Saving Iceland

A talk which opened a panel discussion at the ‘Reykjavikur Akademia’ with the topic ‘What are the Fundamental Values of Society’ 20 November 2007. Panelists included Reykjavik Chief of Police Stefán Eiríksson, historian and Left Green MP Guðfríður Lilja Grétarsdóttir and philosopher Viðar Thorsteinsson.

For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Miriam Rose, and I am an activist and environmental scientist from the UK. I have been asked to speak today on my experience of the basic values of Icelandic society, based on an interview I did on Kastljos in October, after I was threatened with deportation from Iceland for my part in actions against the heavy industry policy of your government. The letter of requested deportation which I received explained that I may be expelled from Iceland for a minimum of three years as my behavior constitutes a ‘threat to the fundamental values of society’.
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Activists Attilah Springer (left) and Lerato Maria
Maregele (center). SI conference July ’07.

Mimi Sheller is a visiting associate professor in the sociology and anthropology department at Swarthmore College. She attended the Saving Iceland conference in 2007.

I grew up in an aluminum-sided suburban house. I carried a colorful aluminum lunchbox to school, with a sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil. Like everyone I know, I drink from aluminum cans, travel in cars, planes, and bikes full of aluminum parts, and cook in aluminum pots and pans. This versatile, ubiquitous material is all around us, all the time, but seems almost invisible because it has become, literally, part of the furniture (even the kitchen sink). The surprising story of this mercurial metallic fabric of everyday life – in our homes, skyscrapers, cars, airplanes, utensils, fasteners, cosmetics, space ships, and bombs – encapsulates the making of global modernity, the creation of multinational corporations, the rise of the U.S. as a world power, the modernization of warfare, and the invention of suburbia, science-fiction futurism, and the American Dream.
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7/11/2007

Prime minister Geir H. Harde has revealed his opinion that Iceland should negotiate for another special deal on carbon emmissions in the upcoming 2012 Kyoto agreement renewal. Read More

Geothermal waterfall at Klambragil in Reykjadal, Hengill area

Saving Iceland
8 November 2007

A new national record in criticizing a power plant has been set.

Following negative reports from environmental engineers, objections to the Bitru and Hverahlíð geothermal power plant expansion have grown to over 678. Residents, scientists and town authorities are concerned with how close the power plant is planned to be to the town of Hveragerði. They are also afraid that it will harm future tourism, and obstruct land for outdoor activities. Read More

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

1 October 2007

Alcoa hires a community relations manager for North-Iceland

Kristján Th. Halldórsson, Management Engineer, has been hired to handle community relations for Alcoa in North-Iceland. His primary occupation will be to communicate information about Alcoa and a possible smelter in Bakki by Húsavík to the community in North-Iceland.

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September 11th, 2007

News from the blog of Satan. The repetition of Alcoa’s constant claims at being environmentally friendly only empower our hatred of them. We know that if they didn’t have so much guilt to hide they wouldn’t need to regurgitate their practically messianic image in every single text they vomit. Would you believe a man stalking you at night when he keeps shouting “I’M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU!” or would you take that as further reason to get the hell away or beat him up until the monster’s out for the count?

Alcoa’s greed makes the world bleed.

Alcoa Opens New Anode Plant in Norway to Serve Fjardaal and Mosjoen Smelters

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alcoa (NYSE:AA) announced that it has opened a new 280,000 metric ton per year anode plant in Mosjoen, Norway. The facility will produce anodes for Alcoa’s Fjardaal aluminum smelter in Iceland [ie: Alcoa’s Reydarfjordur smelter] and the Mosjoen aluminum smelter in Norway. Alcoa built the facility with managing partner Elkem Aluminium ANS, which has a 36% share in the Mosjoen anode plant. Alcoa owns 50% of the partnership Elkem Aluminium ANS, which operates aluminum smelters in Mosjoen and Lista, Norway.

Anodes are the electrodes toward which current flows during the smelting process of making aluminum. Anodes from the new plant have already been delivered to the Mosjoen smelter and the first shipments to Fjardaal are expected to start this month.

“This new plant was completed on time and safely and it is one of the world’s largest and most environmentally friendly facilities of its type,” said Bernt Reitan, Executive Vice President of Alcoa and Group President, Global Primary Products, who attended the event. “This facility will enable us to continue to reduce production costs and maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg participated in an inauguration ceremony held on August 30.

Alcoa in Norway

Alcoa established a presence in Norway through a 1962 partnership with Elkem ASA. Today, Elkem Aluminium NS, the partnership owned 50/50 by Orkla and Alcoa, operates smelters in Mosjøen and Lista and supply the European aluminum market. Alcoa’s automotive casting operation in Lista, established in 1995, produces wheel suspension components for leading European automakers.

About Alcoa

Alcoa is the world’s leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa’s businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa® wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, structures and building systems. The company has 116,000 employees in 44 countries and has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com

On the 12th of September 2007, the Global Day of Action Against Heavy Industry, people in South Africa, Iceland, Trinidad, Denmark, New York, Holland and the UK protested against the heavy industrialisation of our planet. This marked the first coordinated event of a new and growing global movement that began at the 2007 Saving Iceland protest camp in Ölfus, Iceland. The common target of these protests against heavy industry was the aluminium industry, in particular the corporations Alcan/Rio-Tinto and Alcoa. Read More

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

Trouw (daily), Netherlands, 21 January 2007

Large dams have dramatic consequences. Ecosystems are destroyed and numerous people are made homeless, often without adequate resettlement. But it is yet little known that large-scale hydro-electricity is a major contributor to global warming. The reservoirs could, despite their clean image, be even more devastating for our climate than fossil fuel plants.

A few years ago, I spent a month in the valley of the Narmada River, to support tribal activists who have been resisting the Sardar Sarovar dam in central India for decades. These indigenous inhabitants, or adivasis, are desperate. In their struggle, inspired by Gandhi, they attempt to drown themselves when their villages are flooded. Death seems preferable to being forced to move from their valley to tin houses on infertile, barren soil. If they’re lucky, they can live on land that nobody else wants, the only available in the densely populated India. This forced resettlement, made necessary by ´progress´, is not unsimilar to what befell American Indians or the Aborigines in Australia. The consequences of mega hydro: cultures die and alcoholism, depression and violence remains. Read More