Pitchfork

Björk has continued her fight to protect Iceland's fragile environment (while helping to uplift the country's struggling economy) with an editorial in yesterday's London Times. (Via The Daily Swarm.) In the piece, titled "After financial meltdown, now it's smeltdown", she touches on many of the points discussed in her recent Pitchfork interview, focusing on the importance of halting the construction of more aluminum factories in the Icelandic wilderness.

"Usually I don't notice politics," Björk writes. I live happily in the land of music-making. But I got caught up in it because politicians seem bent on ruining Iceland's natural environment." As the country's economic crisis continues, many people in power are attempting to get these factories built quickly, without any precautions taken to prevent pollution. They see the aluminum industry as the key to getting Iceland out of debt.

Björk disagrees:

"Iceland is a small country. We missed out on an industrial revolution and my hope was that we would skip it completely and go straight to sustainable hi-tech options. If anyone could achieve this, we could. There is a wonderful characteristic in the Icelandic mentality - fearlessness, with an addiction to risk-taking to the point of being foolhardy. In music-making, storytelling and creative thought, this risk-taking is a great thing. And after my introduction to a lot of Iceland's small, growing companies, I realise how many of them have shown this fearless approach either in biotechnology or high technology."

Through her work with the Náttúra Campaign, Björk is helping to nurture those startup Icelandic companies. As previously reported, proceeds from the sales of "Náttúra", Björk's new digital single featuring Thom Yorke, go to the Náttúra Campaign.