Saving Iceland

Alain Belda CEO of Alcoa
President of Iceland in waiting?

Update: ALCAN prefered murderous Rio Tinto. So now its ALCAN – Rio Tinto. Nice addition to the corporate criminals that the Icelandic government like to wag their tails to. This indicates the true nature of Icelandic politics.

7 May 2007

Alcoa have announced plans to take over Canadian aluminium company Alcan, both companies own infamous smelters in Iceland: Alcoa in Reydarfjördur, Eastfjords, and Alcan in Hafnarfjördur, near Reykjavík.

An informal takeover offer amounts to nearly USD 33 billion (EUR 24 billion).

Bank of America recently upgraded its estimation of Alcan’s shares from USD 62 (EUR 46) to USD 82 (EUR 61) per share. Financial experts believe other aluminium companies may want to invest in Alcan as well.

Alcoa and Alcan have discussed cooperation for nearly two years, which has not been successful, thus Alcoa is planning a takeover.

According to information from Alcan in Iceland, the news about the takeover came as a surprise.

There have been persistent rumours that Rio Tinto is planning a hostile takeover of Alcoa.

Read More

UPDATE
24 April 2007

Around 180 subterranean workers have become ill from pollution at Karahnjukar and work in 14 km of the tunnels has been stopped by the Icelandic Health and Safety authorities.

High time that the Health and Safety finally did the work they are paid for!

Already in 2005 persistent reports started emerging from Icelandic workers that workers were being forced back into the tunnels by Impregilo way too soon after explosives had been used in them. This breaks all safety regulations.

Apparently Icelandic workers usually refused to go back in until it was relatively safe, but foreign workers had no choice and somtimes had to be carried unconcious back out of the tunnels because of the poisonous air.

Health and safety are now trying to hide behind a ‘lack of legislation in Iceland for this sort of tunnel work’.

The reluctance of the Icelandic unions and health and safety authorities to protect foreign workers at Karahnjukar suggests that there is something seriously rotten in more than one place in Icelandic society.

It seems appropriate now that there be more coverage in Icelandic media about the payments which Impregilo offered in 2003 to deposit in Icelandic union funds!

Exactly which unions received these payments from Impregilo?

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17 April, 2007

A strange seal was spotted on the shore by Straumur near the ALCAN aluminium smelter. Its front flippers were deformed, so they looked more like dog feet.

“I have turned sixty and I thought I knew a thing or two about animals, but I never knew seals could have feet,” eyewitness Gunnar Örn Gudmundsson told Fréttabladid.

“I could hardly believe it when I took its picture. They looked like feet on a Labrador dog” Gudmundsson said, adding he believed the seal had been very tired and was resting on the shore.

“I was only about one meter away when it started hissing at me, it was probably completely exhausted,” Gudmundsson explained.

Is it surprising that the poor animal would be feeling a lot less than well and normal after having to swim in the polluted waters of a 240.000 tonnes aluminium smelter?

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Also known as ‘Illvirkjun’ (Evil Energy)

16 April, 2007

The conservative Independence Party concluded after the party’s general meeting last week that it would like to evaluate the advantages that would come from privatizing the national energy companies.

Not that the Independence Party is exactly known for its concern about equality in Icelandic society but it did conclude that it could be advantageous to shift the ownership of the energy companies from the state to private parties, especially considering competition and equality.

Furthermore, the Independence Party believes Icelandic specialized knowledge and ingenuity will bloom once the energy companies are privatized and enter foreign markets… ehhh… or foreign companies enter them…

This is nothing new. When the conservatives took over Reykjavik Council last year they hurriedly sold the 45% that Reykjavik owned in the National Power Company to the State. This was clearly done in order to prepare the privatization of Landsvirkjun. All in keeping with their policy of robbing the ever sleepy nation of its assets and give them to their rich friends.

But which rich friends of the Independence Party would benefit from dominating the energy industry in Iceland?

Why does the Independence Party still refuse to be transparent about who pays into their party funds?

When are the Icelandic people going to wake up and do something about that they live in a banana republic?

In the build up to the 2007 parliamentary elections, The Reykjavík Grapevine asked representitives from each of the political parties to answer questions regarding the most pressing issue; Heavy Industry.

Issue 4, 13 April, 2007
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According to a new Gallup poll 58% of the Icelandic nation want at least a five year stop to more heavy industry projects. People were asked if they wanted a five year “pause” in heavy industry projects. Just under 33% wanted no pause. Read More

See also: Alaska rattled by melting ice
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18324601.900.html

Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/08/climatechange

Iceland Review
04/10/2007

Oddur Sigurdsson, an Icelandic geologist who has undertaken studies of Iceland’s glaciers, said the nation’s glaciers are melting at record speed and may disappear completely after 200 years due to global warming.

“It is obvious judging by the data that we have that it is first and foremost caused by the heat in summer, which has increased considerably, especially in the last ten years,” Sigurdsson told RÚV.

Sigurdsson said he believed global warming is the gravest problem the human race has ever faced.

French geologist Jean-Marc Bouvier, who has undertaken studies of the Greenland ice cap, explained to RÚV that once the Arctic glaciers have disappeared the ocean surface will be nine meters higher than today and flood an area which is currently inhabited by one billion people.

Bouvier described this situation as a “meteorological time bomb” and said “the wick has already been lit.”

How was it that the saying goes… “Can’t see the forest for the trees”?
And exactly what sort of tree species would we be looking at… the manicured, sterile, non-indigenous corporate greenwash type? Maybe the time has come for a new botanical category? Perhaps a little research into ALCOA’s track record in forestry would be the place to start: http://www.wafa.org.au/articles/alcoa/index.html
Read More

Iceland Review
04/07/2007

Geologists suggested on March 24 that a volcano park should be established on Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, which has the potential to become a major tourist attraction.

According to geologist Ásta Thorleifsdóttir, a volcano park on Reykjanes could be larger and have more variety than a similar volcano park in Hawaii, which attracts 3.3 million tourists every year, making USD billions in profits.

“We have much better access on Reykjanes. […] We have the international airport beside it and all these villages that can offer accommodation, entertainment, information, guidance, scientific knowledge and everything else that comes with it,” Thorleifsdóttir told RÚV.

Thorleifsdóttir has researched the volcano park in Hawaii, which is the largest of its kind and is considered the most noteworthy volcano park in the world.

Thorleifsdóttir said the geology of Reykjanes peninsula is unique. There is a lot of volcanic activity with numerous shield volcanoes, volcanic fissures, craters and hot springs.

“There are few places on earth like it. Only us who live close by don’t realize that if we want to show foreign tourists something unique we don’t have to go further than to Kleifarvatn and Krýsuvík,” Thorleifsdóttir said.

01/04/2007

The residents of Hafnarfjörður voted yesterday in a referendum over whether their Alcan aluminium smelter should be more than doubled in size, to make it Iceland’s largest aluminium smelter. Read More