S.O.S. FROM ICELAND

" 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

Saving Iceland
Saving Iceland is an international campaign to defend the Icelandic Wilderness, the largest remaining wild area of Europe, from heavy industry. Transnational companies, particularly the aluminium industry, and the Icelandic government and power companies have begun to implement an immense program that will, if executed, transform the country from an outstanding area of natural beauty into another heavily industrialised and polluted wasteland.

Plans include construction of new aluminium smelters and expansion of existing ones, an oil refinery and silicon factories, the harnessing of the country’s major glacial river systems and destruction of outstanding geological landscapes and unique geothermal bio-systems for new power plants.

Click to enlarge

Corporations searching for cheap energy
Iceland, with its vast possibilities of hydroelectric and geothermal energy, is an appealing target for ALCOA, Rio Tinto-Alcan, Rusal-Century and others. Using fossil fuels for energy-intensive industries is becoming costly and insecure. There is increasing concern about carbon emissions; the green image of hydroelectric and geothermal energy is appealing. Intrinsically unsustainable processes such as aluminium production can be made to appear green. In reality, ~ six tons of CO2-equivalent is still emitted per ton of aluminium when powered without fossil fuels.
But Iceland has a comfortable amount of carbon emission credits, and pollution prevention schemes are lenient.
Nonetheless, Icelandic industry will easily exceed the 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions permitted under the Kyoto protocol if all of the projects materialise. Prime minister Geir Harde has says Iceland is not responsible for climate problems and wants to negotiate a new exemption for the post-Kyoto era.

Destruction of ecosystems
Aluminium smelting and oil refining are highly polluting processes and threaten human health, marine life and fish populations.
The ecological consequences of the large dams that would power them are also grim. The massive alteration of major river systems around the world has led to more than a third of the species of sweet water fish to be extinct or endangered. Reservoirs flood large areas of subarctic highland tundra, including vast bird-breeding areas and wetlands. The constantly fluctuating water levels in reservoirs in Iceland cause dust storms and soil erosion, which has a devastating effect on the vegetation of the region, magnifying the destructive effect of the dams on local ecosystems.

Dams block the normal flow of glacial fine silt, which has been shown to play a major role in nutrient supply to plankton. These organisms form the basis of most marine food chains as well as being a major carbon sink. Damming Iceland’s glacial rivers would deplete fish stocks in the North Atlantic as well as significantly speeding up global warming.

Geothermal myths
While geothermal power produces a relatively small amount of greenhouse gases, large-scale plants are certainly not green. Toxic wastewater is disposed of by pumping it back into the borehole, increasing the frequency of earthquakes, or it is pumped untreated into streams and lakes, wiping out valuable ecosystems, as treatment is too expensive. Part of one of Iceland’s largest lakes, Thingvallavatn, is now biologically dead.
Extraction of underground fluids leads to changes in groundwater movements, commonly including drying of unique hot springs and geysers and pollution of pure subsurface spring water. Intensive geothermal drilling is affecting the habitat of four endangered birds: the falcon, greylag goose, harlequin duck and raven.
Finally, the biological components of geothermal areas are complicated. All that scientists know is that they constitute an almost completely unexplored universe.

Details of current plans
Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national power company, has, in spite of many protests and direct actions, recently finished the 190 meter high Karahnjukar dam and a number of other dams solely for a new smelter for the American aluminium giant ALCOA in Reyðarfjörður. ALCOA wants to build another aluminium factory in the north of the country, at Bakki near the town of Húsavík. To facilitate this, Landsvirkjun wants to expand their capacity and plans to further dam the Thjorsá River in order to clear capacity in the north for the second ALCOA smelter.
If Landsvirkjun forces the three dams in lower Thjorsá upon the rural communities in the area, the upland wetlands of Thjórsárver and lake Langisjór are under threat of destruction in order to provide enough water for lower dams. In this way, Thjórsárver that has been saved by opposition from the local community comes under threat once more.

Century Aluminum, a part of the recently formed Russian-Swiss RUSAL-Glencore-SUAL conglomerate, has expanded its Grundartangi smelter and wants a second smelter near Helguvik (south of Reykjavik), with a projected capacity of at least 250.000 metric tons per year. But don’t worry; the environmental impact assessment states that we do not have to be concerned about pollution at Helguvik. It is very windy there, so it will just blow away… This is hardly surprising: the EIA was made by HRV, “the aluminium industry’s foremost construction engineers”, as they say on their website.

Construction has now started (March 2008), even though no impact assessments have been made for the geothermal drilling that is supposed to power it. Hitaveita Sudurnesja on the Reykjanes peninsula would develop a range of fields for Century, though no contract is made yet. The drilling will destroy the area in the same way that the Hengill geothermal area is currently being destroyed by Reykjavik Energy to power Century’s Grundartangi smelter. RE wants to further expand its activities by building yet another power plant in the Hengill area, Bitruvirkjun, for Alcan.

Alcan, now part of Rio Tinto, wants to expand its existing Straumsvik smelter, but local opposition has thwarted their plans for the moment. Both Alcan and the Icelandic aluminium company Altech want to build smelters in Thorlakshöfn.

Reykjavik Energy is considering damming Farid, a river that runs out of Hagavatn Lake, south of Langjökull glacier.
R&D Carbon intends to build a highly polluting anode rod plant at Katanes in Hvalfjordur. A Russian-Icelandic consortium have recently received permission to build an oil refinery in the Westfjords area producing 150.000 barrels per day destroying another area of immense beauty.

Environmental scientists have alerted the people of Reykjavík to the grave consequences if these projects are realised. They expect that Faxaflói bay, where the capital is situated, “is destined to quickly become the most heavily polluted area in Northern Europe”.

Global pillage
ALCOA is scheming to utilise the melting glaciers of Greenland to power new smelters there. ALCOA has planned at least seven new dams for smelters in the southern Amazon and wants to build a heavily opposed gas powered smelter in Trinidad.
RioTinto-Alcan has signed a letter of intent with the government of Cameroon to expand the existing Alucam smelter and build a second smelter. The Lom Pangar Dam, to be constructed by the government, would power this. Alcan has a large number of projects planned in Africa - its so-called ‘Greenfield project pipeline’ includes Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar and South Africa.
Alcan was active in apartheid South Africa between 1949-1986. Now it wants to come back and develop a new smelter in the near zero-tax 'Coega Development Zone' near Port Elizabeth, powered by coal and nuclear power delivered by Eskom, one of the worlds largest electricity companies.
Elkom is a 'sister-company' of Iceland's national power company Landsvirkjun. Landsvirkun wants to be part of this deal and more generally branch out to Africa, in a joint operation with Iceland's national bank Landsbankinn. Landsvirkjun is trying to sell its expertise to Eskom's various hydro projects in Mozambique, Uganda and Congo and would love to take part in damming the Congo River, a project twice the size of China's Three Gorges, which will have a devastating effect on the central African rainforest.

Let's not forget that the companies mentioned have a history of human rights violations and charges of serious environmental damage and corruption. ALCOA alone has been sentenced up to 50 times in just the last decade.

Protests
Icelandic environmentalists are prepared for a battle that is certain to go on for many years. International help and pressure will be of paramount importance in our fight.

Summer solstice 2005 marked the beginning of the first camp against the Karahnjukar dams: a highly inspirational and unique event in the history of Icelandic activism. The international protest camps in 2006 at Snæfell, Lindur and Reyðarfjörður in the eastern highlands attracted people from 18 different nationalities. In 2007, the Mosfellsheidi camp targeted Alcan, Century and Reykjavik Energy in the southwest, and the Saving Iceland conference ‘Global consequences of heavy industry’ networked anti-heavy industry and anti-dam movements on five continents.

An ecological movement that has never existed before in Iceland is maturing. The camps and direct actions of the last three years have had a profound effect on Icelandic society by giving people the courage to make their voices heard after years of a repressive political atmosphere.
The protests have managed to get the heavy industry issue and its consequences back into focus. Witnessing the tragic destruction of the eastern highlands for the Karahnjukar dams has made many people appalled by the prospect of more dams, and now the effects of geothermal over-exploitation can be sadly witnessed in Hengill.

But we are winning. A number of planned smelter and dam projects have been cancelled. Landsvirkjun has said they are reconsidering selling more energy to the aluminium industry in the southwest. However, other industries such as the energy and pollution-intensive silicon industry are standing in line to pillage Iceland’s natural resources.

Iceland is the last great expanse of truly magical wilderness left in Europe. It should really be a cause for celebration and wonder how pristine this strangely vibrant island still remains. The world cannot afford to allow beautiful Iceland to be devastated by corporate greed.

Stopping industrialisation and ecological destruction of the last unspoilt country in the west would be a major strategic victory for movements against heavy industrialisation and wilderness destruction.

S. O. S. ÍSLAND - Björgum Íslandi frá stóriðju - Alþjóðleg mótmæli Saving Iceland - Icelandic version

For more details, see longer version below.

Click to enlarge and legend
Iceland in 2020 if the government's promises of
energy production for heavy industry are to be
delivered. All major glacial rivers in Iceland must
be harnessed in accordance with Master Plan,
phase 1. The orange blobs are some of the
targeted geothermal sites.

S.O.S. FROM ICELAND - FULL VERSION
Updated: July 2007

The Icelandic highlands are the last great expanse of true wilderness left in Western Europe. Now the country's hydroelectric potential has been targeted by multinational corporations, who intend to establish large-scale heavy industry in these hitherto pristine hinterlands. These multinational vandals - willingly helped by the Icelandic government - are about to produce an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.

Incredibly, some areas earmarked for destruction - such as Kringilsárrani and Thjórsárver in the southern highlands - are protected under Icelandic and international law. All are of outstanding natural beauty and their unique botanical, geological, biological and ecological characteristics are of universal scientific importance.

Thus far the Icelandic government has not hesitated to use tactics such as personal threats and professional persecution against individuals who oppose its energy policies, and Icelandic environmentalists are fighting a difficult battle that they predict will not be won overnight.

The Icelandic High Court ruled in June 2005 that the ALCOA factory's planning permission is invalid as the company has not produced a proper environmental impact assessment, yet the building of the factory continues as if nothing had happened! How much more rotten can the Aluminium Republic of Iceland become!?

ALCOA is now hastily putting together an EIA, replete with meaningless clichés such as, 'The most modern pollution controls will be used'. We have become very familiar with this sort of double talk from ALCOA and their scheming servant, the Icelandic National Power Company, Landsvirkjun. However, more and more people are beginning to see through these lies.

The term 'Kárahnjúkar problem' has become common usage in Iceland. People are now losing their jobs all over Iceland due to the unhealthy expansion of the small Icelandic economy caused by the massive Kárahnjúkar project. Many Icelandic export companies are now either going bankrupt or being forced to relocate abroad due to the fact the Icelandic currency is too strong. Inflation is rising and the goverment is steadily coming under heavier flak fom the financial sector for its heavy industry policy. In June 2006 PM Halldór Ásgrímsson was forced to resign due to the state of the economy. These economical effects of the 'Kárahnjúkar problem' are exactly what economists opposed to the project predicted would happen, but their voices were either ignored or vilified by the government.

Financial Times 1-2 April 2006

There is an ever-growing awareness amongst the Icelandic population that the Kárahnjúkar dams are ill fated. The immense problems with their construction and the massive scale of the ensuing environmental destruction is becoming clearer every day. Furthermore, the dam is being built right in a seismically unstable area and would present a serious threat to the local population and environment. The government and Landsvirkjun tried to suppress evidence for this for a long time, but finally admitted the truth in early 2005. But they still try to curtail the freedom of speach of concerned scientists. The most recent example is the gagging order (in summer of 2006) put by Reykjavík Energy on Grímur Björnsson, one of Iceland's top geologists.

Furthermore, geologists point out that it is highly likely that the immense weight of water in the reservoir will create further fissures in the unstable geological crust and, as a consequence, will never be able to hold enough water to make the dam operational and endanger the safety of the local communities.

Click for larger
Earthquake zone at Kárahnjúkar volcanoes
White lines = Ground rock cracks
Yellow lines = Erosion of sediments. Erosion is parallel
to cracks: Sediments are cracked, cracking is still active

A Gallup poll carried out in March 2005 showed that around half the nation believes that the Kárahnjúkar project is a huge mistake.

One of the main arguments for the dam is that hydropower is eco-friendly. Yet the reservoirs would submerge vegetation which in turn would rot and contribute to greenhouse gases. Recent studies show that hydroelectric dams produce significant amounts of CO2 and methane - some produce more greenhouse gases than fossil-fuel power plants. Nor would the reservoirs provide renewable energy because they would ultimately silt up with sediment from the glacial rivers and render them useless. The constantly fluctuating water levels in the reservoirs would cause dust storms and soil erosion which would have a devastating effect on the vegetation of the region. It is estimated that up to 3000sq km will be affected.

Moreover, starving the marine life of the normal silt emissions would constitute a serious threat to the valuable Icelandic fishing grounds. A recent study shows that free flowing glacial rivers are vital in reducing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and as such are already harnessed by nature. Blocking the silt emissions to the ocean nullifies this immensely beneficial role of glacial rivers. Another recent study shows that the Icelandic glacial rivers have more beneficial effect on the planet's atmosphere than the combined rivers of the African continent.

The dams would also destroy the breeding grounds of thousands of rare and "protected" birds, a substantial proportion of the reindeer population, and one of Iceland's largest seal communities.

The Kárahnjúkar dam construction has already fallen way behind schedule. It is now (late August 2006) only 68% through. Much damage has been done but experts agree that 90% of the irreversible environmental damage will occur only when the water floods the land. The longer the construction of the dams and headrace tunnels takes the more time we have to expose the lies of the Icelandic government and ALCOA, and to put a stop to this disastrous project.

Landsvirkjun has announced that it will not be able to deliver energy to ALCOA as promised on 1 April 2007 and that they might not even be able to deliver by 1 October 2007. The Icelandic government tends to negotiate on its knees when it comes to foreign corporations. ALCOA does not only get the dams for free, courtesy of the Icelandic taxpayer, but according to the contract, ALCOA will demand compensation from the Icelandic taxpayer every day Landsvirkjun does not deliver the energy.

Landsvirkjun is fond of stating that the decision to go ahead with the dams at Kárahnjúkar was democratically voted on by the Icelandic parliament. There is often a wide gap between authentic democracy and representative government in Iceland, as anywhere else. How can the members of a parliament make an informed decision when vital information is being withheld, selected or even systematically falsified!? It has now been confirmed (late August '06) that Landsvirkjun and V. Sverrisdottir, ex-Minister of Industry, withheld both vital economic and geological reports from parliament at the time of the vote. This is ample evidence that the decision to go ahead with the Kárahnjúkar project was NOT reached democratically and that MP's and the public were not being told the truth.

The Kárahnjúkar project stands as a typical blueprint for international multi-billion-dollar megaprojects where promoters self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. The formula for approval is a cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects.

Our demands include the immediate halt of construction on the dams at Kárahnjúkar. We also demand a complete review of the way the scientific research has been interpreted and of the autocratic decision-making behind the many other ongoing projects and plans for the sacrifice of the Icelandic countryside to power further heavy industrialisation.

We oppose the Third-world policy of concentrating on primary production as the only option, with its monotonous employment opportunities and unhealthy working conditions. A Gallup survey carried out for the Icelandic anti-dam group Nature Watch in January-February 2005 showed that 90% of the nation do not want any more heavy industry in Iceland and that they favour an emphasis on knowledge-based low-impact industries and tourism. Yet the Icelandic government has advertised the Icelandic people in international trade magazines as a low-wage workforce ideal for primary production. This is in keeping with the growing gap between poor and rich under this government and the decline in health care and education.

Workers for the heavily corrupt Impregilo, the main contractor on the Kárahnjúkar dams, live in squalid conditions, are routinely put in life-threatening situations and abused in various other ways. Icelandic trades unionists have repeatedly complained that Impregilo have been allowed to break the law for months at a time.

By encouraging the use of cheap international migratory labour for building the dams and building and working in the ALCOA aluminium smelter, the Icelandic authorities are deliberately trying to undermine the achievements of a century-long struggle for the rights of Icelandic workers. This also exposes as completely false the claims of the Icelandic government that the Kárahnjúkar project is to create jobs for the Icelandic people of the East. Over 90% of the workers building the dams and the ALCOA factory are foreign!

This goes hand in hand with the sale of the cheapest energy in the world (the 'top secret' price was recently leaked by the ever clumsy alcoa.com) at the cost of the vandalisation of one of Iceland's greatest assets, which is unspoilt nature. The hypocrisy of ALCOA and the Icelandic government is clear to behold in the exemption which the government negotiated from the Kyoto protocol in order to make this heavy-industry policy possible. Ironically, Icelanders boast of living in an unspoilt land and promote the country as pristine. If the government's policy of heavy industrialisation is not stopped, such a promotion of Icelandic nature is absurd and false.

ALCOA (yes, again!) want to build another aluminium factory in the north of the country, at Bakki near the town of Húsavík. ALCAN and Century Aluminum have already been given the green light to expand greatly their existing smelters in the south-west of Iceland. Century Aluminum also want to build yet another aluminium smelter in Helguvík, near Keflavík. In addition, R&D Carbon Ltd. have secured planning permission for a highly polluting anode rod plant at Katanes in Hvalfjordur. Environmental scientists have alerted the people of Reykjavík to the grave consequences if these projects are realised. The scientists calculate that Faxaflói bay, where the capital is situated, 'is destined to quickly become the most heavily polluted area in Northern Europe'.

Let's not forget that almost all the companies mentioned above have a long history of convictions for crimes against nature and still have judgements pending on charges of serious environmental damage or corruption.

Icelandic environmentalists are prepared for a battle that is certain to go on for many years. International help and pressure will be of paramount importance in that fight. ALCOA has bought its way into the US arm of World Wide Fund for Nature and as a result we have lost valuable support. This may partly explain the scandalous international conspiracy of silence when it comes to the desperate situation of Icelandic environmentalism.

This attack on Icelandic nature is not a domestic affair for the Icelanders; pollution knows no national borders. The reason for the presence in Iceland in the summer of 2005 (and again in 2006) of a large group of protesters from the international community should be obvious in the light of globalisation. After all, the government has invited multinational corporations to the country to take part in this feeding frenzy of heavy industry that now has Icelandic society and nature in its grip. We are fighting a global ecological crime perpetrated on a global natural heritage.

The support of hundreds of international environmentalists is a great boost to morale and their continuing support will be of paramount importance.

Summer solstice in 2005 marked the beginning of a highly inspirational and unique event in the history of Icelandic activism. The international protest camps this year (2006) at Snæfell, Lindur and Reyðarfjörður attracted people from 18 different nationalities. Best of all, this summer saw many more Icelanders join the protests. We find that the camps and the direct actions of the last two summers have had a profound effect on Icelandic society by giving people the courage to make their voices heard after years of a repressive political atmosphere.

One of many effects the protests have had on the Icelandic nation is that people are now actually daring to change their minds about the dams. The protests have managed to get the heavy industry issue and its consequences back into focus. As mentioned above, many people working in the financial sector have raised their voices against the Kárahnjúkar project, pointing out that the aluminium industry adds very little to the Icelandic economy. We have managed to create a fresh new focus and dialogue in Icelandic society about heavy industry. Every day we see new demands that this unimaginative neo-Stalinist emphasis on build-up of heavy industry must be stopped. More young Icelandic people have joined the fight. Hope has been rekindled.

As a response to this greater awarenes of environmental issues Reykjavík City council (who own 45% of Landsvirkjun) finally ruled in January 2006 that they oppose any further destruction of the Thjórsárver wetlands. This has forced ALCAN to relinquish their claims on energy from Thjórsárver and Landsvirkjun to "put aside" their plans for the Ramsar listed site.

This is a great victory for environmentalists and shows that our struggle is having desired results. This also shows that direct action can be a very effective way to fight the enemies of nature. But the licence of Landsvirkjun to tamper with Thjórsárver remains to be revoked by parliament. The cancelation of the Nordlingaöldu project (Thjórsárver) also puts other areas in greater danger. Now Landsvirkjun is going ahead with two dams further south in the river of Thjórsá to provide energy for the ALCAN expansion. The developments in the Thjórsárver issue are a great encouragement, but they also intensify the fight that is ahead.

Langisjór - Click image for larger photo

One of Europe's most beautiful lakes, Langisjór, is still threatened and the pressure is increasing for the geothermal areas found all over Iceland. Geothermal energy is destined to become the new bogus "green" energy of the aluminium industry. Compared with the hydro projects the geothermal projects have less environmental impact. But they still result in great irreversible environmental damage to globally unique nature. Iceland should not squander its energy resources and pristine nature on the most polluting industry in the world. The Hengill area near Reykjavík has now been irreversibly vandalised by Reykjavik Energy to provide energy for the extension of the Century Aluminum smelter in Hvalfjörður. Test drilling has already started in the north of Iceland (at Þeistareykir, Bjarnarflag and the western part of the Krafla area) to provide power for the projected and highly polluting ALCOA factory near Húsavík. "The monster must be fed."

Iceland is the last great expanse of truly unspoilt and magical wilderness left in Europe. It should really be a cause for celebration and wonder how pristine this strangely vibrant island still remains. The world cannot afford to allow beautiful Iceland to be devastated by corporate greed.

ALL THE DAM PROJECTS MUST BE STOPPED NOW!

ALCOA, ALCAN and CENTURY ALUMINUM OUT OF ICELAND!

NO HEAVY INDUSTRY!

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Powerpoint show of some of the areas endangered by the aluminium industry

"The Ark" - Ómar Þ. Ragnarsson - Hugmyndaflug.is - Day by day monitoring of the destruction of the Kárahnjúkar area - Photo galleries

Photos from the land that is being destroyed by the dams at Kárahnjúkar

More photos from Kárahnjúkar

Map of the "The Intended Master Plan" with English legend

Iceland under attack - Map in English showing the "Intended Master Plan" for the destruction of Iceland

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