The Icelandic embassy in Copenhagen was hit by activists, criticizing what they see as the hypocrisy of using green energy to power heavy industry.
The attack occured on Wednesday, with those responsible splashing the embassy with paint, and writing slogans such as “Green Energy Pure Lies” and “Dams and Geothermal Energy 4 Aluminum ≠ green energy” (shown above). Indymedia.dk, reporting on the attack, says in part, “The Icelandic government boasts of it’s prowess in the production of “green” energy but there is no such thing as green energy, especially if it is then used for heavy industry.”
The timing of the attack coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Cop15, currently ongoing in Copenhagen this week.
“It is clear from the appearance of Copenhagen that green is not the colour of nature, it is the camouflage of capitalism. Icelander’s beware – your misdeeds will not go unpunished!,” the Indymedia article concludes.
The use of hydropower and geothermal power to provide energy for aluminum smelters has been a contentious topic in Iceland for many years, starting with the Kárahnjúkur dam project in the east of the country in 2003. It remains a matter of division in the populace at large, and even within the government itself – the two ruling parties, the Social Democrats and the Leftist-Greens, take two rather opposite points of view on the matter. While Leftist-Greens do not want any further heavy industry in Iceland, nor for any existing heavy industries to expand, Social Democrats believe that some heavy industry is tolerable, and even helpful in job creation.
(Photo: Indymedia.dk)