Alcoa and Iceland's Energy Master Plan Iceland's Energy Master Plan "Be aware of the master plan to develop! Iceland's beautiful nature into a heavy industry hell servicing the greed of aluminium corporations! Iceland in 2020: If the government's promises of energy production for heavy industry are to be delivered, all major glacial rivers in Iceland must be harnessed in accordance with Master Plan, phase 1. Incredibly, some areas earmarked for destruction - such as Kringilsárrani and Thjórsárver in the southern highlands - are protected under Icelandic and international law. All are of outstanding natural beauty and their unique botanical, geological, biological and ecological characteristics are of universal scientific importance." Alcoa and Iceland's EMA "The Icelandic High Court ruled in June 2005 that the ALCOA factory's planning permission is invalid as the company has not produced a proper environmental impact assessment, yet the building of the factory continues as if nothing had happened! How much more rotten can the Aluminium Republic of Iceland become!?" "ALCOA is now hastily putting together an EIA, replete with meaningless clichés such as, 'The most modern pollution controls will be used'. We have become very familiar with this sort of double talk from ALCOA and their scheming servant, the Icelandic National Power Company, Landsvirkjun. However, more and more people are beginning to see through these lies." Personal Threats and Professional Persecution "Thus far the Icelandic government has not hesitated to use tactics such as personal threats and professional persecution against individuals who oppose its energy policies, and Icelandic environmentalists are fighting a difficult battle that they predict will not be won overnight." Impacts on Iceland's Economy "Many people working in the financial sector are raising their voices against the Kárahnjúkar project, pointing out that the aluminium industry adds very little to the Icelandic economy." "People are now losing their jobs all over Iceland due to the unhealthy expansion of the small Icelandic economy caused by the massive Kárahnjúkar project. Many Icelandic export companies are now either going bankrupt or being forced to relocate abroad due to the fact the Icelandic currency is too strong. Inflation is rising and the goverment is steadily coming under heavier flak fom the financial sector for it heavy industry policy. This is exactly what economists opposed to the project predicted would happen, but their voices were either ignored or vilified by the government." Seismically Unstable Area "The immense problems with their construction and the massive scale of the ensuing environmental destruction is becoming clearer every day. Furthermore, the dam is being built right in a seismically unstable area and would present a serious threat to the local population and environment. The government and Landsvirkjun tried to suppress evidence for this for a long time, but finally admitted the truth in early 2005." Heavy Industry and Decline in Health Care and Education "A Gallup survey carried out for the Icelandic anti-dam group NatureWatch in January-February 2005 showed that 90% of the nation do not want any more heavy industry in Iceland and that they favour an emphasis on knowledge-based low-impact industries and tourism. Yet the Icelandic government has advertised the Icelandic people in international trade magazines as a low-wage workforce ideal for primary production. This is in keeping with the growing gap between poor and rich under this government and the decline in health care and education." Alcoa and Contruction Jobs "By encouraging the use of cheap international migratory labour for building the dams and building and working in the ALCOA aluminium smelter, the Icelandic authorities are deliberately trying to undermine the achievements of a century-long struggle for the rights of Icelandic workers. This also exposes as completely false the claims of the Icelandic government that the Kárahnjúkar project is to create jobs for the Icelandic people of the East. Over 80% of the workers building the dams and the ALCOA factory are foreign! Workers for the heavily corrupt Impregilo, the main contractor on the Kárahnjúkar dams, live in squalid conditions, are routinely put in life-threatening situations and abused in various other ways. Icelandic trades unionists have repeatedly complained that Impregilo have been allowed to break the law for months at a time." Cheap Energy and Pollution "The sale of the cheapest energy in all of Europe happens at the cost of the vandalisation of one of Iceland's greatest assets, which is unspoilt nature. The hypocrisy of ALCOA and the Icelandic government is clear to behold in the exemption which the government negotiated from the Kyoto protocol in order to make this heavy-industry policy possible. Ironically, Icelanders boast of living in an unspoilt land and promote the country as pristine. If the government's policy of heavy industrialisation is not stopped, such a promotion of Icelandic nature is absurd and false. Let's not forget that almost all the companies involved have a long history of convictions for crimes against nature and still have judgements pending on charges of serious environmental damage or corruption." Courtesy: www.savingiceland.org |
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