Búðarfoss Waterfall in Þjórsá

June 25th

Last Monday, June 23rd, the district council of Skeiða- and Gnúperjahreppur agreed on a major change in the district plan. The change includes implementing the construction of two of the three dams Landsvirkjun (national energy company) plans to build in the lower Þjórsá River; Holtavirkjun and Hvammsvirkjun. The plan is now being reviewed by the National Planning Agency. The decision to build these dams was taken despite a huge local opposition in the area. Right now one of the landowners is taking the Icelandic state to court, accused of bypassing laws on local democratic agreement to these projects. According Sól á Suðurlandi (a grassroots organization fighting against the dams) more landowners might follow this figurehead.

"Save Krysuvík, save Thjórsá, save Iceland!"

June 6th 2008

Century Aluminum had hoped to hold the traditional ceremony of digging the first spade of earth for their new smelter in Helguvik in a celebrity manner. But neither environmental protesters nor even the Icelandic corporate media were about to let that happen.

A group of people came to the ceremony to protest against how destructive the new Century smelter would be towards the ecological, social and economic life in the south-west of Iceland. They all refused to protest in the 'designated protest area' provided by the police, which was out of sight and sound from the ceremony itself. Instead they got much closer to the ceremony before being stopped, one person carrying a green and black flag being held by two undercover police. Some carried a coffin, which read 'Reykjanes' and gravestones which read "Innovation - died 6.6.08."

Click here for a video from the demonstration

A letter from our friends in Switzerland
GENEVA 26TH MARCH 2008

Motivated by other actions that have taken place all over Europe against heavy industry and by the inspiring presentations of Saving Iceland made by Icelandic activists this winter in Switzerland, we organised a demonstration, creating a new group of this international campaign in Geneva.

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.

Greetings from the Aluminium Banana Republic

Saving Iceland
7 March 2008

Not that this should be much of a surprise but finally its official that the cost estimates of Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company, were false and that the numerous economists and even the National Planning Agency, who criticized Landsvirkjun for massaging their economic data were dead right.

The Gospel of Corruption?

February 29th 2008

The worlds third biggest Aluminium corporation, ALCOA is being sued for at least $1 Billion by a Bahraini metals company. Alba (the 10th largest Aliminium producer in the world) claims 'massive, outrageous fraud' perpetrated by ALCOA, who bribed officials in an enormous fraudulent scam to overcharge Alba for Alumina by $65 million per year for 15 years.

The case was held in Pittsburgh federal court on the 27th February. Experts claim an out of court settlement is likely as this could be very embarrassing for ALCOA if it is taken to trial. ALCOA has an exceedingly poor track record with environmental disasters, human rights abuses and corruption and will be very keen to keep its vulnerable insides out of the public eye.

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'.

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...

Ethical Consumer.org
September/October 2002

Scott Clouder profiles the company that links BacoFoil with the US treasury secretary, a Mexican sweatshop and an Icelandic wilderness.

"...some Alcoa Rockdale employees... were offered a choice between early retirement or transfer to Iceland."

So much for job creation for the people of Eastern Iceland!

Dollars and Sence
The Magazine for Economic Justice
Issue #254, July/August 2004

Utwatch.org
US Water News Online
Minesandcommunities.org

Alcoa, Inc. is one of the worst polluters on the planet. They are at the forefront of poisoning the air, land and water of Texas, the most heavily polluted state in the US. Alcoa has grandfathered facilities exempt from the 1971 Clean Air Act. In Texas alone, it has several hundred plants that are accountable for the mounting pollution problems of the state."

CorpWatch
April 28, 2004

In the face of criticism over its controversial construction projects (including the illegal ALCOA smelter in Reydarfjordur), Bechtel has taken media manipulation to the next level, employing a three-pronged approach to weaving a rosy story for the public and investors.

The Independent on Sunday
Feb 16, 2003

Senior executives at one of the world's richest conservation groups, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), are at loggerheads over a corporate sponsorship deal that will affect the fate of three species of goose. The dispute involves plans for a major dam being built by Alcoa, an aluminium giant with unusually close ties to WWF's American arm.

Mines and Communities
London Calling!
February 19 2003

THE "WOOF" AND ITS WEB-FOOTED FRIENDS

Birds have a habit of coming home to roost. None more so than the rare pink-footed geese, who winter in Britain and nest and feed at Karanjhukar in Iceland every year. Whether dodgy deals by conservationists also come home to roost is open to question.