ICELAND
wanderlust.co.uk March 2020 97Climate change
in north Iceland
Mourners gathered in Iceland in 2014
for a strange funeral: not a person’s, but
a glacier’s. The 700-year-old Okjökull
glacier in west Iceland was declared
a ‘victim’ of climate change. A memorial
plaque stated not only that it was the
irst Icelandic glacier to lose its status
as a glacier, but that “in the next 200
years, all our glaciers are expected to
follow the same path.”
Babsi Neubarth, a guide on Whale
Watching Akureyri boats believes
climate change is changing whales’
behaviours. “Not so many whales come
into the jords. If there isn’t the food,
they’ll stay further out. We see icebergs
coming into the jords now, too.”
Climate change is causing the Gulf
Stream – which brings warm, nutrient-
rich waters to north Iceland – to move,
which will impact on marine life, and on
local people’s diets and livelihoods.
“The changes in temperature are in
many ways a ecting the ecosystem,”
said Gisli Egill Hrafnsson at Brimslóð
Atelier Guesthouse. “For a ishing
nation, this could have a major impact
on the economy and the sustainability
of sparsely populated areas that
depend on ishing.”
Across north Iceland, horse experts
have claimed climate change is making
grass more ‘sugary’, so the country’s
horses are becoming fat, and scuba
divers have observed local waters
getting colder. Others have reported
warmer, longer summers, but that
generally the north is getting more rain,
more thick grey cloud cover and more
storms. Iceland’s extreme weather is
getting more extreme.
AWL