Coinciding with the highly effective and symbolic monument to the ravages of unchecked local weather change, the ceremony on 17 August additionally noticed the publication of The World Glacier Casualty listing of 15 extinct and endangered glaciers by Rice College in Texas – a driving pressure behind the entire mission.
In keeping with scientists, international warming has led to the disappearance of 1000’s of glaciers all over the world for the reason that 12 months 2000. It’s anticipated that at the least half of those glaciers can be misplaced by 2100.
Researchers from Rice College in Houston, the Icelandic Met Workplace, geologists, glaciologists and Authorities leaders attended the ceremony forward of what would be the International Year of Glaciers´ Preservation, in 2025.
UNESCO, the UN Academic, Scientific and Cultural Group and UN climate company WMO, have been among the many many co-organizers of the occasion in Iceland.
Headstones, a ‘poignant reminder’
The glacier graveyard is made up of 15 headstones carved from ice by Icelandic ice sculptor Ottó Magnússon.
“We’ve by no means wanted a graveyard for glaciers earlier than,” Rice College´s Cymene Howe mentioned. “Now we do. And whereas these headstones will soften away – like their glacial counterparts – we hope the ceremony and icy gravestones function poignant reminders that the world’s glaciers are doomed to the identical destiny with out fast motion.”
The headstones have been positioned in a subject subsequent to the ocean within the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, adjoining to Reykjavík, with a splendid view of the Snæfellsjökull glacier throughout the Faxaflói-bay.
The Snæfellsjökull glacier is well-known to college students of world literature as the doorway and embarkation level for the protagonists in Jules Verne´s basic science fiction novel, Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Though the Snæfellsjökull glacier has misplaced greater than half of its dimension for the reason that finish of the nineteenth century, there are various glaciers which might be worse off.
Among the many largest casualties listed as “disappeared”, are the Pizol Glacier, Switzerland (2019), the Sarenne Glacier, France (2023), the Anderson Glacier, USA (2015) and the Martial Sur Glacier, Argentina (2018).
Extra will observe
5 years in the past, the untimely loss of life of the Okay glacier in Iceland was commemorated in a ceremony attended by then Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir and former President of Eire Mary Robinson.
“Since that glacier has its plaque and fame we opted for an additional Icelandic glacier for the primary entry to the listing,” one of many organisers, Hrafnhildur Hannesdóttir glaciologist on the Icelandic Met Workplace, informed the UN Regional Data Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC).
“It’s doubtless that many others will observe, since there are not any indications that emissions of CO2 are diminishing.”
Iceland has already misplaced 70 of its 400 glaciers. A few of them, like the following candidate for extinction, Hofsjökull East, are certainly very small. “It’s comparatively low mendacity and flat and won’t survive for lengthy,” mentioned Ms. Hannesdóttir.
Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon in southeastern Iceland.
Sea degree set to rise
If all of Iceland’s glaciers disappear, the meltwater would create a one centimetre rise within the international sea degree – virtually as a lot as all of the glaciers within the Himalayas, based on Icelandic glaciologist Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson, in an interview with UNRIC.
The glaciers within the Himalayas cowl round 40,000 sq. kilometres. Nevertheless, Vatnajökull, which is Iceland´s – and certainly Europe’s – largest glacier south of the Arctic Circle, alone covers 7,700 km2.
For varied causes “the massive one” as it’s identified, is predicted to outlive for maybe three extra centuries.
Iceland’s second largest glacier, Langjökull is, alternatively, in larger peril, not least as a result of it’s far more low-lying. Scientists predict that solely 10 to twenty per cent of its mass will stay by 2100.
Water Tower of Asia
The melting of glaciers within the Himalayas attracts far more consideration than the destiny of these in Iceland, for comprehensible causes.
The glacierized mountains of the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya area have been known as the “Water Tower of Asia” for the reason that feed a number of the Earth´s most essential rivers such because the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Yangtze – all of which originate there in what’s a comparatively small space.
They’re thought-about “a lifeline for a whole lot of tens of millions, if not billions of individuals” within the phrases of Mr. Thorsteinsson. They’ve already misplaced 40 per cent of their quantity for the reason that finish of the nineteenth century.
It’s predicted that 75 per cent can be misplaced by the top of this century.
“However their melting doesn’t imply that 2-3 billion individuals in China and India will die of thirst. The Ganges as an illustration has its origins in a small glacier, the Gangotri. Rain and snow will proceed to fall and groundwater and the monsoon feed into all of those nice rivers,” he informed UNRIC.
His colleague Hrafnhildur Hannesdóttir factors out that the melting has precipitated elevated threat of floods and mudslides, with a frequent and excessive loss of life toll.
“One has to take a look at the massive image, not give attention to just one factor at a time, and we must always not neglect the ocean degree rise which is able to influence much more individuals.”
A mountain glacier that’s shrinking because of rising temperatures and fewer snowfall on the Kargil District, India.
Essential to humanity’s story
There’s additionally an essential cultural dimension: “These are all glaciers wrapped up in our lives,” Rice College´s Dominic Boyer mentioned.
“They belong to the time that we’ve got collectively, not summary future losses, however actual losses you can really feel and can really feel with all your senses.”
Certainly, the glaciers are additionally part of Iceland’s id. The nationwide flag encompasses a pink cross outlined in white with a blue physique.
The cross stands after all for Christianity, the pink for the fireplace of the volcanos, the blue for the sky and the ocean, and the white for ice and snow.
The silver lining is that the white may not disappear – even when the glaciers do.
The magnificent Snæfellsjökull might lose its standing as a glacier, however its white cap may stay. “As a matter of truth, the glacier ice on the mountain is comparatively skinny and its color is greyish and never very fairly,” explains Thorsteinsson.
“But it surely is not going to cease snowing, and certainly it’s the snow cap that we most admire from afar and all photographers love.”
Worldwide 12 months
The UN Normal Meeting has declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and proclaimed 21 March of every 12 months the World Day for Glaciers.
