Nov 06 2007
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Roll up, roll up! Activists from around Europe, come to a social centre near you for a chance to meet some wandering Icelanders who’ll tell you a story about Europe’s last wilderness that will surely make you so angry that you’ll be fighting the aluminium industry alongside them in 2008!
Here are the confirmed listings, keep your eyes peeled for more information.
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Nov 01 2007
At Saving Iceland we are very aware that our presence in Iceland is surrounded by mystery, rumours, spectacle and a general otherness. We feel like we are as weird and wonderful as anyone else but we recognise that being interpreted by the TV and bloggers means that we can seem quite strange.
For this reason we decided to hold monthly old fashioned coffee evenings in Reykjavik where you can meet some of us, meet each other, meet other people who have opinions about dam, aluminium, heavy industry, etc. Read More
Oct 26 2007
In an interview on the radio program ‘Spegillinn’ on 23 October geophysicist Páll Einarsson said that an eruption in Upptyppingar would probably disrupt the flow of the immense glacial river Jökulsá á Fjöllum. Upptyppingar volcano lies on the bank of Jökulsá á Fjöllum. Einarsson said that the first effects of the eruption would be that the river would evaporate from the heat of the lava. Running lava would block the course of the river so that when the river would materialize again it would collect in a lake that would then overflow with unknown consequences.
This flood could pose a great danger to the surrounding farming communities and hikers, who will be almost untraceable in the great wilderness. Eight hours notice would not be enough time to warn people and secure the wilderness say rescue services.
So, it turns out that the Kárahnjukar project, which so far has entailed the complete destruction of two of Iceland’s major glacial rivers, Jökulá á Brú and Jökulsá á Fljótsdal, just to run an aluminium smelter owned by arms manufacturer ALCOA, is in fact likely to destroy the third major glacial river, the magnificent Jökulsá á Fjöllum.
Members of parliament have repeatedly claimed that they wanted to protect the whole of Jökulsá á Fjöllum, even ALCOA have paid lip service to the proposal.
Jökulsá á Fjöllum hosts Europe’s most powerful waterfall, Dettifoss. The river runs through the protected canyon of Jökulsárgljúfur National Park and past the magical area of Hljóðaklettar, much loved by tourists. All this is now threatened by the man-made eruption.
Some would say that this is vandalism of catastrophic proportions.
See also: >Imminent Man-Made Volcanic Eruption Courtesy of ALCOA and Icelandic Government
Oct 22 2007
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Today at the annual general meeting of the Icelandic Glaciological Society the geophysicist Páll Einarsson confirmed that a volcanic eruption is imminent in one or two years time in Upptyppingar near Askja. He said this was a direct result of the inundation of Kárahnjúkar. He also claimed that the earthquakes that had started in February, ceased temporarily when the inundation was halted, but as soon as it was continued the tremors began again. The water in Halslon weighs two billion tons now and over 4000 earthquakes have been recorded since February.
Einarsson added that it was a mystery why the effects of the inundation were felt 20 kilometers away from Karahnjukar, instead of in the immediate vicinity of the dams.
Oct 17 2007
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Saving Iceland
17 October 2007
The Directorate of Immigration has decided that they will not grant the request of the Icelandic police and deport SI activist Miriam Rose.
The Directorate confirmed this tonight speaking to the Icelandic National TV news program Kastljos.
So far we are not aware of any legal reasoning for the decision. But it was clear already some time ago that the police had lost the propaganda war almost from the beginning. The “…serious threat to the fundamental values of society” claim, in the letter requesting that Miriam Rose was to be deported, was for example something that the Icelandic public was just not going to swallow so easily. Instead the deportation request caused great alarm with the public about the state of civil rights and democracy in Icelandic society, not without reason.
It has not passed unnoticed here in Iceland that even if the police are used to getting away with all sorts of power abuse most of the time, they have frequently got so carried away in the heat of the moment that they have repeatedly shot themselves badly in the foot. This website has reported a considerable number of such instances when it comes to SI protests.
Now that the police have finally exhausted the bogus threat of deporting environmental protesters they should maybe pause for some reflection.
Instead of constantly making fools of themselves with thuggish persecution and illconceived plots, perhaps the time has come that they do something sensible for a change. Like turning their attention to the corruption that is ripe in the Icelandic energy companies and not least the multinational corporate criminals they have tried so hard to protect from legitimate protest.
Miriam Rose is a co-author of ‘Aluminium Tyrants’, an article published this month in The Ecologist. /?p=1021
The decision of the DI finally spurred the Kastljos editors to transmit an interview they recorded three weeks ago with Miriam Rose. This had obviously been kept off the air in order not to further Miriam’s cause:
http://dagskra.ruv.is/streaming/sjonvarpid/?file=4365527/3
About the deportation case(s) see also:
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Saturday March 3, 2007
The Guardian Unlimited
John Vidal, environment editor
Carbon dioxide emissions from ships do not come under the Kyoto agreement or any proposed European legislation and few studies have been made of them, even though they are set to increase.
Aviation carbon dioxide emissions, estimated to be about 2% of the global total, have been at the forefront of the climate change debate because of the sharp increase in cheap flights, whereas shipping emissions have risen nearly as fast in the past 20 years but have been ignored by governments and environmental groups. Shipping is responsible for transporting 90% of world trade which has doubled in 25 years. Read More
Oct 16 2007
ShiftShapers
Guerilla News Network
13 Aug 2006
An International Action Camp in Iceland’s Eastern Highlands against the destruction of this last great European wilderness for a series of giant hydro-power dams for the aluminium industry has been ongoing since 21st July.
I just got back from Iceland yesterday. Here is the latest news as i understand it…
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Oct 08 2007
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An IPS/SEEN/TNI report, 2001
This important and lengthy report from the Washington based Sustainable Energy and Economy Network is highly informative about the operational structure of the aluminum industry and the resulting impacts on human rights and the environment.
6th October 2007
This commentary by Mines and Communities
Once again India’s Supreme Court (SC) has deferred taking a decision on the mining of bauxite in Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills, although the central government’s Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) did its best to steamroller assent for Vedanta’s potentially very damaging project. Read More