Bjork's mother is continuing with her hunger strike three weeks after she began her campaign against the development of an aluminum works in the Icelandic highlands. As previously reported Hildur Runa Hauksdottir stopped eating on 7 Oct in a bid to persuade Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc to pull out of the scheme to build an aluminum smelter and hydroelectric plant in the wilderness area. Telling reporters she had lost more than 14 lbs, she had admitted she felt very tired and had difficulty remembering certain words. She said: "I'm not sure I could go on for another 40 days. But it is incredible how much support I am getting and this helps a great deal. When I first started this hunger strike, I thought I'd spend most of the time in bed. But there isn't time for that. There's too much to do. I am determined. Someone has to do something and if that has to be me, so be it. I have told Bjork that I will know when the time has come to stop. But that time has not come yet."
Environmentalists say the project will cause massive erosion and pollute rivers and deltas with glacial mud. Bjork herself criticized the scheme when it was first suggested in 1999, and in June the World Wildlife Fund urged Alcoa and the Icelandic government to think again. But Alcoa says the project offers Iceland an opportunity to diversify from traditional - and declining - industries such as fishing. More than 2,000 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent posts will be created in a region that Icelanders are forsaking for work in the capital and elsewhere. Company spokesman Wade Hughes said Alcoa, which employs 129,000 people in 38 countries, was committed to sustainable industrial development and had a good track record on conservation.