Saving Iceland

Brazilian environmental activists are charging that Brazilian environmental authorities and an Alcoa lead consortium planning construction of Barra Grande dam conspired to commit fraud in the awarding of an environmental license for the project. Members of Brazil’s Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB) and environmentalists blockaded the access road to a stand of virgin forest slated for clearing before the filling of the reservoir. In all, 6,000 hectares of primary forests, including araucaria pines, in one of the richest remaining expanses of the threatened Atlantic Coast rainforest, would be flooded by the dam on the Pelotas river in Southern Brazil. A 2,000 hectare stand of virgin araucaria forests was somehow “omitted” in the project’s environmental studies. Local groups have filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to annul the license awarded to Barra Grande, to require the consortium to carry out new studies evaluating the possibility of operating the reservoir at a lower level to avoid drowning the araucaria forests, and if this is deemed impossible, to order the demolition of the dam structure. Heavily-armed riot police have reportedly been sent to the area to disperse protestors. The consortium building Barra Grande includes the Pittsburgh-based Alcoa aluminum company (which contains Kathy Fuller, President of WWF-USA as a Board Member), MAB leader Soli da Silva says the mobilization will continue indefinitely. “We cannot permit that fraud and a ‘done deal’ become the rule on environmental licensing for hydroelectric projects in our country.” Please support these brave environmentalists at http://forests.org/action/brazil/ .
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Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum company, has announced plans to construct at least three large dams in the Brazilian Amazon. The dams will flood indigenous lands as well as protected ecological reserves and other critical wetlands in the rainforest. Tens of thousands of families will lose their homes and livelihood, including family farmers, fisherfolk, palm nut gatherers, and ceramic makers.

Yet, no studies of the cumulative impacts of these and 13 other proposed large dams have been carried out. Indications are that these dams will destroy thousands of square kilometers of natural ecosystems along the river systems, and further spread poverty throughout the eastern Amazon.

Tell Alcoa to scrap plans for Amazon dams! Send a FREE FAX to Alcoa CEO Alain Belda, http://www.corpwatch.org/action/PAA.jsp?articleid=1017

or first read more about the issue on the International Rivers Network website:
http://www.irn.org/programs/latamerica/index.aspid=011127.aluminiumpr.html

Paramaribo – In the second half of this year the first start is made for the build of an aluminium factory in Groot-Chatillon, across Paranam, as they start the ground displacement.

by Ivan Cairo 16-03-2007

The financing of the multi-million dollar project is all arranged, but Surinams membership of the International Atom Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations is required. “I am doing the consultation round inside Surinam, on a national level, to get advice in order to see whether Surinam is ready to become a member. I do not want to take that decision alone”, answerred minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk (Buza) to the question whether the IAEA-membership is already applied for. With the consultation several ministeries and the corporate live is involved and will be reflected if talks with other factors are necessary. The member of government claims that if necessary will be researched what conditions a country has to meet in order to become a member of the IAEA.

The build of the integrated project that will be executed by Surinam Industrial Engineering will take about three years, says manager Misram Chanderbosch. In the 40 megawatt nuclear plant 30 million US-dollars will be invested. In other industries that are also started there, a total of 2 to 3 billion US-dollars will be invested. The undertaker clearly states that investors from the Netherlands, Great-Brittain and Germany are ready. The nuclear fuel for the energy plant will be delivered by companies in South-Africa, Italy, Japan, China and France.

The waist of the plant will be taken back by the suppliers every three years so that possible problems for the environment are excluded.

“The energy will exclusively be used for the industry”, says Chanderbosch, “and not for normal households.” He adds that in Groot-Chatillon a rolling-mill and a flatting-mill will be build. The aluminium plant will mainly produce aluminium blocks (ingots), foil paper and high-tension cables. The smelting-works will be made up out of several production units with a capacity of 250.000 tons each a year. Between 1000 and 1500 labour places will be created. With BHP-Billiton and Suralco deals have been made about supplying the alum soil. The Brokopondo-agreement settles that. The same amount of alum soil will be imported from abroad for the processing, should local bauxite companies not be able to supply.

16 March 2007

Mott MacDonald, designers of Kárahnjúkar dams and now bidders for the three dams proposed for the ALCAN smelter expansion in the nether Thjórsá river, received a late night make over to the doors of their international offices in Cambridge, UK.

18 March 2006

Last week saw a number of actions in solidarity with the Icelandic movement in Belgium and the Netherlands. Friday morning, Saving Iceland and the Dutch/Belgian environmentalist network GroenFront! built a dam blockading the entrance of the Icelandic Embassy in Brussels (photo-report). Earlier in the week, a picketline was held at the Icelandic Consulate in Rotterdam and the folk singer Armand, the “Dutch Bob Dylan”, performed songs of praise to Icelandic nature. Finally, EarthFirst! closed down both ALCOA’s Dutch head office in Drunen and an ALCOA factory in Kerkrade, the Netherlands in opposition to heavy industry. The actions express growing international concern about the plans for expansion of the aluminium industry and megahydro in Iceland and other countries such as Trinidad and Brazil. Read More

16 March 2007

Last night “Earth First!” closed Alcoa’s headquarters in Drunen, the Netherlands. Alcoa’s largest Dutch factory in Kerkrade was also shut. Entrance gates were locked with chains. The gates’ locks themselves were sabotaged with a liquid.

Alcoa is constructing new aluminum smelters in Iceland. Alcoa also plans to build new smelters in Trinidad and in the Amazon. There is fierce local and international opposition to these plans. Effects on nature and climate are devastating. Various planned smelters would be powered by constructing new megadams that would flood large areas of unique wilderness.

With this action, we are declaring our solidarity with the Saving Iceland campaign. Saving Iceland has called out for an international week of action against heavy industry. This action has been done in response to that call.

Earth First! in Belgium and the Netherlands is also called Groen Front!.
Earth First! is not an organisation but an international banner for direct action.

NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENCE OF MOTHER EARTH!

Websites that contain information relevant to these issues:
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk
http://www.groenfront.nl
https://www.savingiceland.org

Crossing Continents
Monday 26 March 2007
20.30 GMT on BBC Radio 4

You can listen to the show over the internet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/6453703.stm

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Click to enlarge

The design of the Campos Novos Dam is of exactly the same type as the Kárahnjúkar dams. The difference between the two dams is that Campos Novos is built on stable ground whereas the Kárahnjúkar dams are built on top of a cluster of active volcanic fissures. Geological reports warning of this were suppressed by the Icelandic government at the time when the Parliament voted on the Kárahnjúkar dams.

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Performance and picketline at Icelandic Consulate in Rotterdam

Wednesday March 14th, 2007, the international campaign Saving Iceland and the nature-activist network GroenFront!, will blockade the Icelandic Consulate, Weena 690, Rotterdam. “With this blockade, we want to make it clear to the Icelandic government, that people in the Netherlands are very worried about the Icelandic heavy industry program and it’s effects on nature and the climate,” says activist Sven Janson.
One remarkable protester will also be present at the protest. Armand is a legendary Dutch singer who’s music and lyrics have captured the hearts of the Dutch with sharp and witty comments on current affairs and important issues in society. He has visited Iceland and his performance is full of impressions of the unique beauty of Iceland. A photo report is available here.
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Canada News
Tuesday March 13 2007

Margaret Munro
CanWest News Service

KEFLAVIK, Iceland – The Earth’s inner heat is so close to the surface on this windswept island that tourists bask in outdoor thermal pools even as the snow flies in late winter.

The heat attracts multinational companies, too, including Canadian-based Alcan. But they’re getting an increasingly chilly reception from the locals as they try to expand their business operations to take advantage of the abundant stores of inexpensive energy here.

“We don’t want to be the town with the biggest aluminum plant in all of Europe,” says Throstur Sverrisson, a longtime resident of the seaside community of Hafnarfjordur, where Alcan has run up against serious opposition.

The company plans to more that double the size of its existing smelter just outside Hafnarfjordur, one of four huge and controversial aluminum smelter projects. But a growing coalition of Icelanders is trying to halt the smelters, saying the government is sacrificing the island’s pristine environment to foreign companies.

They’re gearing up to make the smelters a major issue in the national election in May. And they’re taking aim at Alcan in a referendum March 31. Read More