Saving Iceland

Survival International – The Norwegian government has sold its shares in British company Rio Tinto, whose Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia, has devastated the land of the Amungme and Kamoro tribes. Norway sold its almost £500 million shares in Rio Tinto following recommendations from its Council on Ethics to exclude the company from its government pension fund. The Council made its recommendation due to ‘a risk of contributing to severe environmental damage’ through Rio Tinto’s participation in the Grasberg copper and gold mine. Read More

In a special report on the environment, Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, minister for the environment in Iceland, says that Icelandic nature has suffered from aluminium production and needs increased protection. “It is time to correct the injustice nature and environmental protection has faced because of heavy industry,” says the report.
She says Iceland’s nature is valuable, and conserving it is a way of utilising the resource. In the past Iceland’s nature, it’s rivers and geothermal fields have been seen as ‘unutilised resources’ that are almost asking for exploitation. This view, held by many Icelandic politicians and entrepreneurs, is a modern interpretation of 17th century Cartesian thought. Read More

Iceland Review – Sigurdur Sigurdarson, a veterinarian at Keldur in south Iceland, claims that fluorine pollution from aluminum smelter is causing teeth-damages in livestock and encourages sheep farmers who live near smelters to pay close attention to the symptoms. Read More

By Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, originally published in Morgunblaðið.

In a brochure named “Norðurál and the Community” [Norðurál is Century Aluminum], published by the company, one can e.g. read about the global process of aluminium production. Century Aluminium has its bauxite mines in Jamaica and now plans to open up one in West Congo, in cooperation with one of the world’s corrupt regimé.

It immediately catch one’s eyes that in Norðurál’s brochure, the word bauxite is not menitoned once and according to an explination picture, which is supposed to show the aluminium process from beginning to end, the production starts when alumina is unshipped in to a huge harbour silo.

How can it be? Is Norðurál such an environmentally friendly company that it does not even have to mine bauxite to be able to smelt aluminium? Does Norðurál have any different methods than other aluminium producers? No, this is what we call greenwashing!

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GRUNDARTANGI – A short while ago 20 activists from Saving Iceland blockaded the single supply road to Century Aluminum’s smelter on Hvalfjordur and Elkem – Icelandic Alloys steel factory. They have chained themselves to each other using arm tubes to form a human blockade as well as using tripod for the first time in Icelandic history. “We protest the environmental and human health hazards Century’s bauxite mining and refining activities in Jamaica, their plans for a new smelter and refinery in West Congo. Both Century’s and Elkem’s expansion plans will also mean destruction of unique geothermal areas in Iceland and produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Miriam Rose of Saving Iceland (1).

UPDATE: The blockade went on for three hours. Nobody was arrested. Read More

An overview of various videos showing the effects of bauxite mining and refining in Jamaica. Note that references to Kaiser and St Ann’s refer to Century Aluminum’s subsidiary activities in Jamaica, while Winalco is a subsidiary of ALCOA. Read More

A recent exploration of the geothermal drilling sites in the North of Iceland by some members of Saving Iceland, uncovered shocking evidence of pollution and ecological damage at the Þeistareykir geothermal area near to Husavík.
Þeistareykir is one of three sites in the North currently being test drilled and researched to power the upcoming 250,000 tonne ALCOA smelter proposed at Bakki in Husavík. The area is about an hours drive from the main road down a rough track, and is located about half way between Husavík and Krafla (the biggest geothermal zone in the North, where extensive expansion to the current power plant is also taking place). Read More

Rio Tinto Alcan’s smelter in New Zealand could soon shut down due to the corporations refusal to pay for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Their Tiwai Point smelter produces up to 352,976 tonnes of aluminium per year and is New Zealand’s largest single user of electricity. It will be massively affected by the governments proposal to demand that those who contribute to global warming should pay the cost themselves, not foot the bill on the rest of the population. Rio Tinto say the rise in energy cost will make them leave New Zealand. Read More

Monday morning at 8:30 Saving Iceland disturbed the opening of the two-day conference Metals: Energy, Emissions and the Environment in Brussels. About twenty activists blocked the conference entrance of the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel with chain locks and aluminium garbage. With this action they protested against Alcoa, Rio Tinto-Alcan and Norsk Hydro, who are using this conference to promote aluminium as a ‘sustainable’ metal.

Watch the video on Youtube
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11 January 2008

Saving Iceland received this urgent call for help from Greenland. The sentiments here seem quite contrary to those of Alcoa’s deluded CEO, Alain Belda, who intends to bring an “environmentally-friendly smelter [to Greenland] that adheres to our stringent values and delivers sustainable development”* or Alcoa’s Mr Wade “Kárahnjúkar-is-not-in-the-Highlands” Hughes who stated that Alcoa “have been well accepted by the people [in Greenland].”** In Iceland we are well aware of the collusion between mega-corporations like Alcoa and the corporate media, in manufacturing consent for their projects rather than stimulating thoughtful debate. As Alcoa plan a smelter in Greenland which will start off slightly larger than their Fjardaál monster in Iceland, there is no time to lose, Greenland must be defended.
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The Aluminium project in Greenland involves a smelter to be placed most possibly in Maalutu on the western shore of Nuuk Fiord plus 3 hydropower projects one in the bottom of Nuuk fiord, one in the bottom of Majoqqaq in the bottom of S�ndre Isortoq and one in the river running from Tasersiaq most possible by damming Sarfartup Kuua, producing ~600 MW. Plus >100km of wires crossing some of the most precious caribou hunting grounds. The aim is to produce ~350.000 tonnes of Aluminium per year and create ~700 permanent jobs. Read More