Iceland Be Dammed : IN THE ISLAND NATION, A DISPUTE OVER HARNESSING RIVERS FOR HYDROELECTRIC POWER IS GENERATING FLOODS OF CONTROVERSY.(Brief Article)

Publication: Smithsonian

Publication Date: 01-JUN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Smithsonian Institution

"Beginning with this footstep, we would find ourselves underwater," says wildlife biologist Skarphedinn Thorisson as he starts walking down the slope of a wide, bowl-shaped valley. It lies just beyond the northeasternmost reaches of Iceland's vast, volcano-studded Vatnajokull glacier. He crosses an invisible line into imperiled terrain: a proposed hydroelectric dam project would inundate 22 square miles of rugged landscape, a place scored by a glacial ice-melt river, the Jokulsa a Bru, and ice-melt streams. As Thorisson heads deeper down the steep incline layered in black, gravel-strewn soil, he adds: "What is at risk here is Western Europe's largest highland wilderness."

The plan is as complex as it...

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