Saving Iceland

Survival International – India’s Supreme Court has today dealt a devastating blow to the Dongria Kondh tribe by giving British FTSE 100 company Vedanta permission to mine their sacred mountain. The tribe say the mine will destroy their way of life forever. Vedanta’s subsidiary Sterlite plans to mine for bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, from Niyamgiri mountain in Orissa, eastern India. Vedanta is majority owned by London-based Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal. The Dongria Kondh say the huge open cast mine will destroy a vast swathe of untouched forest, and will reduce their most sacred site to an industrial wasteland. Last month, thirty Dongria Kondh men blockaded a road that is being built through their forest towards the site of the proposed mine. The tribe say they will stage mass protests if mining goes ahead. Read More

Iceland Review – The Althingi parliament’s environment committee will review Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir’s decision to have the entire aluminum smelter project at Bakki near Húsavík in north Iceland undergo a joint environmental impact assessment.
MP for the Social Democrats and chairman of the environment committee Helgi Hjörvar agreed to assemble the committee and discuss the controversial move made by the minister after receiving a proposal on the matter from Höskuldur Thórhallsson, the Progressive Party’s representative on the committee, 24 Stundir reports. Read More

,,Stop the destruction of Þjórsá for arms production!”

HAFNARFJORDUR, ICELAND – Activists from Saving Iceland have today begun stopping traffic to and from Rio Tinto-Alcan’s aluminium smelter in Straumsvík, Hafnarfjordur, by chaining themselves to the gates of the plant. Saving Iceland is protesting against Rio Tinto-Alcan’s plans to increase their aluminium production capacity on the island, the consequences of which would would be that significant parts of Iceland’s unique environment would have to be destroyed for energy generation. The activists are also protesting against the worlds largest aluminium producer’s involvement with the arms industry.
Rio Tinto-Alcan wants to increase its production in Straumsvík by 40 thousand tons per year without enlarging the smelter building itself. At the same time the company is planning to build a second aluminium smelter in the towns of Keilisnes or Þorlákshöfn (1).
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Iceland Review – Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir decided yesterday that the planned Alcoa aluminum smelter in Bakki, near Húsavík in northeast Iceland, and related geothermal power plants should undergo a joint environmental impact assessment.
With her decision Sveinbjarnardóttir reversed a decision made by Skipulagsstofnun – the Icelandic National Planning Agency that the Bakki smelter project does not have to go through an overall environmental impact assessment, Morgunbladid reports. Read More

British mining giant Vedanta’s Chairman Anil Agarwal told the company’s AGM today that his company would only go ahead with its highly controversial bauxite mine in Orissa, eastern India, with the ‘complete permission’ of the Dongria Kondh tribe. Vedanta’s subsidiary, Sterlite, is currently awaiting permission from India’s Supreme Court to mine bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, from Niyamgiri mountain in Orissa. The court is expected to award permission shortly. Read More

“Reykjavik Energy Sponsors Human Rights Abuse in Yemen”

HELLISHEIDI (ICELAND) – This morning the direct action campaign Saving Iceland has occupied one of the main geothermal drill sites in Hengill where the Hellisheidi power plant is being expanded by Reykjavik Energy. 20 activists have chained themselves to machinery and have climbed the drill to hang up a banner saying “Reykjavik Energy out of Hellisheidi and Yemen”. They have also occupied the power control room of the drill site. The power to the drill was shut off and drilling was stopped for the rest of the day. Seven people got arrested. The protest was aimed at Reykjavik Energy supplying electricity to aluminium smelters in Iceland, destruction and pollution of the Hengill area and RE’s sponsoring of severe human rights abuse in Yemen.

In the last week, Saving Iceland took action at the Glencore and ALCOA headquarters in Switzerland as well as all Swiss Icelandic consulates, the Icelandic embassy in Rome, Icelandic consulate in Milan and also the headquarters of Impregilo. In Iceland Century Aluminum and Landsvirkjun both saw two actions against them and now Reykjavik Energy was targeted. Read More

On 25 July 2008 a second solidarity action in Switzerland (Baar) took place. This is the letter the Saving Iceland Supporters from Switerland wrote us:

On 25 July 2008 we staged a demonstration outside Glencore’s headquarters in Switzerland to show our solidarity with the Saving Iceland campaign and to point the finger at Glencore’s business practices.

Glencore founded the Century Aluminum Co. in 1995 and remains the majority shareholder to this day. Therefore, Glencore can be held directly responsible both for the destruction and pollution in Iceland and for the human rights violations in Jamaica, Africa and Columbia being perpetrated by Century Aluminum.

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For the international action week in solidarity with the activists fighting at the camp in Iceland, some activists of the Swiss S.I. Supporters Group hand delivered a letter to the Icelandic Consuls and Ambassador in Switzerland. It contained an “ecological message for the Icelandic government” which we asked to be forwarded to the ministers for industry, the environment and economic affairs. Read More

We just received this letter from Saving Iceland Supporters in Switzerland:

On 23 July we returned to the European Headquarters of ALCOA in Geneva, Avenue G. Motta 31, to stage a protest for the international Action Week in solidarity with the Saving Iceland campaign. Our aim was to put pressure on Alcoa and show support for the activists at the summer action camp in Iceland.

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Iceland Review – Sigurdur Sigurdarson, a veterinarian at Keldur in south Iceland, claims that fluorine pollution from aluminum smelter is causing teeth-damages in livestock and encourages sheep farmers who live near smelters to pay close attention to the symptoms. Read More