Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: Iceland Portfolio  (Read 10593 times)

howard smith

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1237
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #20 on: October 12, 2004, 12:48:11 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Bill, you present a rather well balanced agruement for both sides of the problem.

You mentioned the environmental disaster of damming Hetch Hetchy.  Maybe so.  Maybe not when you consider the reservoir provides about 85% of the water for 2.4 million people in the Bay area and has for 70 years.  Maybe the loss of a great and beautiful valley is worth the economic contribution it has and is making.  

Iceland does not yet export electrical power as far as I know.  That will depend on building a transmission line from Iceland to Europe.  Electricity is difficult to store, soif you want toutilize that resource (cheap abundant geothermal and hydro power), you have to use it on the island.  Iceland also has aluminium resources.  The two go together.  While geothermal is cheap and abundant in Iceland, geothermal power plants are noisy and smell bad, as well as require space, roads, housing, etc.

Times also change.  John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, thought a road should be built where the John Muir Trail is now located.  Soem in the Siera Club would like to see the trail closed to keep people out to save the wilderness.

The point I was trying to make is the hypocritical stance some people take about our environment and developing resources.  For example, the Sierra Club has an office in San Francisco, and benefits from the Hetch Hetchy dam, nuclear power plants on the California coast, and on and on.  They have a website to spread their message.  They drive their cars and ride busses to that office, perhaps fueled by oil from the Santa Barbara channel.  In short, theytake full advantage of the progress they attempt to halt.  They seem to want to pull up the ladder now that they are on board.  They have theirs and don't want anyone else too.

It is not an either/or situation at all, but an attempt to have the best of both.  Michael pointed out, perhapds correctly, that there are other places in the world with aluminium and electrical power.  Alcoa should go there, away from his yard, but into some else's.

Iceland is an island, but nly geographically.  If something happens to the fishing and tourism (a great war in the Middle East with an oil shortage will make fishing and tourism too expensive), what will Iceland do with all that cheap abundant renewable geothermal power, unharnessed hydro and aluminium in the ground?  Iceland will then have to work hard to become a third world country.[/font]
Logged

  • Guest
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2004, 03:16:08 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Howard,

Do some reading. Daniel's computer is powered by geothermal energy, something that Icelanders have in abundance, and which is non-polluting, renewable and environmentally friendly.

Iceland third world? Like I said, do some reading.

Michael[/font]
Logged

  • Guest
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #22 on: October 12, 2004, 03:48:38 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Iceland has no aluminum "in the ground". It is all shipped in to take advantage of the hydro resources and smelters.

Michael[/font]
Logged

howard smith

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1237
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #23 on: October 12, 2004, 05:24:58 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Yes, I forgot to add the geothermal natural resource.[/font]
Logged

gtal

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 79
    • http://www.scenicwild.com
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #24 on: October 08, 2004, 09:43:36 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Beautiful work, Bruce![/font]
Logged
Scenic Wild Photography
http://www.sc

gwarrellow

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 65
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #25 on: October 08, 2004, 01:14:39 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Thanks Bruce, I had an inspirational trip around your website.  Some really excellent portfolios presented in a classy format.

I'm envious of your past and planned locations!
Good luck and thanks again,
Graham[/font]
Logged

Daniel Bergmann

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 259
    • http://www.danielbergmann.com
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #26 on: October 11, 2004, 12:25:58 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']What a beautiful country!  ::

You have many strong images in your portfolio, and some less so. A bit too many from Jokulsarlon maybe? Lots of great waterfall images.

Iceland must be one of the best places for landscape photography left on the planet. Late arrival of the industrial revolution, the harnessing of glacial rivers to power alumnium smelters for large international (mostly American) corporations, is in fashion with the ruling government, so in a few decades this beautiful island may be ruined. The National Power company even has dreams of harnessing Dettifoss and Gullfoss, both of which you have images of in your portfolio. The wide open desolate landscape, which is so apealing to visitors, is worthless in the eyes of power thirsty politicians and greedy business people. Right now they are building a dam in the highlands (largest in Europe), which will create a reservoir of some 67 km2, submerging some of the most beautiful higland landscapes on the island (unique in the world) and ruin dozens of waterfalls. Sorry for the ramble, but this is the sad reality we are facing in today's world of overwhelming materialism. It is not a good time to be a landscape photographer over here, and have to watch some of the most spectacular landscape gems on earth being ruined. Hope you all get to visit here before it's too late. It's still an overwhelming experience, but for how long no one knows.[/font]

Jonathan Wienke

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5829
    • http://visual-vacations.com/
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #27 on: October 11, 2004, 11:10:50 am »

[font color=\'#000000\']Thank you, Howard. My thoughts exactly.[/font]
Logged

Daniel Bergmann

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 259
    • http://www.danielbergmann.com
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #28 on: October 11, 2004, 01:03:57 pm »

Quote
[font color=\'#000000\']If it's the local government selling away the resources, then it's the local voters you need to convince to do something about it.[/font]
[font color=\'#000000\']Lisa,
I am well aware of that, and that is exactly what I and many others are doing. Through photography we are documenting the beauty of the unspoilt wilderness that the government is bargaining with, and hoping to make the public aware of its existence (which they are sometimes not even aware of). Changes will only come from within, by enlightening the collective conciousness. But not all companies are as driven by profit as Alcoa. Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian company that was originally going to built the alumnium smelter, withdrew from the project because of the irreversible environmental damage – a withdrewal partly brought on by pressure from local Norwegian environmental NGO's. That's when Alcoa stepped in.[/font]

howard smith

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1237
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #29 on: October 11, 2004, 01:12:34 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']I do not see it as an either/or situation as Michael says.  The problem I see is the "not in my backyard (or playground)" position.

Daniel, I assume you live in Iceland.  I also asume you are using a computer connected o the www.  What s powering that computer and where does it come from?  Where did the computer come from and whose environment was "raped" to build it?

As nniko suggests, greedy corporations are made up of and fueled by greedy people.  Icelanders sold out Iceland.  Don't blame greedy corporations for buying it.  Daniel, perhaps at least some Icelanders would rather have a good job doing something besides driving a tour bus, serving food to, or making beds for wealthy tourists.  I could be wrong, but then I guess Alcoa woiuld have a hard time finding anyone to work in the smelter, build the dams, or operate the ower plants.  To me, it sounds like Iceland has all the electrical power you need and you don't want any more development of your backyard.

And nniko, not only are corporations motivated byprofit, I would guess the Icelander who sold his property to Alcoa did it for the money.  I live in Illinois.  I paid a lot of money for my house becaus I had to ge the land from a farmer and replace his income as a farmer.  Now I have to pay higher prices to the farmer in South Dakota for his food, because there i now a greater deand and smaller supply.  Yes, a tree or two died in Oregon to build my house, but it was willingly cut by an Oregon lumberjack who works for that greedy Georgia-Pacific.

I get very annoyed at the Hollywooders who beat their chests because they drive electric cars that so kind to our environment.  The electricity comes from a coal fired power plant in Arizona or Utah.  The coal comes from a strip mine in Montana.  Byt they are not in Hollywood's backyard.  Now Utah i coming Hollywood's playground, so we will need to move the power plants somewhere else.[/font]
Logged

howard smith

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1237
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #30 on: October 11, 2004, 03:35:53 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']OK Michael, I am wrong.  Having stood next to a geothermal powwr plant and smelled the exhaust, I wouldn't call them exactly "friendly."  Sre, some vents are natural, but the ones I visited were drilled wells to bet higher pressure steam.  There was a greater steam flow than was there before the plant arrived.  Was the turbine generator at that geothermal plant build in Iceland?  Was the iron dug out of some other country and refined somewhere else?  Was the lubricating oil drilled/refined somewhere else?  Where did the distribution system come from?  And finally the computer.

OK, Iceland is not a third world country.  Neither is it a world economic leader.  And they seem to be enjoying some of the products that "rape" the environment of other countries.[/font]
Logged

Bruce Percy

  • Guest
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #31 on: October 12, 2004, 12:42:05 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']Hi Bill,

Many thanks for the kind words about my images.

I also appreciated hearing your response regarding the environmental situation in Iceland, which I felt was very well balanced, giving a view of the issue from both sides.[/font]
Logged

KapHn8d

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3
    • http://claytonbownds.com
Iceland Portfolio
« Reply #32 on: October 16, 2004, 08:19:23 pm »

[font color=\'#000000\']beautiful photos... stunning work and a persprective of Iceland I never knew until now... thank you![/font]
Logged
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up