Musician Björk and writer Andri Snær Magnason today held a press conference at Gamla bíó cinema to protest a recent decision by the Icelandic and UK governments to establish a task force to look into the feasibility of connecting Iceland’s energy grid with that of Britain via a submarine cable, RÚV reports.
They announced their intention to use the Iceland Airwaves music festival as a platform to talk to foreign media about the issue. They spoke of plans by Icelandic environmental groups to explain the consequences of laying such a submarine cable.
Björk and Andri Snær harshly criticized the Icelandic government and asked for global support in their fight against the government’s heavy industry plans.
Björk and her group dream of having the Icelandic highlands designated as a national park to protect the wilderness. They say apathy and a lack of focus threaten Icelandic nature, which has become Icelanders’ main source of income and a major job provider.
Providing Britain with energy would require the production of much more electricity in Iceland, which, Björk says, means building more than 50 new dams in rivers and power plants.
On her video, Björk declares, “Iceland has now the largest untouched nature in Europe. This would end that.”
