Helter smelter

Bj�rk, Sigur R�s protest Icelandic aluminum plant in concert

Posted by Grist at 2:46 PM on 11 Jul 2008

Grist video producer Jennifer Prediger visited Iceland recently, attending an environmental protest concert featuring Bj�rk and Sigur R�s. Here's her report, in words and video.

In Iceland, the battle between power companies and conservationists is heating up. As the aluminum industry's plans to build dams and smelters move full steam ahead, Icelanders could well become the number one emitters of carbon dioxide per capita in the world. This possibility, in a land whose geothermal resources should make it a renewable energy haven, is the ultimate slap in the face to activists trying to keep it green.

Bjork.

Photo: Warren du Preez & Nick Thornton

Which is why the country's stars aligned recently for a free benefit concert to protest the smelting plans. "It is great that we have not managed to totally fuck up this country yet, and we are standing at a crossroad right now," said headliner Bj�rk. "What we need more than anything is information. And that is my goal with this concert."

Together with the group Sigur R�s and author Andri Sn�r Magnason, Bj�rk pulled off a concert attended by 10 percent of the country's population (that's 25,000 out of 250,000 people). The concert was timed to the release of the English translation of Magnason's Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation.

"We came together and said something very big has to be done," Magnason told me. "There are 60 million people [in the world] that live on geothermal areas they could use both for heating and energy. That's like 10 percent of mankind. We need to go there with the knowledge, not make Iceland a colony of Alcoa. It's not a good idea."

Below the fold, video of the concert and of the country.

For story: Helter smelter
5 Comments | Post a Comment

This seems short-sighted.

Aluminum production is an extremely electricity-intensive process. Iceland has an extremely low-carbon electric grid thanks to all that geothermal and hydro. Ergo, producing alumnimum in Iceland is a better idea from a GHG perspective than producing it somewhere else.

Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to have an aluminum plant in my backyard, and I get the NIMBY argument from Bjork as well. But I don't see the logic that says that this a bad idea on global warming grounds. After all, if the net result is that the plant gets built in an area with more carbon-intensive electricity, the net result will be an increase in CO2.

by Sean Casten at 3:21 PM on 11 Jul 2008

Dittto to what Sean says and asks

I was reading this and asking myself the same question. As with him, I wouldn't want a smelter in my back yard either (especially if I lived in bleak but beautiful Iceland), but I don't see the big concern with CO2 emissions. After whatever is associated with generating the electricity itself (not a problem in this case), I think the next-largest source of CO2 emissions results from deterioration of the carbon anode.

But there are technological solutions to that, through using an inert, non-carbon anode or coating it to make it more resistant to being consumed during the conversion process. One would assume that any new smelter would use one of these technologies.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 6:18 PM on 11 Jul 2008

Help us here, Grist

If there is an issue here, simply telling us that Björk and Sigur Rós got together to oppose the smelter is not the primary information we need.

Iceland already has at least one aluminum smelter, located at the opposite end of the island from the planned new one. Here is an exerpt from a short article in the 5 May 2008 edition of IceNews on the industry's past GHG emissions, which fell by 22% despite a trebling of output:

Iceland's Ministry for the Environment recently released a report stating that greenhouse gas emissions from Iceland's aluminium smelters has decreased by 22 percent between 1990 and 2006.
Considering that Iceland's aluminium production increased from 90,000 tonnes to 270,000 tonnes during that time, the news is a major boon for the frequently embattled industry.
Alcan Iceland representative Gudrun Thora Magnusdottir laments that her industry is often demonised without justification on environmental issues: "we consider ourselves leading in many fields and we can be a role model for other companies," she says.

By the way, I noticed a lot of equipment constructed with aluminum up on that stage.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 6:48 PM on 11 Jul 2008

Basically someone is lying here

If the smelters' electricity is going to be powered by coal or gas, then Iceland's greenhouse emissions will go up significantly; otherwise, it won't (and will likely prevent emissions elsewhere).

Which is it?

by Joffan at 4:36 PM on 12 Jul 2008

Aluminium, Iceland and carbon emissions

Aluminium production is a main source of CO2e production even if powered by hydro. ALCOA recently opened it's new Fjardaal smelter in east Iceland, which is supposed to have been built to the most advanced standard of smelter technology. Fjardaal has raised Iceland's per capita emissions from 12 to 17 tons of CO2 equivalent (the European average is 11). Iceland is allowed to emit more GHGs within the Kyoto framework, but projections if all the planned heavy industry projects proceed would raise it's emissions to over 163% of 1990 levels.
Of course it would all be even worse if these smelters were coal-powered. However one has to keep in mind that these smelters are not replacing older more polluting ones but are being built to increase total production.
Alu demand is especially going up because of high military expenditure (as high as cold war levels, alu is used in missiles, explosives, jets, armoured vehicles) and demand increase in China. Its production is around 20x more energy intensive than steel - it even takes more energy to recycle an x volume of aluminium than an x volume of steel.

by Krater at 8:03 AM on 04 Aug 2008

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