https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/opinion/iceland-glacier-climate-change.html
[links in online article]
Opinion
Iceland’s Prime Minister: ‘The Ice Is Leaving’
Climate change is melting glaciers worldwide. Only we can stop it.
By Katrin Jakobsdottir
Ms. Jakobsdottir is the prime minister of Iceland.
Aug. 17, 2019
Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland’s sixth-largest glacier, gained worldwide
recognition when the volcano lurking under it erupted in 2010. Large
levels of volcanic ash caused air travel disruptions in Europe, and news
reporters across the world struggled with the difficult pronunciation of
Eyjafjallajokull, much to the amusement of us native speakers. A
less-known and less-tongue-twisting glacier is Ok, which is on a
mountaintop in Western Iceland.
But Ok is no longer a glacier.
The ice field that covered the mountain in 1900 — close to six square
miles — has now been replaced by a crater lake. It is certainly
beautiful, surrounded by patchy snowfields, and is now the highest lake
in Iceland. But that beauty quickly fades in the eyes of anyone who
knows what was there before and why it is no longer there. Ok’s
disappearance is yet another testimony of irreversible global climate
change.
On Aug. 18, I will join a group of artists and scientists — along with
the former president of Ireland and climate activist Mary Robinson — on
a trip to bid farewell to Ok. This trip will include the installation of
a memorial shield that reads:
“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.”
This is a local ceremony but a global story.
Glaciers cover 11 percent of Iceland and might be seen as visual
thermometers. They have grown and contracted throughout recorded
history, most likely reaching their maximum size around 1890, but since
then they have gradually retreated, with only short periods of
reversals. The process has been particularly fast in the past 20 years.
In just a few decades, Iceland may no longer be characterized by the
iconic Snaefellsjokull, famously known as the entrance to Earth in Jules
Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” In short: The ice is
leaving Iceland.
But if new beauty replaces the old, does the disappearance of these
glaciers matter to anyone other than ice-loving Icelanders and visitors?
An ice-free Iceland is not an isolated phenomenon. Glaciers are melting
all across the world, contributing enormously to rising sea levels.
Himalayan glaciers help regulate the water supply of a quarter of
humankind. Natural systems will be disrupted. The great thaw will also
unfreeze vast areas of permafrost, releasing methane, a potent
greenhouse gas. The melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica
will, in the long term, result in dozens of feet of sea-level rise.
Scientists cannot pinpoint at what level the melting of Greenland or the
West Antarctica ice sheets becomes irreversible.
From Florida to Bangladesh, Shanghai to London, communities and
livelihoods are already under threat. Even if emissions magically came
to an end today, tropical glaciers — found in places such as the Andes
Mountains and in East Africa — may not be saved. Mid-latitude glaciers
may survive 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warming but not 3.6 degrees. Most of
the earth’s nearly 200,000 glaciers will belong to history books, just
like Ok, unless we do something about it and we do it now.
We have a good chance of averting a catastrophe if we keep warming
within a 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit limit. Our chances diminish
significantly with 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit of warming. We should heed the
warnings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will
publish a new report next month. We must strengthen our resolve to cut
emissions, so as to move away from dangerous tipping points.
As the prime minister of Iceland, I am determined that my government
will play its part. We are currently executing Iceland’s first fully
funded action plan, aiming at carbon neutrality by 2040 at the latest.
Iceland has decarbonized energy production, and we are working toward
greener transport, including by proposing a ban on the registration of
cars powered by nonrenewables after 2030.
As a part of our strong commitment to the international collaboration
needed to fight climate change, we have used our position within the
Arctic Council to form proposals on ways to counter the rapid changes in
the Arctic.
In all our actions against climate change, we need to fight for climate
justice. Human rights, social justice and gender equality are all
intrinsically connected to the fight because climate change affects the
poor more than the rich, the underprivileged more than the privileged,
and women differently than men. We have called for the integration of
gender concerns in global environmental policies, including the workings
of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Women’s
roles as primary caregivers and providers of food and fuel render them
more vulnerable to flooding and drought and other consequences of
climate change.
On Sunday, we pay tribute to Ok. At the same time, we join hands to
prevent future farewells to all the world’s glaciers. Large and small
nations, businesses and governments, individuals and communities, we
must all play our part. We know what is happening and what needs to be
done. Help us keep the ice in Iceland.
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