University lecturer and anti-smelter activist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh
was forcibly removed from the head office of the Environmental
Management Authority this evening (Thursday April 19) . Read More
Anti-smelter activist begins vigil outside EMA office
Apr 20 2007
Are ALCOA to be given Landsvirkjun on a silver plate?
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?
Apr 20 2007
Will Your Party Support the Continued Build-up of Heavy-Industry in Iceland?
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
Read More
Brand new Saving Iceland Map
Latest version of the new Saving Iceland map and flier.
Printable and translated versions coming soon…
version 1.41b
Apr 15 2007
Polls: 58 % of Icelanders want to halt heavy industry projects and 61% want the right to vote on heavy industry
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
Teenagers do not want to work in smelters
From Iceland Review
04/11/2007
The Confederation of Icelandic Employers (SA) presented the results of a new study yesterday.
According to Fréttabladid, the Institute for Academic Evaluation (Námsmatsstofnun) conducted the study for SA. In 2000, 2003 and 2006, 15-year-olds in Iceland were asked what kind of a job they expected to have at 30.
Interest in becoming specialists has increased steadily. Most participants in 2006, 58 percent, want to become professionals of some kind. Currently, only 14 percent of Icelanders work as professionals.
Only one percent of participants want to be office workers or manual laborers, none want to operate heavy machinery, two percent want to become farmers or fishermen, ten percent want to become craftsmen and 11 percent want to work in the service industry.
The teengers did not seem impressed by growth in heavy industry or increased smelter construction either. Only a handful is interested in working on construction sites or in factories.
Ragnar F. Ólafsson from the Institute for Academic Evaluation said he is not surprised or worried by the results. “I feel the results coincide with the emphasis on university education in society.”
“I believe we can be optimistic about the future. The girls delivered especially good results. In 2000, 22 percent of them wanted to work in service, but now they want to become professionals like dentists or doctors,” Ólafsson said.
Apr 10 2007
Glaciers in Iceland Melting “Faster than Ever”
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.”
Apr 07 2007
Forests of Factory Chimneys to be Disguised with PR Trees?
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
Apr 07 2007
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Volcano Park to Open in Iceland?
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.
Apr 01 2007
Celebration as Hafnarfjörður Rejects Alcan Expansion!
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