In 2014, the Icelandic Okjökull glacier was officially declared dead after 700 years of existence, as global warming led to its disappearance. A first. On Sunday 18 August, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in her honor at an official ceremony in the presence of Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson.
The origin of this initiative is a team of professors from Rice University in Houston, United States. "This idea was born out of a project led by my colleague Cymene Howe, which was analyzing the reaction of Icelanders to the gradual loss of their glaciers," explains France 24 Dominic Boyer, director of the Center for Energy and Energy. environmental research in human sciences at Rice University, involved in the project. "During this research, we came across the little publicized case of Ok [the name of the volcano on top of which was the glacier, Ed], and we started making a documentary about it. from the movie " Not Ok" [released in August 2018, Ed] that we chose to offer him the very first commemorative plaque in history. "
On the plate in question, one can read in Icelandic and in English the following message: "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its glacier status.In the next 200 years, all our glaciers should follow the same path. the proof that we know what is happening, and what needs to be done.You alone know if this has been achieved. "
"Our children can judge us for what we did"
A short but unequivocal message, which "means that the time for the debate on global warming is over, and that we can no longer claim an additional delay," adds Dominic Boyer. By being dated and signed, the plaque "somehow puts an end to intergenerational responsibility.Our children and grandchildren can judge us for what we did, or rather what we did not do . " At the bottom of the plate, a last inscription: 415 ppm CO2. That is the record level of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere in May 2019.
In a long column published in The Guardian, the Icelandic writer Andi Snær Magnasondétaille plots the process of writing the plaque. "How to write the obituary of a symbol of eternity? How to say goodbye?", He wonders. The one whose grandparents dedicated their lives to glacier mapping has been commissioned by Rice University to be the author of these last words. "We must remember that this is not normal, that it is not 'OK' to write the memorial of a glacier called 'Ok'."
A layer of ice too thin to survive
What are the criteria that caused Okjokull to lose its glacier status? Oddur Sigurdsson, the Icelandic glaciologist who declared him dead in 2014, told the BBC: "When enough ice accumulates, the pressure forces the total mass to be in motion. 50 centimeters for this pressure point to be reached. " In Ok's case, "the ice was not moving, it was too thin to stay 'alive." This is called dead ice. "
"Even though Ok is not the biggest or most famous glacier, it's a very serious warning about what's coming," said Dominic Boyer. "In addition to being an ecological disaster, it's a huge loss of cultural heritage for the country." And the Icelandic glacier is far from an isolated case: according to a study published last April by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, half of the World Heritage sites could be devoid of their glaciers by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not diminishing by then.