Saving Iceland

By Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, originally published in Morgunblaðið – Árni Sigfússon, the major of Reykjanesbær, wrote an article in Morgunblaðið July 24th, where he highly underestimates the real effects of aluminium production; environmental and social as well as global. The timing of his writings is interesting because a day earlier Saving Iceland’s conference took place in the Reykjavík Academia, where Samarendra Das and Andri Snær Magnason talked about the global effects of the aluminium industry, bauxite mining and cultural genocides in the third world. The conference lead to quite a discussion about the issues in the media. Read More

At Krafla and Þeistareykir test drilling is ongoing to prospect boreholes for the Alcoa smelter that is being planned at Bakki. At Krafla, drilling has started right into the Viti Vulcano. At Þeistareykir a large arsenic/sulphur lagoon has been accidentally created by the drilling. If these projects are allowed to continue, we will see large scale destruction of the landscape and biota as can currently be seen at Hengill.

• Krafla gallery
• Þeistareykir gallery / report
• Hengill gallery

Survival International – India’s Supreme Court has today dealt a devastating blow to the Dongria Kondh tribe by giving British FTSE 100 company Vedanta permission to mine their sacred mountain. The tribe say the mine will destroy their way of life forever. Vedanta’s subsidiary Sterlite plans to mine for bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, from Niyamgiri mountain in Orissa, eastern India. Vedanta is majority owned by London-based Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal. The Dongria Kondh say the huge open cast mine will destroy a vast swathe of untouched forest, and will reduce their most sacred site to an industrial wasteland. Last month, thirty Dongria Kondh men blockaded a road that is being built through their forest towards the site of the proposed mine. The tribe say they will stage mass protests if mining goes ahead. Read More

Iceland Review – The Althingi parliament’s environment committee will review Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir’s decision to have the entire aluminum smelter project at Bakki near Húsavík in north Iceland undergo a joint environmental impact assessment.
MP for the Social Democrats and chairman of the environment committee Helgi Hjörvar agreed to assemble the committee and discuss the controversial move made by the minister after receiving a proposal on the matter from Höskuldur Thórhallsson, the Progressive Party’s representative on the committee, 24 Stundir reports. Read More

,,Stop the destruction of Þjórsá for arms production!”

HAFNARFJORDUR, ICELAND – Activists from Saving Iceland have today begun stopping traffic to and from Rio Tinto-Alcan’s aluminium smelter in Straumsvík, Hafnarfjordur, by chaining themselves to the gates of the plant. Saving Iceland is protesting against Rio Tinto-Alcan’s plans to increase their aluminium production capacity on the island, the consequences of which would would be that significant parts of Iceland’s unique environment would have to be destroyed for energy generation. The activists are also protesting against the worlds largest aluminium producer’s involvement with the arms industry.
Rio Tinto-Alcan wants to increase its production in Straumsvík by 40 thousand tons per year without enlarging the smelter building itself. At the same time the company is planning to build a second aluminium smelter in the towns of Keilisnes or Þorlákshöfn (1).
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Iceland Review – Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir decided yesterday that the planned Alcoa aluminum smelter in Bakki, near Húsavík in northeast Iceland, and related geothermal power plants should undergo a joint environmental impact assessment.
With her decision Sveinbjarnardóttir reversed a decision made by Skipulagsstofnun – the Icelandic National Planning Agency that the Bakki smelter project does not have to go through an overall environmental impact assessment, Morgunbladid reports. Read More