Icelands glaciers are retreating so rapidly that future generations may wonder how the ancient island nation got its name.
No surprise then that the land of the Vikings was chosen to house the worlds first global glacier graveyard which was unveiled at a ceremony last month, close to the capital Reykjavik.
Coinciding with the powerful and symbolic monument to the ravages of unchecked climate change, the ceremony on 17 August also saw the publication of The Global Glacier Casualty list of 15 extinct and endangered glaciers by Rice University in Texas a driving force behind the whole project.
According to scientists, global warming has led to the disappearance of thousands of glaciers around the world since the year 2000. It is expected that at least half of these glaciers will be lost by 2100.
Researchers from Rice University in Houston, the Icelandic Met Office, geologists, glaciologists and Government leaders attended the ceremony ahead of what will be the International Year of Glaciers Preservation, in 2025.
UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and UN weather agency WMO, were among the many co-organizers of the event in Iceland.
Headstones, a poignant reminder
The glacier graveyard is made up of 15 headstones carved from ice by Icelandic ice sculptor Ott Magnsson.
We have never needed a graveyard for glaciers before, Rice Universitys Cymene Howe said. Now we do. And while these headstones will melt away like their glacial counterparts we hope the ceremony and icy gravestones serve as poignant reminders that the worlds glaciers are doomed to the same fate without quick action.
The headstones were placed in a field next to the sea in the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, adjacent to Reykjavk, with a splendid view of the Snfellsjkull glacier across the Faxafli-bay.
The Snfellsjkull glacier is well-known to students of world literature as the entrance and embarkation point for the protagonists in Jules Vernes classic science fiction novel, Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Although the Snfellsjkull glacier has lost more than half of its size since the end of the 19th century, there are many glaciers that are worse off.
Among the biggest 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).
More will follow
Five years ago, the premature death of the Ok glacier in Iceland was commemorated in a ceremony attended by then Prime Minister of Iceland Katrn Jakobsdttir and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.
Since that glacier has its plaque and fame we opted for another Icelandic glacier for the first entry to the list, one of the organisers, Hrafnhildur Hannesdttir glaciologist at the Icelandic Met Office, told the UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC).
It is likely that many others will follow, since there are no indications that emissions of CO2 are diminishing.
Iceland has already lost 70 of its 400 glaciers. Some of them, like the next candidate for extinction, Hofsjkull East, are indeed very small. It is relatively low lying and flat and will not survive for long, said Hannesdttir.
Sea level set to rise
If all of Icelands glaciers disappear, the meltwater would create a one centimetre rise in the global sea level – almost as much as all the glaciers in the Himalayas, according to Icelandic glaciologist Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson, in an interview with UNRIC.
The glaciers in the Himalayas cover around 40,000 square kilometres. However, Vatnajkull, which is Icelands and indeed Europes largest glacier south of the Arctic Circle, alone covers 7,700 km2.
For various reasons the big one as it is known, is expected to survive for perhaps three more centuries.
Icelands second largest glacier, Langjkull is, on the other hand, in greater peril, not least because it is much more low-lying. Scientists predict that only 10 to 20 per cent of its mass will remain by 2100.
Water Tower of Asia
The melting of glaciers in the Himalayas attracts much more attention than the fate of those in Iceland, for understandable reasons.
The glacierized mountains of the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya region have been called the Water Tower of Asia since the feed some of the Earths most important rivers such as the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Yangtze all of which originate there in what is a relatively small area.
They are considered a lifeline for hundreds of millions, if not billions of people in the words of Thorsteinsson. They have already lost 40 per cent of their volume since the end of the 19th century.
It is predicted that 75 per cent will be lost by the end of this century.
But their melting does not mean that 2-3 billion people in China and India will die of thirst. The Ganges for instance has its origins in a small glacier, the Gangotri. Rain and snow will continue to fall and groundwater and the monsoon feed into all of these great rivers, he told UNRIC.
His colleague Hrafnhildur Hannesdttir points out that the melting has caused increased risk of floods and mudslides, with a frequent and high death toll.
One has to look at the big picture, not focus on only one thing at a time, and we should not forget the sea level rise which will impact even more people.
Crucial to humanitys story
There is also an important cultural dimension: These are all glaciers wrapped up in our lives, Rice Universitys Dominic Boyer said.
They belong to the time that we have together, not abstract future losses, but real losses that you can feel and will feel with all of your senses.
Indeed, the glaciers are also a part of Icelands identity. The national flag features a red cross outlined in white with a blue body.
The cross stands of course for Christianity, the red for the fire of the volcanos, the blue for the sky and the sea, and the white for ice and snow.
The silver lining is that the white might not disappear – even if the glaciers do.
The magnificent Snfellsjkull may lose its status as a glacier, but its white cap might remain. As a matter of fact, the glacier ice on the mountain is relatively thin and its colour is greyish and not very pretty, explains Thorsteinsson.
But it will not stop snowing, and indeed it is the snow cap that we most admire from afar and all photographers love.
International year
The UN General Assembly has declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers Preservation and proclaimed 21 March of each year the World Day for Glaciers.
