[Tailgunner Joe]

EnvironMENTALism vs. capitalism and civilization.

[The Obstinate Insomniac]

bump

[Prodigal Son]

Environmentalists are confident they can stop the plan. They claim a national park above the Vatnajokull glacier would create almost as many jobs as the power project and would attract adventurous tourists who come to Iceland to experience a fiercely beautiful landscape studded with glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes and thermal hot springs.

"The Highlands as a whole have an economic value," said Finnsson. "These areas are more and more rare in Europe. Tourists will see things here they won't see anywhere else. People don't come here to see hydropower structures. They come to see our unique landscape."

The trick is getting enough tourists to come. I agree with the Enviromentalists that the area has potential for tourism. The area they are speaking about is incredibly beautiful and if you want to go somewhere to get away from it all- Iceland is the place. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited.

But it has a very brief "general tourism" season. For example, Landmanalaugar is a popular tourist hiking destination. But the buses to it only start in late June (depending on the melt) and end again in a couple of months. This means if you go there in May, you will be forced to hike up from Porsmork and back- 5 to 7 days round trip- where if you could just take the bus to Landmanalaugar and then walk down to Porsmork it would take 2- 4 days (depending if you decide to be leisurely about it) and then have time to explore other parts of Iceland. You can contrast this with a successful tourist park- South Africa's Kruger Park- which is easily visited 12 months out of the year.

It's a trade off. The area is beautiful, but if the beauty of the landscape isn't attracting enough hikers, they have to think about the bottom line. Already, one of Reykjavik's big tourist draws- the Blue Lagoon- is energy industry related. It is a hot outdoor bath with blue water (from the silica mud). It is very surreal to go there when there is snow everywhere. The hot water is the runoff from the geo-thermal power plant nearby. It sounds like it wouldn't be a nice thing, but trust me, it is really nice. That's a good example of industry actually attracting tourists.

[MadIvan]

What the bloody hell would Bjork know - she lives in London. Iceland is a remarkable story in and of itself - how a country on the fringe of inhabitable land can survive as they do, and indeed, are as modern as they are, is incredible. Keep right on, Iceland.

Regards, Ivan

[backhoe]

Geothermal- Promising Power, or dead-end dillema?

[nightdriver]

"The government and American aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. plan to build a huge power plant and smelter in the country's majestic Eastern Highlands."

Sure makes sense to me. They're closing down most aluminum plants here in the U.S. so there ought to be plenty of parts available to build it with.

[Publius6961]

But when we looked into the economic gain, we found there was none at all," said Arni Finnsson, director of the Icelandic Nature Conservation Association.

Wait.
I'm confused.

I missed the part that said the Icelandic Nature Conservation Association was going to finance the proposal.

How can a bunch of leeches afford it?