Look to Iceland for "Rude Truth" About Climate Crisis

The site of the former Okjökull glacier, photographed in 2018. Photo by Ragnar Antoniussen.

The memorial for the former glacier Okjökull. Words by Andri Snær Magnason. Photo by Grétar Thorvaldsson/Málmsteypan Hella.

July 22, 2109 Jon Henley in The Guardian quoted Iceland's memorial "unveiled in August" to Okjökull, "the first of Iceland's 400 glaciers to be lost to the climate crisis." The memorial notes "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. Agu´st 2019, 415 ppm CO₂” Photos above were used with permission.

Here is a film trailer about the lost glacier. According to Jon Henley in the article above, "the film was made by former mayor of Reykjavik Jón Gnarr" and researchers Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer of Rice University in Houston, Texas. In a related climate matter, I recall Houston was the target of Hurricane Harvey. To be clear, scientists stated climate change does not currently cause hurricanes to form, but it can make them more damaging in three ways: 1) sea-level rise means higher storm surges are possible; 2) increased moisture produces higher floods; and 3) storm intensity increases from added heat energy. It all adds up to say humans knowingly melting glaciers, which is what governments are doing, is a bad idea.

August 18, 2019 Harmeet Kaur at cnn.com also wrote about the lost glacier, and why exactly it's a problem.

Regarding words on the memorial, Iceland showed similar courage in 2010 when it refused to bail out banks on unreasonable terms, and in 2018 when it guaranteed equal pay for women by law for companies with 25 employees or more. I reported on the bank issue as a "Friends of William Stafford Scholar" at a 2014 FOR Seabeck Conference. I wrote "A favorite part of the conference for me was a song Iceland, 2008, by David Rovics.  Regarding background of the song, March 6, 2010, Sarah Lyall of the New York Times reported "With all but 2,500 of the 143,784 votes counted, the authorities said, 93 percent voted 'no' [on the Icesave 'Repayment Plan'] and 1.8 percent voted 'yes' in the first public referendum ever held on any subject in Iceland. [ . . . .] The vote shows the depth of Icelanders’ rage." I added "The news story quoted Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson who reportedly said on Bloomberg Television, 'Ordinary people, farmers and fishermen, taxpayers, doctors, nurses, teachers, are being asked to shoulder through their taxes a burden that was created by irresponsible greedy bankers.'  Sound familiar?"

Emerson wrote "speak the rude truth in all ways" in his essay "Self-reliance" (1840), and Iceland seems to do this much better than most countries. On this blog I try to follow the same advice. Thank you to readers in 90 countries listed on the right.