Húsavík

June 29th 2008

Last Thursday, June 26th, Alcoa, the Ministry of Industry and Norðurþing district council signed a research contract for Alcoa's planned aluminium smelter in Húsavík (Bakki), north Iceland. The contract allows for the furthering of research into the efficiency of the smelter construction and into the energy production capability of the geothermal areas in the north. The smelter is supposed to be run on geothermal energy only.

Saving Iceland
June 2008

The Left-Green Party demanded in parliament in April that the Minister of Justice, Bjorn Bjarnason, should write a detailed report of all actions of the Icelandic police against Saving Iceland activists during the years of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

This report is due now. Saving Iceland will be reporting on further developments in this case. Below is the demand in English.

Construction of this beauty now started

20th March 08

After months of confusing and conflicting information in the media, the local authorities of Reykjanesbær and Garður have issued a building permit for the Nordurál smelter at Helguvík, on the Reykjanes peninsula. Bulldozers are already flattening the earth at the proposed site, despite the fact that any building here is illegal under Icelandic law.

A talk which opened a panel discussion at the 'Reykjavikur Akademia' with the topic 'What are the Fundamental Values of Society' 20 November 2007. Panelists included Reykjavik Chief of Police Stefán Eiríksson, historian and Left Green MP Guðfríður Lilja Grétarsdóttir and philosopher Viðar Thorsteinsson.

Erindið í íslenskri þýðingu.

For those of you who don´t already know me, my name is Miriam Rose, and I am an activist and environmental scientist from the UK. I have been asked to speak today on my experience of the basic values of Icelandic society, based on an interview I did on Kastljos in October, after I was threatened with deportation from Iceland for my part in actions against the heavy industry policy of your government. The letter of requested deportation which I received explained that I may be expelled from Iceland for a minimum of three years as my behavior constitutes a 'threat to the fundamental values of society'.

Náttúruvaktin.com
Júlí 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...

Jaap Krater
Earth First Journal
3 August, 2007

Summer of Resistance in Iceland - An overview

This year, Iceland saw its third Summer of direct action against heavy industry and large dams. In a much-disputed master plan, all the glacial rivers and geothermal potential of Europe’s largest wilderness would be harnessed for aluminum production (see EF!J May-June 2006). Activists from around the world have gathered to protect Europe’s largest remaining wilderness and oppose aluminum corporations.

The Ecologist, October 2007
Krater, J., Rose, M., Anslow, M.

The gates of a geothermal power station are not where you would expect to find environmental activists. But the morning of 26th July 2007 saw the access road to Hellisheidi power station in Hengill, South-West Iceland, blockaded by a group of protestors from the campaign group ‘Saving Iceland’. After a brief demonstration, nine activists were arrested and several now face legal action.

Geothermal power in Iceland is big business. Just five plants generate 3 TWh a year – more than the annual output from all the UK’s wind turbines combined (Orkustofnun 2005; BERR 2006). Geothermal power also provides at least 85 per cent of Iceland’s homes with heat and hot water. This abundance of cheap, largely CO2-free energy has attracted energy-hungry industries to the country like sharks to a carcass. Of these, by far the most energy intensive is the aluminium industry (Krater 2007; Saving Iceland 2007).

In this exhaustive text, Felix Padel and Samarendra Das give a thorough analysis of the situation of the aluminium industry in India, its history as a global force of destruction intrinsically linked to the arms industry and its links to genocide. This is required reading for anyone with an interest in the aluminium industry, peace, and the desperate situation of the people of Orissa, India.

"The evidence we present goes against the conventional history of aluminium, which tends to portray the industry as central to various countries’ economic power and prosperity, without understanding the financial manipulation and exploitation between and within countries, and the true costs."

"The hurt many of us feel towards the developments in eastern Iceland is so great that we will never accept another aluminum smelter to be built in Iceland. We would not be surprised if the environmental NGO’s and grass root organizations would consider the proposed developments in Northern Iceland to be a serious provocation on the behalf of Alcoa."

"Furðulegt háttalag Ríkissjónvarpsins þarfnast frekari skýringa svo ekki sé meira sagt."

Sindri Freyr Steinsson
Verðandi
Ág. - Sept. 2007

Flestir landsmenn hafa frétt sitthvað af aðgerðum samtakanna Saving Iceland. Í umfjöllunum um samtökin ber orðið atvinnumótmælandi oft á góma. En er það í raun svo að fólk fái borgað fyrir að mótmæla og láta handtaka sig?

Guðni Elísson
Lesbók
1. september 2007

Það er áhugavert að sjá hvernig íslenska fjölmiðlasamfélagið mótar með sér skilning á náttúruverndarsamtökunum Saving Iceland en fulltrúar þeirra aðhyllast borgaralega óhlýðni og hefur gjarnan verið lýst sem atvinnumótmælendum í samtímaumræðunni. Hér eru fyrst tvær almennar skilgreiningar á hugtakinu. Höfundar eru Ingi Geir Hreinsson og Birkir Egilsson:

(Á íslensku að neðanverðu)
UPDATE: RUV have responded by saying that they "stand by their story" that activists from Saving Iceland receive payments for being arrested but refuse to present evidence for their allegations. This shows that the news department of RUV, which is an official institution of the Icelandic State, are circulating unsubstantiated slander about Saving Iceland. RUV have shot themselves badly in the foot with this. The corruption that these allegations indicate is transparent, irresponsible and illegal. It is certain to backfire in RUV's face. The source for the story typically does not have the guts to step forward and state their case.

Saving Iceland
July 2007

July 18th a number of Saving Iceland activists made a courteous -first- visit to the Reykjavik Energy geothermal power station (Hellisheidarvirkjun), at Hengill volcano, to ask questions about the expansion of the geothermal power plant to provide electricity to aluminium smelters (Source: EIB). It is striking, that although the expansion of the Rio Tinto ALCAN smelter in Hafnarfjordur has been rejected by referendum, and other smelter projects in the south west are not definite, and the current Icelandic government says to oppose more smelters, Hellisheidi is still being expanded by Reykjavik Energy - at a cost of a whopping 379.06 million dollars. The Icelandic people are again blackmailed: once the expansion is completed, this will force Iceland into more smelters because the electricity needs to be sold to get investments back. The expansion must be stopped.