- Tweeter
republish
This is an unusual tribute that Iceland will make this 18th of August. The volcanic island will indeed honor its first glacier engulfed by global warming. Okjökull, it was his name, lost his status in 2014 because the ice had practically disappeared. Icelandic scientists and US researchers will unveil this Sunday afternoon a commemorative plaque on the site of the former glacier.
With our correspondent in Reykjavik, Jérémie Richard
Since 2014, Okjökull has lost its suffix "jökull" meaning "glacier" in Icelandic. The glaciologist, Oddur Sigurðsson, is at the origin of his decommissioning, a first in Iceland. " For a glacier to stay healthy, the accumulation zone formed by the settlement of the snow must represent 2/3 of its surface against 1/3 of the ablation zone linked to the melting. It was obvious that the Okjökull was not in good shape at all, "says the scientist.
The Okjökull lost in almost a century almost all the 16km2 of ice that covered it. The plaque erected in his honor will be a world first. Dominic Boyer, professor of anthropology at Rice University in the United States, is at the initiative of the project. " It's important to find ways to connect to the world we live in today and to recognize that climate change is not something to come, but has already begun, " he explains.
" This monument testifies that we know what is happening and what needs to be done, " says in its heart the text written in gold letters in Icelandic and English. Before concluding, " only you know if we did it ".
Lost glacier in Iceland to be honored with memorial monument https://t.co/m25s1z9V53 pic.twitter.com/b2jpAEwMCO
Rice University News (@RiceUNews) July 22, 2019" I think the use of the pronoun" you "is a very powerful rhetorical tool because it appeals to the reader and commits him to act, " says Cymene Howe, who is also a professor of anthropology at Rice University.
Like Ok, the new name of the old glacier, the 400 or so other icelandic glaciers could all inexorably be lost.