Saving Iceland

photo by Tom Olliver

Saving Iceland
7 November 2007

Only two days after the glorious inauguration of the turbines at Kárahnjúkar dam, further structural problems are already emerging.

Icelandic paper Morgunbladid revealed today that severe leakages in the tunnels leading to the turbines are releasing 200 litres of water per second onto the ground surface, forming a swamp currently about a third of a hectare in size. When asked to comment on the situation, Kárahnjúkarvirkjun spokesperson Sigurdur Arnalds said the water loss was of no consequence.

Regardless of whether or not we should believe Arnalds, the revelation that tunnel water is reaching the ground water breaches one of Siv Fridleifsdottir’s [ex-Minister of Environment who pushed through the project] fundamental stipulations (no. 14):
That Kárahnjúkarvirkjun should NOT interfere with ground water levels. Read More

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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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.

• See also: IRN Aluminium toolkit – Foiling the Aluminum Industry: A Toolkit for Communities, Activists, Consumers, and Workers
• Frumvinnsla áls – Lýsing á hinni mengandi og orkufreku framleiðslu álbarra. Þýtt úr “Foiling the Aluminum Industry”

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Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Iceland Review
10/05/2007

Reykjavík City Council Quarrels about REI-GGE Merger

Members within the Independence Party of Reykjavík City Council are in a hefty debate about the merger between Reykjavík Energy Invest and Geysir Green Energy, announced Wednesday. Reykjavík City holds a share in REI.

REI was founded in March as the daughter company of Reykjavík Energy (OR) and the board of OR and their shareholders agreed on the merger at a meeting on Wednesday, ruv.is reports.

During the meeting it became evident that the attendees had very different opinions on the role and policy of OR and whether OR, a public company, should participate in such risky private business investments, which is where REI seems to be headed.

Some of the Independence Party members who hold a seat in the City Council said the merger happened too quickly and that their opinions, as representatives voted by Reykjavík residents to protect the city’s interests, had been ignored.

Independence Party council members approached by ruv.is would not comment on the record. One member, Gísli Marteinn Baldursson, only said the case was “sensitive” and that he needed to discuss it further with his colleagues before making any comments.

According to ruv.is, the merger will have certain consequences for the OR board—city councilmen who have a seat there may have to leave the board, including Reykjavík Mayor Vilhjálmur Th. Vilhjálmsson.

Following the debate, Vilhjálmsson requested last night that Bjarni Ármannsson, chairman of REI’s board, allow all OR employees to have the same preemptive rights to purchase shares in REI after the merger, Fréttabladid reports.

Gudmundur Thóroddsson, who is on leave from his position as OR’s CEO and the CEO of REI, was permitted to purchase shares with a par value of ISK 23 million (USD 373,000, EUR 264,000) at the currency rate of 1.3.

Three geologists, two engineers and one economist were permitted to purchase shares with a par value of 7.8 million (USD 127,000, EUR 90,000) at the 1.3 currency rate, but other OR employees were only allowed to purchase shares with a par value of up to ISK 300,000 (USD 4,900, EUR 3,400).

Ármannsson said REI’s board would review the mayor’s request.

Iceland Review
10/04/2007

REI and GGE to Merge and Become Energy Giant

Reykjavík Energy Invest (REI) and Geysir Green Energy (GGE) announced at a press conference yesterday that the companies would merge under the REI name. After the merger, the company will be worth ISK 65 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 748 million).

“The merger is a way to achieve rapid growth. Size matters, because the companies we will compete with and be in competition with are huge energy companies,” Hannes Smárason, chairman of GGE’s board and CEO of FL Group, told Morgunbladid.

“With an increase in size we will have a larger say as well as access to more funding and thus take on larger projects, which are the most profitable and exciting projects in this business,” Smárason added.

“I am convinced that a merger will bring many opportunities and that there is a bright future ahead,” said Bjarni Ármannsson, who will serve as chairman of the new company’s board.

“But it depends of course on who is holding the cards. It is the responsibility of those in charge to create value. It is far from being within reach, but one could say that time is on our side and the wind is at our backs,” Ármannsson concluded.

Smárason and Ármannsson will introduce the merger at an FL Group investor meeting in London today.

See also:

Geysir Green Energy acquires shares in WGP
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Are ALCOA to be given Landsvirkjun on a silver plate?
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2 October 2007

Protest Outside Iceland’s London Embassy

Today a protest against Iceland’s current persecution of environmental activists was held outside London’s Icelandic Embassy in Sloane Square. The protestors handed in a letter [below] to Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson, Iceland’s ambassador to the UK, which condemns Iceland’s current attempt to deport Miriam Rose, a British citizen. They held a banner which read: Iceland: Police State. Read More

Saving Iceland
26 September 2007

On Friday 21st September, Saving Iceland activist Miriam Rose was presented with a letter from the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration threatening her with possible expulsion from Iceland. The letter claims that due to her participation in two actions at smelter sites she may be considered a threat to ‘public order and security’ and ‘fundamental societal values’. The letter also claims that Saving Iceland pays activists for being arrested, a claim repeatedly denied and proven to be false.(1)

Miriam has already served 8 days in prison for protesting against the destruction of Icelandic wilderness, for which the UK Green Party Principal Speaker Dr Derek Wall accused the Icelandic government of political harassment and demanded her immediate release.(2) In Radio 1 Icelandic news program Spegillinn yesterday, the police admitted that this was to be the first of many attempted deportations of activists.

Protest Response! Tuesday 2nd October, London Click here for more details.
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Updated 1 October 2007

Icelandic geologists have now confirmed that the earthquakes at Upptyppingar were caused by the inundation of Halslon at Karahnjukar. Now that the inundation of the Karahnjukar area is completed the earthquakes have subsided, but only for the time being. The water levels of Halslon will be constantly fluctuating while the reservoir is operational.

This proves that the warnings of geologists like Grimur Bjornsson and Gudmundur Sigvaldason were very valid. The Kárahnjúkar dams are situated on a cluster of active geological fissures. The government withheld geological reports from parliament when voting on the dams took place.
The suppression of these reports, the official gagging order placed on Grimur Bjornsson and the general defamation that the concerned scientists experienced from government ministers, power companies and other State institutions was criminal. Those responsible should be made to answer for this.
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In this exhaustive text, Felix Padel and Samarendra Das give a thorough analysis of the situation of the aluminium industry in India, its history as a global force of destruction intrinsically linked to the arms industry and its links to genocide. This is required reading for anyone with an interest in the aluminium industry, peace, and the desperate situation of the people of Orissa, India. Read More

By Felix Padel and Samarendra Das, Economic and Political Weekly, December 2005

“The evidence we present goes against the conventional history of aluminium, which tends to portray the industry as central to various countries’ economic power and prosperity, without understanding the financial manipulation and exploitation between and within countries, and the true costs.”

Few people understand aluminium’s true form or see its industry as a whole. Hidden from general awareness are its close link with big dams, complex forms of exploitation in the industry’s financial structure, and a destructive impact on indigenous society that amounts to a form of genocide. At the other end of the production line, aluminium’s highest-price forms consist of complex alloys essential to various ‘aerospace’/’defence’ applications.1 The metal’s high ‘strategic importance’ is due to its status as a key material supplying the arms industry. In these four dimensions ‘ environmental, economic, social and military ‘ it has some very destructive effects on human life.
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The local council in the westfjords yesterday gave their permission to build an oil refinery in the area, to “save the community from disintegrating since people are moving away.” They hope that a factory like this would interest young people in moving back to the area.
The likeliest place for the refinery would be Arnarfjordur, a place of tremendous beauty as most places in the westfjords are.
Scientists have pointed out that oceanic iceblocks may make the sailing route to the area unsafe for bigger ships. Also, a refinery of this size would pump one million tons of C02 into the atmosphere per year, which more than exhausts Iceland´s quota according to the Kyoto agreement.
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