Saving Iceland

The 'Save The River Ribble Campaign' received an important email today from Iceland.

Just as we, who live by the Ribble are resisting proposals to put a barrage across our River, that would cause untold damage to our environment (including the 250.000 birds living in the Ribble Estuary), and raise the risk of flooding to those of us living near the area where the water level would be permanently raised to become a 'water sports park' for jet-skiing yuppies, the people of Iceland are resisting plans to build a set of dams in the eastern highlands to power US owned ALCOA aluminium smelting plant which is being built in the beautiful Reydarfjordur fjord on the eastern coast.


Here is the Guardian Report on the plans which states:

"Environmentalists in Iceland and abroad have looked on in disbelief as the project has proceeded, sidestepping one obstacle after another, driven by a government seemingly determined to push it through, whatever the cost to nature or the economy"

This is the kind of beautiful landscape that would be destroyed if the project is allowed to go ahead, in one of the world's last true wildernesses:
langsisjor

"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."

Save The Ribble campaigners will be watching developments in Iceland closely, including the innovative and determined tactics used by local Icelandic campaigners, and their international allies, to prevent this dam from proceeding.

Icelandic Government officials have described the Kárahnjúkar area as 'only gravel and sand', just as officials in Preston City Council have described the River Ribble area as 'bleak, barren and underdeveloped'

Find out more about the Icelandic Campaign from: Saving Iceland