SM

31.7.2006 | 22:38

Illvirkjun og fleira

góð grein The Guardian á virkjana-æðinu(frá 2003), nokkrir bitar hér:

"In a radio interview in August, Siv Fridleifsdottir said that, in her view, "protected" did not mean "for ever protected". Fridrik Sophusson, Landsvirkjun's managing director, supports her decision, and tells me the government "has the right to change such a human decision"."

Certainly their CVs are not reassuring: in charge at the ministry of industry and commerce is Valgerdur Sverrisdottir, whose only paper qualification seems to be an English as a foreign language certificate awarded in 1972. Siv Fridleifsdottir, minister for the environment, is a qualified physiotherapist.

In 2001, super-clean Iceland was able to negotiate a 10% increase in permitted emissions under the Kyoto protocol - the biggest increase in the world. In effect, Alcoa is buying Iceland's licence to pollute, as well as cheap electricity. The ministry of environment also gave Alcoa a licence to emit 12kg of sulphur dioxide (SO2) per tonne of aluminium produced - 12 times the level the World Bank expects from modern smelters. SO2; and fluoride, the most dangerous pollutants in terms of public health and land damage, will be pumped directly into the air via giant chimneys.

But how well-informed are Icelanders? Many journalists speak of a media that is controlled both directly and ndirectly by the state. In August, the BBC World Service lost its slot on Icelandic airwaves just as minke whale-hunting was resumed after a 14-year ban. Veteran broadcast journalist Omar Ragnarsson told me how he ran into trouble when he reported "both sides" of the Karahnjukar debate on national television - "There were calls for me to be fired." In order to make a "rational" film about Karahnjukar, he has sold his flat and jeep to finance it independently.

For writer Gudbergur Bergsson, the key lies in the national psyche. Icelanders, he says, are political fashion victims, heavily under the spell of the US and oblivious to criticism from activists at home. "What they perceive as 'in' right now is globalisation, so they want to be part of that," says Bergsson, adding that Icelanders hate to look ridiculous. "If the international community can show them how truly ridiculous it is to destroy nature, the very thing they love most, for one aluminium smelter, they may start to think for themselves. They might finally have the guts to speak up and tell their dictatorial government how absolutely they have got this wrong. You have to shame us into change."