R & D Carbon

Saving Iceland Conference Declaration 2007

This declaration was made in consensus by dozens of people attending the first Saving Iceland conference, 'Global Consequences of Heavy Industry and Large Dams' on July 7-8, 2007. [Video report part 1 | 2]
Photo gallery of the conference.

We are gathered in Olfus, Iceland, we are people from more than fifteen different countries and five continents. We are here to share our experiences of heavy industry, dams, transnational companies and other expressions of globalisation, in Iceland, in Brazil, in South Africa, in Denmark, in Canada, in England, Germany, India, Trinidad and Tobago and many other countries.
We are not professional protestors. Unlike the well-paid corporate lobbyists and spindoctors that try to sell you heavy industry, none of us gets payed to be here. We are ordinary people, we are teachers, nurses, youth workers, students, shopworkers, fathers, mothers. We are here because we care. The Icelandic wilderness is unique. It is the largest in Europe and one of the few wild places left on this continent. It’s beauty and uniqueness and fire and ice are a heritage we must preserve and must defend. It is the heritage and responsibility and privilege of all Icelanders, and all Europeans, and all humans...

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UK Greens Back British Environmental Activist Imprisoned in Iceland

31 July 2007

Twenty three year old British Saving Iceland activist Miriam R. has been arrested by the Icelandic police. She was protesting against the Icelandic government's support for heavy industry, in particular Rio Tinto Alcan's Straumsvik smelter in South-West Iceland. Reports suggest she is still being held by the police. (1)

Dr. Derek Wall, Green Party Principal Speaker, said: "Although Rio Tinto have been making the headlines for their recent purchase of the Canadian aluminium group Alcan for 38.1bn dollars (18.7bn pounds), it is the environmental degradation and damage that goes hand in hand with most of their projects that should be drawing the spotlight.

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„Ábyrgðarlaus spillingarvirkjun“ - Viðtal við Birgittu Jónsdóttur og Ólaf Pál Sigurðsson

Sirkús
Ágúst 2005

Kannski er það viðeigandi að viðtalinu seinki um nokkrar mínútur vegna rassíu lögreglunnar í íverustað mótmælendanna. Þannig er það í það minnsta: Ólafur Páll Sigurðsson hringir og segir: okkur seinkar. Þau koma samt, Ólafur Páll og Birgitta Jónsdóttir eru komin niður á Laugaveg eftir kortér. Blaut eins og veðrið býður upp á: sannkallað hálendisveður. Kannski er það þannig að ef þú ferð ekki til Kárahnjúka þá koma Kárahnjúkar til þín.

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Alcoa Add Fuel to the Fire and Announce Plans for a New Aluminium Smelter in Northern Iceland

ALCOA | Ecology | Greenwash | News | R & D Carbon

"Jubilation" in ALCOA's Reykjavik
offices on the day of the announcement

1 March 2006

Alcoa announced today that they would possibly want to build a $1-billion aluminum smelter in North Iceland. The proposed site is about 2 kilometers outside the town of Húsavík. An area famed for strong earthquakes. (See 'A letter to ALCOA...')

The decision comes after an examination of three potential locations in Iceland, including sites near Skagafjördur and Akureyri. The Husavík location was chosen in part because of the area’s potential to use geothermal activity to supply energy for the smelter, according to Alcoa representative Jake Siewert. This is clearly a greenwashing opportunity ALCOA just can't miss.

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Young Icelandic Activists Storm the Ministry of Industry

9 January 2005

20 teenage activists stormed the offices of the Icelandic Ministry of Industry and staged a sitdown and noise demo inside the ministry for about an hour. This was to demonstrate against the international aluminium invasion into pristine Iceland.

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Anodes Up Yours!!

SavingIceland.org
Reykjavik
21-23 September 2005

The Killers of Iceland are certainly in overdrive. But opposition is mounting...

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The seeds are sown...

September 2005

Did the Icelandic authorities think that their terrorizing of legitimate international protesters would stamp out all resistance against their criminal destruction of the last great European wilderness?! If so, they were wrong!

Saving Iceland are delighted to report that at noon on Friday 26. August three courageous Icelandic demonstrators climbed the roof of the head offices of the Icelandic Government and tore down the cloven flag of the Icelandic state, replacing it with a banner saying in Icelandic "NO DAMNED ALUMINIUM FACTORIES". They then proceeded to have coffee and cakes on the roof. The demonstrators are not linked with the protests in the East and in Reykjavík this summer.

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