Saving Iceland

The International Day of Action for Rivers will take place tomorrow, Friday March 14th, the 11th year now. The day is meant to bring attention to the necessity of rivers and that their path is not changed by men´s hands. Dams and reservoirs have big negative impact on nature, animal life and human societies by the rivers and the constructions will never be taken back. A lot of events, demonstrations and actions can be expected.

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Monday morning at 8:30 Saving Iceland disturbed the opening of the two-day conference Metals: Energy, Emissions and the Environment in Brussels. About twenty activists blocked the conference entrance of the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel with chain locks and aluminium garbage. With this action they protested against Alcoa, Rio Tinto-Alcan and Norsk Hydro, who are using this conference to promote aluminium as a ‘sustainable’ metal.

Watch the video on Youtube
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Iceland Review
6 March 2008

In the current issue of the British science journal Nature, a study on the ecosystem at Lake Mývatn, northeast Iceland, is featured as the cover story, which concludes that minor changes caused by humans in ecosystems can have dramatic impacts.

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Last Tuesday, Verne Holdings, a joint venture by General Catalyst and Novator, signed a 20 billion Icelandic krónur (306 millions USD) agreement with Landsvirkjun, the National Energy Company, Farice and Keflavík Airport Development Corporation on establishing a data center by Keflavík International Airport.

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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. Read More

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has determined that Icelandic authorities violated the rights of two Icelandic fishermen who were not allocated any fishing quota after applying for it and were deemed to go fishing on a boat that had none.
The Human Rights Committee concluded that the Icelandic state should give the fishermen full compensation and establish a fisheries control system that fulfills the demands of international law, Morgunbladid reports. Read More

Very positive sounding news from South Africa. Rio Tinto-Alcan’s plans to construct a smelter 20km away from Port Elizabeth seem to be cracking as the countries largest energy provider, Eskom, announce the need to review their ability to supply Rio Tinto-Alcan with energy. It seems that delaying the project of purposely building Rio Tinto-Alcan a new power station until 2013 and paying them the subsequent breach of contract fines would be cheaper than going ahead with the project now. This following Rio Tinto-Alcan’s investment to date of over $200million in the ‘Coega’ project and their CEO Tom Albanese having stated only two months ago: “To describe the project as having tremendous momentum would be an understatement.” Read More

The hunt for a location for an aluminium smelter in Greenland continues. The environmental assessment which you can read in the link provided at the bottom of the article below, found on this site shows the devastation which will happen in these areas which will be so called “minimised” by Alcoa. Read More

A day of talks and film showings to pass on information about the on-going international campaign and the current situation in Iceland

Friday 22nd February 2008, Sumac Centre, Nottingham

The event is aimed at:

Activists who have been involved with Saving Iceland in the past, have parted company for whatever reason, but would like to know what�s happening now

UK-based Saving Iceland activists who were unable to make it to the recent organising gatherings abroad and would like an update

People who are new to the issue but are interested to find out about this great ecological threat to our relatively local wilderness.

Anyone with questions about the campaign Read More

Gabrielle Jamela Hosein has written a thought provoking article that gathers together a feminist, racial and land based critique of Trinidad’s so called Vision 2020 development plan, which focuses on development through aluminium smelting and other heavy industries. Below is an extract, the full article can be found here Read More