Iceland: Investment vs. Environment
Fire and ice, volcanoes and glaciers - Iceland is like no other place on the globe. The standard of living is high, the literacy rate is 100% and the air is so pure that the Kyoto Protocol gave Iceland the right to increase its greenhouse emissions by 10% from 1990 levels.
For years the center-right government has actively sought international investment. Already in the central highlands, where two powerful rivers flow north from Europe’s largest glacier, is a network of tunnels and reservoirs which are changing the face of the wilderness. This is the Karahnjukar Hydropower Project, designed to generate electricity for a new aluminum smelter owned by Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum company. In addition, three more such projects are under consideration.
The company plans to close two of its smelting plants in the U.S. and open new ones in Iceland, using the electricity from the government-subsidized dams there to reduce costs. The project has been contracted by Bechtel. Those defending the project assert that harnessing Iceland’s hydro-electric power allows aluminum to be produced with far less greenhouse gas emissions than occur in plants of similar size elsewhere in the world.
Icelanders have not been known to demonstrate publically, but an anti-dam demonstration drew thousands. They see the projects as endangering the rivers and waterfalls, causing soil erosion and threatening the lives of reindeer and numerous birds. Not only that, they point out that the dam is unstable, having been built on a thin, fractured crust of earth near one of the most volcanically volatile areas in the world. What’s more, a large glacier nearby is melting rapidly because of global warning.
For more about Iceland, its lifestyle and its landscape, both of which are extraordinary, see http://www.liveabroad.com/articles/iceland.html.