Saving Iceland

As environmentalists and their opponents alike wait for the last steps of Iceland’s Energy Master Plan to occur, it seems quite clear that while river Þjórsá might have been temporarily saved from destruction, the unique geothermal areas of the Reykjanes peninsula will be included in the Master Plan’s exploitation category. If these plans go through unaltered, the good majority of the geothermal areas will be harnessed and destroyed, most likely for Century Aluminum’s blundering aluminium smelting project in Helguvík.

In one of Saving Iceland’s articles from last year, in response to the publication of a proposition for a parliamentary resolution regarding the Energy Master Plan, we mentioned environmentalists “clear opposition to the planned exploitation of certain wonders of nature, one example being the geothermal areas on the Reykjanes peninsula.”

Ellert Grétarsson, a photographer who has documented these areas extensively, fears that the drilling in Krýsuvík – covering between five and eight thousand square meters of land – will simply kill the area. And as a matter of fact, Ellert says, the whole Reykjanes peninsula will be riddled with energy construction. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, former Left Green MP and a genuine environmentalists, shares Ellert’s worries and has asked for an integral study of Reykjanes before any decisions are made.

In order to highlight the uniqueness of those magnificent areas, the recently established Nature Conservation Association of South-West Iceland has now published a web book with photos of the Reykjanes peninsula’s threatened geothermal areas. The photos in the book, titled The Reykjanes Peninsula: The Energy Master Plan’s Trash Can, are by aforementioned Ellert Grétarsson, whose photos decorate many of the articles published here on Saving Iceland’s website. The book can be viewed here:

Read more about the Energy Master Plan by following the Master Plan tag.

Three planned dams in lower Þjórsá river will not be included in a parliamentary resolution for Iceland’s Energy Master Plan, according to sources from within both governing political parties. While some might see this as a reason for celebration, one should think twice before opening up the champaign bottles as these news do not imply that this highly controversial dam project has permanently been thrown off the drawing tables. The project will simply be moved from the exploitation category to the pending category and might eventually end up in the hands of  the political parties most of all responsible for Iceland’s heavy-industrialization.

Since the publication of the long-awaited Energy Master Plan’s second phase in July last year, a good part of the discussion regarding the plan has been centred around the Þjórsá river, especially as the two concerned ministers — Minister of Environment Svandís Svavarsdóttir and Minister of Industry Katrín Júlíusdóttir — presented their proposition for a parliamentary resolution for the Master Plan, wherein the three Þjórsá dams were included. Following a three months long public commentary process — including 225 commentaries by individuals, organizations and companies, of which more than 70 had specifically to do with Þjórsá — the above-mentioned ministers have been working on amending their proposal in order for it to go through parliamentary discussion before the end of parliament sessions this spring.

The Energy Master Plan, which is supposed to lay the foundation for a long-term settlement upon the future exploitation and protection of Iceland natural resources, is split into three categories, of which two are quite clear, titled “exploitation” and “protection”, but the third one, titled “in waiting”, has pretty much been the bone of contention. On the one hand those in favour of extreme energy extraction believe that too many exploitable areas are being kept in waiting, while on the other hand environmentalists think that many of the areas categorized as in waiting should rather be moved straight into the protection category. Read More

On the twenty-fourth anniversary of a disaster which saw a British water-reserve accidentally poisoned with aluminium—eventually killing at least one person—The Telegraph considers how aluminium affects our day-to-day health, now that the metal is used in most household and medical products we consume.

With aluminium known to be such a poisonous metal, a serious investigation into the effects of aluminium production on the health of smelter workers and nearby communities is surely badly needed.

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