4) Indonesia and Singapore in 2017; (5) Brazil and Peru in 2018; (6) India and Nepal in 2019; Virtual DOC in 2020 and No Program in 2021 owing to the Pandemic; (7) Tanzania in 2022; (8) India and Nepal in 2023; (9) Indonesia and Thailand in 2024; (10) Argentina and Chile in 2025. The last program in 2025 was our tenth, and closest to the 2023 program (see here) in terms of the student composition and to the 2018 program (see here and there) in terms of the geographical location (South America). Our faculty-led, month-long program discusses the science and policy challenges for climate adaptation and mitigation with a focus on the host countries, based on faculty and guest lectures from leaders in private-public-government sectors and academia, hands-on interactions with a wide cross-section of people and students in the host countries, as well as field visit. Cultural immersion within the host countries is a crucial component and the experiences include academic discussions and student-citizen interactions to cultural excursions and walking tours.
Besides being our tenth overall study-abroad, this 2025 summer program in the middle of the winter was the Dialogue of the Decade in more ways than one. Chile was charming, Argentina was awesome, the student group was stupendous, the guest lecturers and guides were gracious, and the program assistants were perfect!
Trivia Question: What are the national gemstones of Chile and Argentina?
- Chile: Lapis lazuli
- Argentina: Rhodochrosite
The Itinerary
- Santiago, Chile: Arrival May 6 to May 17, 2025
- Santiago City Tour
- UDLA: Universidad de las Americas
- Cajón del Maipo: Zipline on the Andes!!!
- Uch: Universidad de Chile
- Museo del Agua Maipo
- Viña del Mar: Beach
- Valparaiso: UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Quebrada del Ají: The Food-Energy-Water Nexus!
- Patagonia, Chile: May 17 to May 26, 2025
- Punta Arenas City Tour
- Nao Victoria Museum
- UMAG: Universidad de Magallanes
- Reserva de Magallanes: Mountain Hike
- Tres Puentes: Wetlands
- Peurto Natales City Tour
- Grey Glacier Navigation: Boat Ride
- Torres del Paine National Park: Salto Grande Waterfall; Mirador Cuernos
- Córdoba, Argentina: May 26 to June 3, 2025
- Córdoba City Tour
- Manzana Jesuítica de Córdoba: UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Ministerio de Infraestructura y Servicios Públicos de Córdoba
- UNC: Universidad Nacional de Cordoba
- UTN: Universidad Tecnologica de Cordoba
- Municipalidad de Cordoba
- Universidad Siglo 21
- Botánico de Córdoba
- UBP: Universidad Blas Pascal
- Sierras de Córdoba – Quebrada del Condorito: Mountain Hike
- Asado: Traditional Barbecue with Music and Dance
- Tango Lessons: Dance!
- Piedras Blancas: Waste Recycling and Green Infrastructure
- Mercado de San Miguel in Malagueño: Waste-to-Energy Company
- Villa Cura Brochero
- UCC: Universidad Católica de Córdoba
Experiential Learning
We learned first-hand about climate variability and change near the glaciers and mountains of Patagonia, we learned about ecosystem impacts near the Chilean Patagonia and the Argentine Sierras, and we learned about urban infrastructures even as we walked along the occasionally flooded streets of Santiago and the beaches of Viña del Mar or the wall arts of Valparaiso. We went to a ministry in Cordoba and were wonderstruck when the minister explained basic climate concepts through equations, we went to a avocado farmland to see the food-energy-water nexus in action, we learned about artificial intelligence, climate models, and game theory in our classrooms, and we learned from university professors and students, and private, public, and government sector organizations, about climate and culture of the host countries.
We also had fun and a deep cultural immersion we will never forget.
While in Chile, we learned about the poetry of Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, we discussed about Victor Jara and Allende, we ziplined over the Maipo in the heart of the Andes, we hiked in the Magallanes reservation and the Torres del Paine, we enjoyed the food in the streets, at restaurants, and at the homes of our new friends, we saw the southern cross in the night sky, we learned the tricks of survival when the winds blow from the south pole, and we were even interviewed by Radio Polar.
When in Argentina, we learned how to tango and how to sing and dance with friends in the city of Cordoba and a village near Villa Cura Brochero, we discovered the secrets of the Condor National Park, we discussed about the governments heading Argentina versus the Córdoba region, and we learned about challenges in circular economy and climate entrepreneurship. Overall, we had some of the best food the world has to offer, and we met with fellow students and professors and other professionals who were or temporarily became our passionate local guides, and we felt first-hand the love they had for their native places and their shared concern for humanity on out shared planet.
Our students played an interesting game of personalities with some of their fellow students at the host countries. What if a person, current or historical, from Chile or Argentina were to be transported in space and time and meet another person, whether from the South America or elsewhere? What would they discuss with each other? What if the following persons were to meet: Gabriela Mistral and Maya Angelou; Victor Jara and Bob Dylan; Augusto Pinochet and Josef Stalin; Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi; Carlos Saavedra Lamas and Rabindranath Tagore? What would they discuss about their often-comparative work yet mostly contrasting experiences? Can such theoretical discussions help the students understand these personalities and their times better from the perspectives of their generations and societies?
Ten Pictures
A picture, they say, is a thousand words. Let me try to discuss our Dialogue experience through ten collages.
 Collage 1 shows our group in the two countries, along with guanacos in Chile and a condor in Argentina. Our group included fifteen undergraduate (UG) students (Huskies) from across colleges at Northeastern University (NU), two former NU UG alums as program assistants (Ruth Linnaea Cahill and Francisco Mendes), and me as the instructor. We were accompanied by our guide Sofia Mardones in Chile organized by our travel provider OneSeed. While in Argentina, we were primarily guided by Ariana Leaño along with several others whom we have acknowledged later. |
 Collage 2 shows the Andes (note the few Huskies ziplining over the Maipo river) near Santiago, street art (walls of buildings and steps) in Valparaiso, and avocados at a farm in Quebrada del Ají. The text below the wall-art at the top right says the following: “El Clima Esta Cambiando El Futuro Tambien” (The climate is also changing the future). |
 Collage 3 shows our group a street food stall in Santiago, the Museo de Agua (water museum), street art in Valparaiso describing the Selk Nam (an indigenous peoples who with their cultures are now considered mostly extinct owing to genocide by the invading Europeans), funiculars in Valparaiso, our group at a beach in Viña del Mar, professors at the Universidad de Chile before giving their lectures to our students (below a sample of the home-cooked food some of us had with Prof. José Araos and family), a view of the Andes in Cajón del Maipo, and a wall painting of Gabriela Mistral with a quote: “Lo que el alma hace por su cuerpo es lo que el artista hace por su pueblo” (What the soul does for its body is what the artist does for his people). |
 Collage 4 shows Mirador Cuernos in the Torres del Paine National Park of Chilean Patagonia, with the entire group and with the instructor (me). The top shows one student (Kathryn Mittelhauser) sketching the peaks. The side panels shown a bird walking on frozen water in the Tres Puentes wetlands and guanacos within the Puma Park Natales. |
 Collage 5 shows a few assorted pictures from out boat ride to the Gray Glacier (note how low the blue glacier looks from the distance while from up close it dwarfs the boats and the people in them), and from our hiking trips in the Reserva de Magallanes and Torres del Paine, all in Chilean Patagonia. The seafood soup in a food joint in Punta Arenas breathed new lives into us after the tiring hikes. |
 Collage 6 shows our group in Punta Arenas city and the Nao Victoria Museum, along with views on Punta Arenas and on the road from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales. One of the pictures captures a specific view of the Santiago night sky with a view of the Southern Cross constellation (Crux). |
 Collage 7 shows our group with musicians in Villa Cura Brochero, which is a village where we spent the night, and our group at a viewpoint of the Sierras de Córdoba. A few hours of bus ride from Córdoba in Argentina took us to the sierras where we went for a hike, following which we camped in a hostel near Villa Cura Brochero, where we were joined by students and professors from Argentina as well as by a group of musicians. |
 Collage 8 shows a few assorted pictures from Córdoba where our group visited, such as a church and a university, as well as the sierras and the Condor National Park (the picture is of an eagle, a picture of a flying condor at the park is shown in Collage 1). |
 Collage 9 shows pictures from places we visited, including several universities and the ministry of infrastructure and public services of Córdoba (with the corresponding minister Fabián López, himself a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, giving a scientific and technical talk on climate to our group), our students interacting with Argentinian students including during the wargames (our program has two climate wargames, role-playing exercises that attempt to simulate real negotiations, one on climate adaptation and one on climate mitigation), and a passer-by providing us tips on how to balance two puppies on a two-wheeler. |
 Collage 10 shows a view from the instructor’s corner, with the two program assistants Ruth Linnaea Cahill (Linnaea: who primarily helped with the teaching and acted as a co-instructor) and Francisco Mendes (Francisco: who primarily worked on the logistics with the NU Global Experience Office), as well as our guide Sofia Mardones of OneSeed. The other pictures show Ariana Leaño, who guided us in Argentina, as well as Prof. Santiago Reyna, who gave us scientific lectures and guided us during our hike in the sierras, Celeste, who gave us industry lectures (and separately repeatedly warned me of the dangers of lithium mining for water resources), and the experts at the water recycling plant who explained the processes to our students. |
Instructor’s Corner
The two program assistants were invaluable to this program and primarily responsible for the very high student ratings across all categories. Linnaea was empathetic yet purposeful as a co-instructor, while Francisco was meticulous and careful with the logistics, and they helped each other. Their knowledge and skills, obtained through degrees at NU and TU Delft, as well as internships and professional experience, made all the difference. We would like to thank NU SDS Lab members Ivan Felipe Benavides and Santiago Arrieta, who helped us make connections in Chile and Argentina respectively. We were lucky to be able to work with Sofia Mardones in Chile and Ariana Leaño in Argentina, as well as the professors, students, and professionals who helped make the program a success. We are in the process of establishing research and educational connections with many of the universities and professors we visited. While we cannot name all of them here, I would like to mention three professors with whom we are discussing future research collaborations: Prof. José Araos from Universidad de Chile, Prof. Juan Carlos Aravena from Universidad de Magallanes, both in Chile, and Prof. Milton Escobar of the Universidad Católica de Córdoba (UCC), Argentina.
The primary purpose of our program is a provide an unforgettable experience for our students. We would like to provide links to some of our student reflections below: