Iceland’s Ministry for the Environment recently released a report stating that greenhouse gas emissions from Iceland’s aluminium smelters has decreased by 22 percent between 1990 and 2006.
Considering that Iceland’s aluminium production increased from 90,000 tonnes to 270,000 tonnes during that time, the news is a major boon for the frequently embattled industry.
Alcan Iceland representative Gudrun Thora Magnusdottir laments that her industry is often demonised without justification on environmental issues: “we consider ourselves leading in many fields and we can be a role model for other companies,” she says.
This article makes a critical mistake confusing relative and absolute emissions.
If relative emissions decrease by 22% but production increases threefold then absolute emissions will increase by about 230%.
This is the general problem with our growth economy – technology decreases relative pollution or emissions sometimes, but then because of production growth this is negated. 19th Century industry was much filthier then modern technology but in an absolute sense we are causing much more environmental damage currently.