A funeral for a melted glacier was cold comfort for Icelanders worried about how climate change will affect their country.
On Sunday, about 100 officials, activists and others climbed up the remnants of the Okjokull glacier for a memorial service dedicated to what once was a massive chunk of ice that stretched six square miles.
The ceremony included the unveiling of a plaque honoring the melted glacier, which is now called just “Ok,” minus the Icelandic word for glacier, according to the Associated Press.
The funeral was a long time coming: Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson predicted the glacier extinction about a decade ago.
Organizers described the plaque as “a letter to the future” that warns all glaciers could follow Okjokull to extinction within the next 200 years, according to Sky News.
The words on the plaque read, “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”
The plaque also includes the amount of carbon dioxide measured in the atmosphere last May, a record-breaking 415 ppm CO2.
The two NASA photos below, one taken in 1986 (left) and the other in August of this year (right), show how the glacier has become a mere ghost of its former self.
(Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Reuters notes that Iceland has been called the “Land of Fire and Ice” because of its combination of volcanoes and glaciers.
However, rising global temperatures are quickly changing the landscape, said Minik Rosing, a professor at the University of Copenhagen.
“There is no longer any doubt that the climate in the Arctic is changing markedly and rapidly,” Rosing said. “All of the Nordic countries comprise Arctic territories, where climate change has gone from theoretical predictions of the future to everyday reality.”
Also on HuffPost
1st Prize Winner: Fog in Germany by SkyPro
This windmill pair was shot in the early morning hours. The shallow fog had been around for days because of no wind, high humidity and cold temperatures.
2nd Prize Winner: Church of Paracatu by Alexandre Salem
The city of Paracatu was vanished by a river of mud, after a mining dam burst at Mariana, Minas Gerais. It was the biggest environmental accident in Brazil’s history.
3rd Prize winner: Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia by Yuyusera
Palangkaraya – The most polluted place on earth! This photo was taken on October 4th, 2015 when my friends and I did a campaign called “Kalteng with Love” where we gave free masks, milk and vitamin for the people in the city of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Thick smoke was hovering over where we live. The particulate meter that day showed that the air was so poluted and reached over 2000 psi. The smoke was caused by the fires in Borneo peatlands that was started from the end of July. For almost three months the people in Borneo had to breathe such toxicating air. There are lots of people who suffered from respiratory problems. Schools off. Flights could not operate. Economic system became paralyzed. Borneo is known as the lungs of the world and the fifth largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, and these fires are not helping. We were even labelled as the most polluted place on earth. Through this photo, I would like to raise the world’s awareness that this matter is a huge problem for all of us. This challenge is addressed not only to people in Borneo and Indonesia, but also to the entire world. Could you imagine if all of the forests in Borneo disappear and there is limitied source of oxygen left for over 7 billion people?
4th Prize Winner: Wind Power near Berlin by King-Fisher
Wind power from approx. 120m height.
5th Prize Winner: Energy Active Office Building, Genk, Belgium by Drone-Partner
Energy ACTIVE office building, about 1100m² floorspace : produce yearly more energy then it consumes ( better then passive house results !). Heating & cooling by deep geothermal heatpump with electric compensation of full integrated PV-solarpanels (BIPV) in 45°-roof. Owner : www.stebo.be Building designed by www.burob.be & www.geertdebruyn.be , construction : www.i3.be BIPV solar roof : http://solar.golden-glass.com/c465.html Drone : Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K
6th Prize Winner: Holbury, New Forest, UK by Mark Baker
Taken in between two banks of fog in a 2 minute window. Showing the tanks and stacks of Fawley Refinery.
7th Prize Winner: Tiny island in the lake of Galvė by Karolis Janulis
The tiny island in the lake of Galvė looks like a continent and shows us how small our world really is. One tree cut on this island, one nest pulled apart or another kind of intervention will change it beyond our recognition. It is up to us all to make our planet clean and green
8th Prize Winner: High Tide in La Jolla, California by Kevin Dilliard
This is a picture of the king high tide crashing against this restaurant on the sand in la jolla shores. the king tide was at the peak in this photo at +7feet . is this a result of higher tides due to global warning.Today many coastal communities are seeing more frequent flooding during high tides. As sea level rises higher over the next 15 to 30 years, tidal flooding is expected to occur more often, cause more disruption, and even render some areas unusable .
9th Prize Winner: Dhaka, Bangladesh by Zayedh
A playing field I grew up playing football on… It\’s now acquired by the real estate company and they are killed the green of the field, trees providing shadow and building the grey houses on it. It\’s a typical depiction of the impact of growing real estate companies in Bangladesh.
10th Prize Winner: Paracatu Cemiterio by Alexandre Salem
After a mining dam bursts, it took almost 3 hours for the mud to reach Paracatu. Fortunately, it gave time for people to abandon their houses and run. The cemitery of Paracatu stays on a small hill, and it was there where many people rushed to protect themselves. And it was from there, that they saw their city being destroyed. There were no fatal victims in the city but the city itself.
Finance expert Suze Orman has voiced concerns about the impact of climate change on property insurance costs, asserting it could threaten the American dream of homeownership. Orman, 72, faced a $28,000 annual insurance quote for her Florida oceanside condo, leading her to forego coverage entirely. She highlights a troubling trend where soaring insurance costs driven by frequent and severe weather events may deter Americans from buying homes. Don't Miss: For many first-time buyers, a house is abo
Six teams managing nearly $15 billion in total assets quit JPMorgan Chase’s brokerage unit to join competitors last Friday. Here’s what may have triggered their departures.
A Russian court has ordered the seizure of funds in JPMorgan Chase bank accounts in Russia, court filings showed on Wednesday, in a lawsuit filed by state-owned bank VTB as it seeks to regain funds blocked abroad. JP Morgan Chase last week sued VTB in New York to halt its efforts to recover $439.5 million from an account that was blocked after Russia despatched its army to Ukraine in 2022 and VTB was hit with sanctions.
After Congress approved billions of extra funding for tax compliance, the Internal Revenue Service pledged it would get tougher on rich taxpayers and corporations while avoiding extra scrutiny of middle-class households.
