On a solidarity demo for Sigurðsson, Icelanders ask if Iceland is
a police state

Ólafur Páll Sigurðsson, the founder of Saving Iceland, has been acquitted. Sigurðsson had been accused of vandalizing a police car, using only his fists.

In the end of July 2006, during the 2nd protest camp of Saving Iceland against the dams at Kárahnjúkar, an unmarked 4x4 police car came driving towards the camp site and started photgraphing people having their lunch. A few of the protestors walked towards the car, including Sigurðsson. When he stepped in front of the stationary vehicle the driver of the car, Arinbjörn Snorrason, accelerated suddenly and drove into Sigurðsson, who saved his life by putting his hands on the bonnet of the car and jumping out of its way.

13 May 2008

Rio Tinto Alcan's smelter in New Zealand could soon shut down due to the corporations refusal to pay for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Their Tiwai Point smelter produces up to 352,976 tonnes of aluminium per year and is New Zealand's largest single user of electricity. It will be massively affected by the governments proposal to demand that those who contribute to global warming should pay the cost themselves, not foot the bill on the rest of the population. Rio Tinto say the rise in energy cost will make them leave New Zealand.

It is interesting to see how quickly Rio Tinto Alcan says it will sack its 3,500 workers at the slightest hint that its energy cost will increase. There's job security for you!

Saving Iceland
8 May 2008

Nine farmers and landowners by Thjorsa River (Þjórsá) have now written a letter to Landsvirkjun, the national energy company, and the Ministries of Finance, Environment and Industry, where they announce that they will not take part in any further discussions about use of their land for a dam in Urridafoss waterfall.

Saving Iceland
20 April 2008

Fréttin á íslensku

On Monday 21st April 2008 Saving Iceland Founder, Olafur Pall Sigurdson, will appear before the District Court of East Iceland charged with property damage. The charge relates to an incident at Snæfell Mountain protest camp in the end of July 2006.

All the civilian witnesses recount that a police 4x4 was deliberately driven into Sigurdsson at a potentially fatal speed. The driver, officer 8716 Arinbjorn Snorrason, a high ranking officer in charge of operations at Kárahnjúkar, also attempted to run over other protestors on multiple occasions that same summer, at Lindur (now submerged location of a SI action camp) and at an action on Desjarárstífla dam construction site.

Iceland Review
04/10/2008

The giant drill which has been used to drill afflux tunnels at Kárahnjúkar dam, in Iceland’s eastern highlands, was turned off yesterday after it broke through the last hindrance in Jökulsárgöng tunnel.

One year has passed since the drilling of that tunnel began, a 13-kilometer side tunnel which connects Jökulsá á Fljótsdal glacial river with the main tunnel from Hálslón dam and Jökulsá á Dal glacial river, Fréttabladid reports.

According to spokesman of Kárahnjúkar dam Sigurdur Arnalds, the drill had penetrated the rock on exactly the right spot at 12 noon. Drilling director Li Er Bao and his crew then celebrated the completion of their project.

22 March 2008

At least 70 actions took place in over 30 countries to celebrate the importance of protecting our rivers. Many groups opted to demonstrate and protest. In Brazil, MAB organized more than nine events. MAB's occupation of the worksite at Estreito Dam on the Tocantins River lasted nine days until demonstrators at the Estreito Dam were finally offered an agreement which maintains that organs under the Brazilian presidency will convene meetings to discuss the ongoing social and environmental concerns that the dam project presents. A rail line in Minas Gerais was blocked by the women of Via Campesina (of which MAB is part), in support of families seeking compensation from the company for their being displaced for Aimor's Dam.

Saving Iceland
Friday March 14th 2008

Tilkynningin er á íslensku hér

This morning Saving Iceland built a small dam in front of Landsvirkjun's office entrance so the workers had either to step over the dam to get inside or use a different entrance. With this peaceful demonstration Saving Iceland wanted to protest upcoming three dams that Landsvirkjun, the national energy company, hopes to build in lower Þjórsá river (pronounced 'Thjorsa'). At the same time SI sends support and solidarity to all the people fighting this destruction.

Iceland Review
6 March 2008

In the current issue of the British science journal Nature, a study on the ecosystem at Lake Mývatn, northeast Iceland, is featured as the cover story, which concludes that minor changes caused by humans in ecosystems can have dramatic impacts.

March 2nd 2008

Last Tuesday, Verne Holdings, a joint venture by General Catalyst and Novator, signed a 20 billion Icelandic krónur (306 millions USD) agreement with Landsvirkjun, the National Energy Company, Farice and Keflavík Airport Development Corporation on establishing a data center by Keflavík International Airport.

Green stuffed shirts, really?!

According to the contract Landsvirkjun will be providing electricity for the data center, around 25 MW per year and the energy is supposed to come from Landsvirkjun´s three planned dams in Þjórsá river. These 25 MW are less then 10 percent of what Landsvirkjun plans to create with the Þjórsá dams.

By Lowana Veal
Inter Press Service
19 November 2007

REYKJAVIK, (IPS) - "I am of the opinion that Iceland should not ask for a repeat of the Iceland Provision in the upcoming climate change negotiations," says Iceland's environment minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir.

The Iceland Provision was the exemption given to Iceland when the Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 2005. Because Iceland derives 72 percent of its energy needs from renewable energy and had little heavy industry at the time the Protocol was agreed, the country was allowed to increase its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from their 1990 level, rather than decrease emissions by at least 5 percent like most of the other signatories are required to do.

Iceland Review
11 January 2008

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has determined that Icelandic authorities violated the rights of two Icelandic fishermen who were not allocated any fishing quota after applying for it and were deemed to go fishing on a boat that had none.

The Human Rights Committee concluded that the Icelandic state should give the fishermen full compensation and establish a fisheries control system that fulfills the demands of international law, Morgunbladid reports.

The committee believes that Icelandic authorities violated the 26th article of the UN treaty in this case, which states that discrimination of all kind is prohibited similarly to the 65th article of the Icelandic constitution.

Töfrafoss, now 'unexpectedly' underwater

Saving Iceland
20th Dec 2007

What a surprise! After five years of listening to news of delays, accidents, deaths and so on at the Kárahnjúkar worksite, who would ever have imagined that there was something strange about Landsvirkjun's portrayal of the whole affair?

In Morgunblaðið on the 28th of November Völundur Jóhannesson, tourist industry pioneer in the east of Iceland, spoke about Töfrafoss (the magic waterfall) dissappearing under Hálslón.

11/12/2007

OR Examining Possibilities to Harness Farid River

Reykjavík Energy (OR) is examining the feasibility of harnessing Farid, a river that runs out of Hagavatn lake, south of Langjökull glacier in Iceland’s western highlands, and constructing a 30 to 40 MW hydroelectric plant there.

Farid would be dammed and another dam would also be constructed above Leynifoss waterfall, Morgunbladid reports.

The Ministry of Industry granted permission earlier this year for OR to examine this possibility and to see whether the prevention soil eruption and production of hydroelectric power could go together.

Iceland Review
11/27/2007

Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir says that every nation needs to be responsible after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 and that special needs will not be relevant.

According to her, Iceland should not apply for further exemptions.

Post-Kyoto negotiations will take place at the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, between December 3 and 14.

When the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon, Iceland was given a special exemption to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by ten percent while most other nations were obligated to reduce their average emissions by 5.2 percent, Morgunbladid reports.

Active pools in the Hengill area (where Bitruvirkjun is planned)

From Fréttablaðið
26 November 2007

Ólafur Áki Ragnarsson, the Mayor of Ölfus, says the overwhelming negative stance of the town of Hveragerði will not have definite influence on whether the Bitruvirkjun power plant goes ahead. The power was earmarked for an Alcan Aluminium smelter in Helguvík.