Iceland's Okjokull Glacier Issued With 'Death Certificate' To Sound Climate Change Warning

ABC News - AP

A photo taken in 1986 (left) and 2019 (right) shows the shrinking of the Okjokull glacier in Iceland. (NASA via AP)

Key points After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier The plaque, which notes the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, warns "we know what is happening and what needs to be done" Iceland's PM says climate change will be a priority when Nordic leaders meet in Reykjavik on Tuesday

With poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change, Icelandic officials, activists and others bade goodbye to what once was a glacier.
Okjokull glacier was pronounced extinct about a decade ago by Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurdsson.
On Sunday, Dr Sigurdsson brought a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial.
About 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, where children installed a plaque to commemorate the glacier, now called just "Ok", minus the "jokull" — Icelandic for glacier.
The glacier used to stretch 15 square kilometres, Dr Sigurdsson said.
Residents reminisced about drinking pure water thousands of years old from Ok.

Icelandic officials and activists farewell the glacier. (ABC News)

"The symbolic death of a glacier is a warning to us, and we need action," said former Irish president Mary Robinson, who attended the plaque ceremony alongside Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir.
Dr Sigurdsson sounded a further warning, saying all of the nation's ice masses would be gone in 200 years.

"We see the consequences of the climate crisis," Ms Jakobsdottir said. 

Icelandic officials and activists bade goodbye to the glacier, which was declared extinct a decade ago. (AP: Felipe Dana)

"We have no time to lose."
Ms Jakobsdottir said she would make climate change a priority when Nordic leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Reykjavik on Tuesday.

About 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano to hold the funeral. (AP: Felipe Dana)

"I know my grandchildren will ask me how this day was and why I didn't do enough," said Gunnhildur Hallgrimsdottir, 17.

The plaque, which notes the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, also bears a message to the future: "This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it."

A man stops on his way to the top of what once was the Okjokull glacier in Iceland. (AP: Felipe Dana)

Links

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• Video: Iceland unveils memorial to glacier in climate change warning
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