'Bechtel' Tag Archive

Jan 18 2006

Icelandic ‘Skyr’ Activists Sentenced


Two of the activists who took part in the June 2005 Hotel Nordica ‘skyr’ action at the International Aluminium Conference, have recently been sentenced in Reykjavik municipal court to two months in prison suspended for two years and a £6000 “cleaning up bill”, fines and expences.

Hotel Nordica is frequently host to international heavy industry conferences. According to the owners of Hotel Nordica it cost over £5000 to hire a carpet cleaner for two hours! The original claim of Hotel Nordica (owned by Icelandair) was £55.000. ‘Skyr’ is a perfectly harmless jogurt like substance and nobody was hurt during the incident.

The action was a prelude to the Saving Iceland international protest camp which took place in the Icelandic higlands near the building site of Kárahnjúkar dams. The Kárahnjúkar dams are being built to provide bogus “green energy” for a 360.000 tons ALCOA owned aluminium smelter which is now being built by war profiteers Bechtel in the east of Iceland. This project alone threatens to destroy the largest pristine wilderness of Europe.

The protest camp was heavily persecuted by the Icelandic police through out the summer and exposed the repressive nature of the Icelandic government. The actions invigorated the Icelandic environmentalist movement and the opposition to the Kárahnjúkar dams and numerous other similar dam projects planned all over the Icelandic highlands, just to create energy for foreign aluminium corporations. These “developments” will destroy some of the most ecologically sensitive and beautifully preserved wildernesses in Europe. Read More

Oct 06 2005

Supreme Court Rules Alcoa Smelter is Illegal


Iceland Review
06/10/2005

Supreme Court invalidates environmental assessment of Alcoa smelter.

Perfect factory site?Site of the illegal smelter

 

Yesterday the Supreme Court of Iceland invalidated the decision of the Minister of the Environment to waive the requirement for Alcoa to undergo an environmental assessment before obtaining a license to operate the smelter currently under construction at Reyðarfjörður on the East Coast. Read More

Sep 20 2005

Images – 2005 Protest Camp at Kárahnjúkar, Skriðdalur and Reykjavík


suckscr
Alcoa graedir

Aug 17 2005

We who have been protesting…


Saving Iceland
Reykjavík

We who have been protesting against heavy industry and the devastating destruction of Iceland’s natural environment at Kárahnjúkar in the Eastern highlands of Iceland and in other parts of the country in recent months would like to take the opportunity to make the following statement:

During our protests we have used methods which may not have a long tradition in Iceland but which do not constitute a breach of the law. We are a broad-based group of Icelanders and people of many other nationalities united by our respect for the natural environment and our intolerance of repression, the misuse of power and the violation of human rights. Read More

Aug 09 2005

Photos from the Action in Reydarfjordur


The latest action to take place was a total success; a few protesters climbed the huge cranes at the building site of the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Reydarfjordur. Work was stopped for five hours on the whole of the site and the protesters managed to stretch a big banner saying: ALCOA PROFITS, ICELAND BLEEDS – ALCOA GRÆÐIR, ÍSLANDI BLÆÐIR. Of course the police went out of line again and showed unnecessary physical brutality against the protesters.

Photos from the action in Reydarfjordur
long view
Alcoa graedir

Aug 04 2005

Statement from Activists Currently Protesting in the East of Iceland


Statement regarding the action at ALCOA’s illegal building site.

foxes

Today a group of activists invaded the Alcoa construction site at Reydarfjördur and climbed cranes on the site. The aim of this action was to stop the work on the site. Alcoa have been targeted because of their involvement in the Kárahnjúkar dam project and the other proposed dam projects and aluminium smelters in the Icelandic highlands as well as environmental destruction worldwide. The Icelandic high court has judged that the building of the Alcoa factory in Reydarfjördur is illegal; we demand that the construction of this factory is immediately halted in observance of this court ruling.

This action was only one of many that shall be taken against Alcoa and their like in Iceland and across the world. The last clean wilderness in Western Europe, heavy industry must not be allowed to despoil Icelandic nature. This is a call out to the people of Iceland and all in peoples of the earth to stand up and fight against the destruction of our environment and culture.

Enough is enough! No more destruction!

Heavy industry out of Iceland!

Jun 24 2005

The International Protest Camp at Kárahnjúkar


Sýndu þig!

The camp is east of Jökulsá á Brú, just before the bridge, 2 km. south of Kárahnjúkar. It is easily accessible by normal cars, about one and half hours drive from Egilsstaðir. Most of the road is asphalted but soon before you arrive at the camp it turns into a dust road and winds in sharp bends down towards the river. The camp is at the second bend towards the bridge.

Read More

Jun 20 2005

Answers from those Arrested at Hotel Nordica 14 June 2005


Answers to common questions about the ‘skyr action’ at Hotel Nordica 14 June, 2005.

 

the messenger 

Why this conference?

* It was a conference for aluminium and the related industry leaders from all over the world.

* They were here because they think Iceland is right for heavy industrial development. Ironically, this is down to its clean environmental record.

* The people gathered there were key decision makers, financiers and policy drivers behind the Karahnjukar project and other heavy industry developments across Iceland which we oppose.

* A session entitled “An Approach to Sustainability for a Greenfield Aluminium Smelter” started at 11:45 on the day. Hosted by Joe Wahba of Bechtel Corporation and T.M. Sigurdsson of Alcoa, the outrageous hypocrisy of the seminar was extremely provocative to those who truly aspire to the ecological value of sustainability. Read More

Jun 14 2005
3 Comments

Alcoa and Bechtel Greenwashed!!


Saving Iceland
June 2005

Whitewashing efforts by multinational vandals Bechtel and Alcoa were thwarted when environmentalists decided to Greenwash THEM instead.

Update: Paul Gill was released Saturday morning. He is to be detained in the country for two weeks and has to report twice a day to the police station in Reykjavik, which is unprecedented!

Delegates at the 10th World Aluminium Conference on Tuesday 14th June in Reykjavik were happily nodding and snoozing their way through a hypocritical sermon enjoying the oxymoronic title ‘An Approach to Sustainability For A Greenfield Aluminium Smelter’ when they suddenly found themselves rudely awoken by a group of protesters who ran in and drenched the speakers – industry fat cats Joe Wahba (Bechtel) and Tomas Mar Sigurdsson (Alcoa)- in green skyr (a kind of Icelandic runny yoghurt). Numerous other delegates were also spattered with the stuff. Read More

Apr 19 2005

British MPs Support Our Campaign Against the Icelandic Dams


The Icelandic government and media tried to hush this story up by not reporting it for months! When environmental activist Olafur Pall Sigurdsson was being interviewed on a chat programme on the State Radio about hypothetical questions of civil disobedience he seized the opportunity and read aloud the whole of Doughty’s EDM. The programme presenter was seriously reprimanded by her bosses for allowing this.

British MP Sue Doughty has tabled a Parliamentary motion calling on the British Government to use its diplomatic links with Iceland to persuade the Icelandic Government to terminate the building of a series of dams in the Icelandic Highlands.
Read More

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