Oil stranded on the shoreline adjacent to a fishing farm. The effects of oil spills can have wide ranging impacts that are often portrayed by the media as long lasting environmental disasters. Such perceptions are understandable as they are often fuelled by distressing images of oiled birds and other wildlife. It is true that an oil spill can have severe short term effects, especially when organisms are considered on an individual basis.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), whose real name is NeftalÃ­ Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, was born on 12 July, 1904, in the town of Parral in Chile. His father was a railway employee and his mother, who died shortly after his birth, a teacher. Some years later his father, who had then moved to the town of Temuco, remarried doÃ±a Trinidad Candia Malverde.
He then moved to Paris and helped settle Spanish republican refugees in Chile. Neruda returned to Chile in 1938 where he renewed his political activity and wrote prolifically. Named Chilean Consul to Mexico in 1939, Neruda left Chile again for four years. Upon returning to Chile in 1943, he was elected to the Senate and joined the Communist Party. When the Chilean government moved to the right, they declared communism illegal and expelled Neruda from the Senate. He went into hiding.