" Kárahnjúkar!? It’s only gravel and sand.”
Siv Friðleifsdóttir, ex-Minister of Environment

HELP! NATURE UNDER ATTACK!
STOP THEM KILLING ICELAND!
Stop the Icelandic government and arms manufacturers Alcoa, Alcan and Century Aluminum destroying Europe’s largest remaining wilderness for aluminium plants! Be aware of the ‘master plan’ to ‘develop’ Iceland’s beautiful nature into a heavy industry hell servicing the greed of aluminium corporations! It has already started. A whole world is being drowned right now in the eastern Icelandic highlands. But the Kárahnjúkar dam project is only the beginning of a much wider destruction. These multinational vandals - willingly helped by the Icelandic government - are about to produce an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. It is not too late to stop all the other energy projects that are in the pipeline and drive heavy industry out of Iceland!

This S.O.S. introduces the issues, industrial plans and protests in Iceland. Updated March 2008

A summer of International dissent and action against Heavy Industry - swarming around Iceland from the 12th of July 2008! Watch this space for new updates on the next direct action camp to save the largest remaining wilderness in Europe.

Icelandic embassy in Belgium

During our protest camp this summer, that starts 12th of July, a week of international solidarity actions will take place from July 21st to 27th.

People who can not come to the camp but want to support the resistance against heavy industry in Iceland, should take a look at Saving Iceland's target brochure (which can be found here) and use their imagination.

Húsavík

June 29th 2008

Last Thursday, June 26th, Alcoa, the Ministry of Industry and Norðurþing district council signed a research contract for Alcoa's planned aluminium smelter in Húsavík (Bakki), north Iceland. The contract allows for the furthering of research into the efficiency of the smelter construction and into the energy production capability of the geothermal areas in the north. The smelter is supposed to be run on geothermal energy only.

Búðarfoss Waterfall in Þjórsá

June 25th

Last Monday, June 23rd, the district council of Skeiða- and Gnúperjahreppur agreed on a major change in the district plan. The change includes implementing the construction of two of the three dams Landsvirkjun (national energy company) plans to build in the lower Þjórsá River; Holtavirkjun and Hvammsvirkjun. The plan is now being reviewed by the National Planning Agency. The decision to build these dams was taken despite a huge local opposition in the area. Right now one of the landowners is taking the Icelandic state to court, accused of bypassing laws on local democratic agreement to these projects. According Sól á Suðurlandi (a grassroots organization fighting against the dams) more landowners might follow this figurehead.

The Þeistareykir blue effluent lagoon, with stream coming from boreholes.

23rd June 2008

A recent exploration of the geothermal drilling sites in the North of Iceland by some members of Saving Iceland, uncovered shocking evidence of pollution and ecological damage at the Þeistareykir geothermal area near to Husavík.

Þeistareykir is one of three sites in the North currently being test drilled and researched to power the upcoming 250,000 tonne ALCOA smelter proposed at Bakki in Husavík. The area is about an hours drive from the main road down a rough track, and is located about half way between Husavík and Krafla (the biggest geothermal zone in the North, where extensive expansion to the current power plant is also taking place). Þeistareykir was first drilled in August and now contains three pods which belch huge quantities of Sulphurous steam and make a sound similar to a jet taking off, which shakes the surrounding ground. Below the two most active pods, and in front of a small sleeping hut for tourists is a huge blue lagoon, the source of which can be easily traced to a steaming outlet pipe from the drill pods. The pool has no outlet stream to drain the water away, and therefore must be continually expanding as more effluent water runs into it. This new lake is not shown on maps, and comparisons to photos taken in 2004 confirm that this is an utterly new phenomenon.

"Save Krysuvík, save Thjórsá, save Iceland!"

June 6th 2008

Century Aluminum had hoped to hold the traditional ceremony of digging the first spade of earth for their new smelter in Helguvik in a celebrity manner. But neither environmental protesters nor even the Icelandic corporate media were about to let that happen.

A group of people came to the ceremony to protest against how destructive the new Century smelter would be towards the ecological, social and economic life in the south-west of Iceland. They all refused to protest in the 'designated protest area' provided by the police, which was out of sight and sound from the ceremony itself. Instead they got much closer to the ceremony before being stopped, one person carrying a green and black flag being held by two undercover police. Some carried a coffin, which read 'Reykjanes' and gravestones which read "Innovation - died 6.6.08."

Saving Iceland
June 2008

The Left-Green Party demanded in parliament in April that the Minister of Justice, Bjorn Bjarnason, should write a detailed report of all actions of the Icelandic police against Saving Iceland activists during the years of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

This report is due now. Saving Iceland will be reporting on further developments in this case. Below is the demand in English.

Thursday May 22nd

Hengill Area - Photo by Kjartan P. Sigurðsson - www.hengill.nu

Two days ago, the Icelandic National Planning Agency just released a report concerning the environmental impact of a planned geothermal power plant in Bitra, in the South-West of Iceland. In the report the INPA states that the plant will have a harmful impact on the environment, outdoor life and tourism in the area.

Click here for a video from the demonstration

A letter from our friends in Switzerland
GENEVA 26TH MARCH 2008

Motivated by other actions that have taken place all over Europe against heavy industry and by the inspiring presentations of Saving Iceland made by Icelandic activists this winter in Switzerland, we organised a demonstration, creating a new group of this international campaign in Geneva.

Construction of this beauty now started

20th March 08

After months of confusing and conflicting information in the media, the local authorities of Reykjanesbær and Garður have issued a building permit for the Nordurál smelter at Helguvík, on the Reykjanes peninsula. Bulldozers are already flattening the earth at the proposed site, despite the fact that any building here is illegal under Icelandic law.

Greetings from the Aluminium Banana Republic

Saving Iceland
7 March 2008

Not that this should be much of a surprise but finally its official that the cost estimates of Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company, were false and that the numerous economists and even the National Planning Agency, who criticized Landsvirkjun for massaging their economic data were dead right.

The Gospel of Corruption?

February 29th 2008

The worlds third biggest Aluminium corporation, ALCOA is being sued for at least $1 Billion by a Bahraini metals company. Alba (the 10th largest Aliminium producer in the world) claims 'massive, outrageous fraud' perpetrated by ALCOA, who bribed officials in an enormous fraudulent scam to overcharge Alba for Alumina by $65 million per year for 15 years.

The case was held in Pittsburgh federal court on the 27th February. Experts claim an out of court settlement is likely as this could be very embarrassing for ALCOA if it is taken to trial. ALCOA has an exceedingly poor track record with environmental disasters, human rights abuses and corruption and will be very keen to keep its vulnerable insides out of the public eye.

Saving Iceland
Brussels
11 February 2008

This text was distributed by activists whilst disrupting this conference.

GREENWASH CONFERENCE OF METALS INDUSTRY

The conference Metals: Energy, Emissions and the Environment (11&12/02/2008 in Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Brussels) is a fine example of pure greenwash.