'Kárahnjúkar' Tag Archive

Nov 17 2006

Norsk Hydro Join the Aluminium Feeding Frenzy with 600.000 Tons


Reykjavik newspaper ‘Bladid’ reports that Norwegian oil and aluminium company Hydro (or Norsk Hydro as they are known in Iceland) and the Icelandic government met yesterday to discuss the possibility of building a 600,000 ton smelter in Iceland within the next eight years. The company’s representatives met with Iceland’s Minister of Industries Jón Sigurdsson yesterday to present their ideas, as Bladid reports.

However, Sigurdsson denied on Icelandic State Radio that the smelter plan was ever mentioned in the talks… How shady everything has become in the little aluminium republic. Read More

Oct 12 2006

A Sheffielder’s Account of the 2006 Protest Camp


Sheffield activists were amongst the many people who headed out to Iceland this summer to support the protest camp against the Kárahnjúkar Hydroelectric Project, and the Icelandic governments dam building and industrialisation programme more generally. This dam building programme is threatening some of the largest and most incredible pristine areas of wilderness in Europe. The Kárahnjúkar dam is north of the Vatnajökull glacier, Europe’s biggest glacier. The protest camp was set up in the affected area and activists from Iceland, other parts of Europe and North America took part in a series of actions over July and August. Read More

Oct 09 2006

Funeral of the Wild – Trinidad and Iceland March – London – 27 October


Join us on a theatrical and interactive funeral march to mark the murder of Kárahnjúkar, Iceland, and the impending murder of the Cedros Peninsula, Trinidad, at the bloody hands of Alcoa and heavy industry.

Set in one of the financial capitals of todays Empire, this protest will mark the begining of the joint struggle against ALCOA and the heavy industrial invasion of both Iceland and Trinidad.

The four wildernesses in the Eastern Highlands of Iceland whose cheap death will power one aluminium smelter by the summer of 2007, are now either in the process of being flooded or are soon to be drained. The Cedros Peninsula of Trinidad will have much of its tropical rainforests cleared and hundreds of local residents outed to make way for two gas powered aluminium smelters. Read More

Oct 08 2006

Alcoa Receives Bomb Threat


3 October 2006

A bomb threat was received at the Alcoa offices in Reyðarfjörður, east Iceland, just before noon yesterday. According to Erna Indriðadóttir, public relations officer for Alcoa in Iceland, a man called and spoke in English, mentioning a bomb in the premises. Police was called in but nothing was found. No further action was deemed necessary.

http://www.reykjavik.com/News.aspx?aid=2006110030009

Sep 28 2006

The Closing of the Gates…


With tears in my eyes i write these words I never believed I would. The flooding of Kárahnjúkar has now begun.

The Icelandic media has reported that within the first few hours of the closing of the dam doors on the morning of 28 September 2006, like a noose being tightened, the water level rose 15 meters. The entire 200m+ flooding depth will not be completed until next summer. Some people turned up to watch the valley be drowned, notably reporter Ómar Ragnarsson who will board a boat on the rising reservoir and film the death of the many waterfalls, valleys, cliffs, and so forth.

Despite two summers of an international protest camp in the Icelandic Highlands which was attended by hundreds of people from all over the world; despite a 15,000 people marching in Reykjavik the day before today, together with 200 from Akureyri, 50 in Ísafjörður, 100 in Egilsstaðir, a turnout which is over five times the size of the previous largest demonstration in the 300,000 person Iceland; despite a disastrous environmental assessment report; despite calls from scientists and nature lovers inside outside and out; despite all the consequences on Iceland’s economy; despite this area now to be known as the Halslon reservoir being of huge cultural significance to Iceland; despite it being the second largest wilderness in Europe: heavy industry has got its way and stolen this wilderness merely for the sake of the production of aluminium.

The fight to save Kárahnjúkar may now be over, but the fight to defend Iceland from further assaults by the pro-heavy-industry patriarchs is just beginning. Alcoa, Landsvirkjun, the Icelandic government and any other corporation profiting from this murder will pay for the death of this great wilderness.

Sep 27 2006

15,000 People March to Save Kárahnjúkar


27/9/2006

A historical amount of Icelanders today marched in four different cities against the damming of Kárahnjúkar. Following a call from retiring television reporter and nature enthusiast Ómar Ragnarsson to march on the day before the dam is scheduled to be flooded, up to 15,000 people in total walked the streets in the Reykjavik, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir and Ísafjörður. ”

fimmtanthusund 

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Sep 22 2006

The Kárahnjúkar Elegy by Hanna Björk


Christopher Lund

By Hanna Björk

Saying that the Kárahnjúkar dam has been controversial is an understatement. This hydro-power project, planned by Iceland’s government to dam glacial river flows and produce hydroelectric power for Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in Reyðarfjörður, east Iceland caused a debate that started a few years back. It has only been escalating. Read More

Sep 22 2006

Ómar Ragnarsson Declares Formal Opposition to Kárahnjúkardams and Exposes Repressive Efforts of Authorities


One of Iceland’s best-known television and entertainment personalities, Ómar Ragnarsson, called a press conference yesterday to formally announce his opposition to the Kárahnjúkavirkjun dam project in east Iceland.

He also announced that he will be publishing an eight-page supplement to be distributed with Morgunbladid on Sunday, addressing with the dam project and environmental issues in general. This is reported in all the main media. Read More

Sep 21 2006

Brief News from Kárahnjúkar


Impregilo have practically finished the construction of the central and biggest of the main Kárahnjúkar dams, and is set to begin the first of the dams three inundations “in the last week of September”.

If this is to happen, words cannot describe the devastation of anyone who has ever walked around those prehistoric cliffs, beside that grey and angry river Jökulsá á Brú, into the tumbling land of Kringilsárrani with its countless reindeer, upon the cliffs of its magic waterfall, along the great canyon Hafrahvammagljufur, onto the wild untouched bleak glacier from where the river emerges, through the freedom and towards the dreams that only such a wild land can provoke. Read More

Sep 08 2006

Left-Greens Voice Grave Concerns Over Police Actions


The governing committee of the Left-Green party in Iceland has sent forth a resolution in which it voices grave concerns about the alleged harsh actions by police against protestors of the Kárahnjúkavirkjun dam project, travellers and nature lovers passing through the Kárahnjúkar area. The resolution reads: “The governing committee of the Left-Green party would like to reiterate that freedom of expression and opinion are among the cornerstones of a just and democratic society. This includes the right to voice one’s opinion and to protest, if done in a peaceful and appropriate manner.

“The governing committee of the Left-Green party demands an immediate investigation into the conduct and alleged harshness of police that have included the unecessary and even illegal blocking of people’s movement through the highlands. An investigation must also be conducted into the enduring rumor that police has undertaken extensive unwarranted and unauthorized collection of personal data, filmed individuals, and taken other actions that violate the sanctity of personal freedom and movement. The description that have appeared in the media by people on site of harsh treatment by police fully warrant an immediate and objective investigation. … Should it transpire that police have gone too far, or are guilty of illegal activities, actions must immediately be taken so that this does not happen again, and those responsible must be judged in a court of law.” Read More

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