Saving Iceland

Ólafur Páll Jónsson
Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 7, 31 May 2007

Democracy is hailed as the best form of government, but yet the countries that have been ruled by this best form of government are responsible for the worst consequences in the history of humanity: climate change and other environmental crises threaten the very living conditions of millions of people around the globe and no part of the world will be unaffected. Some people believe that democracy itself is responsible for this severe situation � that democracy as such undermines environmental rationality and plays into superficial and unreasonable preferences while ignoring long term consequences by making environmental decisions subject to procedural standards. In other words, since democracy is primarily about procedures while environmental rationality requires certain outcomes, democracy has no way of guaranteeing environmental rationality.

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Featuring Múm, Ólöf Arnalds, Rúnar Júl, Bogomil Font og félagar, Magga Stína, Ellen Eyþórs, Mr. Silla og Mongoose, Bloodgroup, Evil Madness, Skátar, Retro Stefsson, Strakovsky Horo, Dimma, Reykjavík, Velvet Ego, Dj Árni Sveins and Captain Tobias Hume.

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Grapevine.is
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Issue 10, July 13, 2007

Who: Various artists Where: NASA When: July 2, 2007

A barefoot girl with long blonde hair reaching down to her lower back was dancing enthusiastically to the deserving catchy beats of Retro Stefson when I entered NASA on a slow Monday night. In front of and around her people were leisurely sprawled across the floor, many sitting Indian style, patiently watching as the Stefson teens effortlessly spun out their unpretentious, soulful and enchanting pop.

Organised by the campaign group Saving Iceland as a protest and fundraiser against large-scale industrial projects in Iceland, the concert had drawn a crowd and an atmosphere certainly unfamiliar to the nightclub. Giant banners on each side of the dance floor protested Landsvirkjun, the national electric company, and their funding of the Kárahnjúkar hydropower plant under construction in eastern Iceland, a plant that will power an enormous aluminium smelter in Reyðarfjörður. Read More

15th of June 2007

Two of the biggest punk/hardcore bands in Iceland, Gavin Portland and I Adapt, will support the camps kitchen with a concert friday the 15th of june.

The concert takes place in the wonderfull organic café Hljómalind in Reykjavík, where the local punks will jump the floor off.

Guests will be informed with endless Saving Iceland propaganda.

SHUT THEM DOWN!

Saving Iceland will be presenting workshops at the G8 Counter Summit in Northern Germany. We will be discussing and introducing our campaign, the 2007 camp and conference, international actions and the potential for a global movement against heavy industry. Read More

UPDATE: Voters booted Bjartmarz out of Icelandic politics in the general elections 12 May. But her track record is ugly and Icelandic nature will be smarting for a long time after her dark reign as Minister of the Environment. One of her final crimes against nature was to OK, against all scientific advise, a disastrous road scheme by lake Thingvallavatn in the Thingvellir National Park. This area is on the UNESCO World Heritage list for it’s unique nature. The plan is to build a motorway through the Gjábakka area, much too close to the lake. This road must be resisted and stopped. Read More

Brazilian environmental activists are charging that Brazilian environmental authorities and an Alcoa lead consortium planning construction of Barra Grande dam conspired to commit fraud in the awarding of an environmental license for the project. Members of Brazil’s Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB) and environmentalists blockaded the access road to a stand of virgin forest slated for clearing before the filling of the reservoir. In all, 6,000 hectares of primary forests, including araucaria pines, in one of the richest remaining expanses of the threatened Atlantic Coast rainforest, would be flooded by the dam on the Pelotas river in Southern Brazil. A 2,000 hectare stand of virgin araucaria forests was somehow “omitted” in the project’s environmental studies. Local groups have filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to annul the license awarded to Barra Grande, to require the consortium to carry out new studies evaluating the possibility of operating the reservoir at a lower level to avoid drowning the araucaria forests, and if this is deemed impossible, to order the demolition of the dam structure. Heavily-armed riot police have reportedly been sent to the area to disperse protestors. The consortium building Barra Grande includes the Pittsburgh-based Alcoa aluminum company (which contains Kathy Fuller, President of WWF-USA as a Board Member), MAB leader Soli da Silva says the mobilization will continue indefinitely. “We cannot permit that fraud and a ‘done deal’ become the rule on environmental licensing for hydroelectric projects in our country.” Please support these brave environmentalists at http://forests.org/action/brazil/ .
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Performance and picketline at Icelandic Consulate in Rotterdam

Wednesday March 14th, 2007, the international campaign Saving Iceland and the nature-activist network GroenFront!, will blockade the Icelandic Consulate, Weena 690, Rotterdam. “With this blockade, we want to make it clear to the Icelandic government, that people in the Netherlands are very worried about the Icelandic heavy industry program and it’s effects on nature and the climate,” says activist Sven Janson.
One remarkable protester will also be present at the protest. Armand is a legendary Dutch singer who’s music and lyrics have captured the hearts of the Dutch with sharp and witty comments on current affairs and important issues in society. He has visited Iceland and his performance is full of impressions of the unique beauty of Iceland. A photo report is available here.
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“It’s ALCAN the Aluminium Man
The Aluminium Man with the Aluminium Plan
For making lots of aluminium
Out of other peoples land!

Will this Man of Aluminium
Realize what he’s done,
Once he’s done what he is about to start?
He’s got aluminium, but he’s got no heart!”

UPDATE 2007: Recently Alcan had to give up its participation in the bauxite mine because of protests against its human rights violations and environmental devastation. Alcan has been accused of cultural genocide in Kashipur because mining and dams have already displaced 150,000 mainly tribal people there.

Canadian mining and aluminium giant Alcan (in Iceland Alcan Iceland Ltd. and ISAL) want to get their hands on one of the world’s richest deposits of bauxite – the raw material for aluminium – in the Kashipur region of India. The $1.4 billion monster strip-mine and refinery promises to displace up to 20,000 people, destroy their livelihoods and culture, contaminate food and water sources and obliterate their spiritual sites.

Villagers have been fighting the mine for the past 12 years but in November 2004 politicians decided that the Alcan mining project was to be launched at any cost – since then repression has been seriously stepped up. People have been murdered by the police and recently it surfaced that the ALCOA sharks have smelt the blood and are now showing interest in joining in… Read More