Cheapest in the World

November 10, 2011 – I wish I had known about the Dreamland video when I was researching Iceland last year for my Sustainable Development class. This film has so many answers about Iceland’s relationship to clean energy and to the expensive, wasteful industry that the rest of the world relies on Iceland for. I have never really formed an opinion about hydroelectric power. I guess I have always thought it was a step above fossil fueled power because it does not pollute into the air, but I know that its environmental impacts on natural aquatic ecosystems are just as bad as some of the problems that coal fired power plants cause to ecosystems elsewhere. I guess that leaves hydroelectric power somewhere in the middle of the scale of quality for energy sources in my mind. 

            I was really surprised to learn from Kristín Vala that we would need 21 Earths for the whole world to live the way Iceland does, compared to 6 or 7 for the US, simply because of how much pollution comes from the aluminum smelters - the industry that hoards most of Iceland’s hydroelectric power because it is the “cheapest in the world.” For now, I think we are lucky that Iceland’s energy is so cheap because it is better that all this aluminum smelting is done using electricity that comes from a moderately clean source, as opposed to some cheap coal fired power plant in China. But that doesn’t change the fact that the aluminum production itself releases an excessive amount of sulfur and hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere that residents of Reykjavik and other areas in Iceland have recently started to get concerned about. It was a bit of a relief to hear that Andri Snaer’s book raised Icelanders’ interest in environmentalism. 

            If I lived in Iceland, this is definitely something that would motivate me to join a group and try to prevent the construction of any future dams and hydroelectric plants. Since I do not live in Iceland, it is not something I can easily get involved in, even though I have new found strong feelings against the future construction of hydroelectric plants. They not only send their energy to a terrible industry that produces essentially more waste than actual product, but they are ruining some of the world’s oldest and most amazing geographic features. I thought the photographer featured in Dreamland was incredibly brave to publicly display the images of places in Iceland that ALCOA was planning on destroying, and gaining the support of people who had no idea what was going on or what those places looked like. It is crazy to me that some of those people can make claims that it is not possible to emotionally connect to a place you have never seen in person. And that may be true, but that does not mean people should not want to protect it just because they have never actually been there. It was also crazy to me how they filmed a panorama view of a waterfall ALCOA plans on exploiting, trying to describe it as ugly and not special. I suppose they didn’t choose a cloudy gray day during the dreary winter season to film that shot on purpose? Hopefully Iceland’s environmental movement will grow and prosper to rise above ALCOA and the hydroelectric industry, and protect all of the remaining beautiful water sources and landscapes that would otherwise be destroyed. 

-Lily Alverson