Fifteen tombstones carved into the ice have been erected in Iceland to warn of their disappearance due to climate change and rising temperatures.
Iceland, literally “land of ice”, held a burial in tribute to the vanished glaciers. This special ceremony was orchestrated by geologists, glaciologists, meteorologists as well as local and foreign officials.
On August 17, ice sculptures were erected in a field near the sea, with a splendid view of the Snæfellsjökull glacier, not far from the capital Reykjavik, in tribute to 15 victims of global warming.
Fifteen tombstones
While climate change has already caused thousands of glaciers to disappear around the world since 2000, according to the United Nations, the names of 15 of them have been engraved on tombstones carved into the ice by Icelandic sculptor Ottó Magnússon.
Among them, we find, for example, the Pizol glacier in Switzerland (2019), Anderson in the United States (2015) and Martial Sur in Argentina (2018) and even a French one, the Sarenne glacier in Isère, which officially disappeared in 2023.
The ceremony was attended by researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas, the Icelandic Met Office, geologists and glaciologists, as well as government officials, UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
“International momentum”
Among the participants, Benoît Chanas, a geographer from Isère, who travelled to Iceland for the occasion. You have to imagine that there were 15 steles of different shapes, on the surface of a tennis court. Blocks of ice that obviously melted during the night,” he told France Bleu Isère.
“I saw the stele gradually cracking with the drops inside trembling, it was moving,” he added.
Being present at this ceremony “is to share this international momentum and to tell ourselves that we are not alone in our corner, and that we are all capable of mobilizing on the local and international level”, declared Benoît Chanas.
The “Ice Country” has less and less ice
“And while these headstones will melt – like their glacial counterparts – we hope the ceremony and the icy headstones will serve as poignant reminders that the world’s glaciers are doomed to the same fate unless we act quickly,” said Cymene Howe of Rice University, in remarks reported by the UN.
Iceland has already lost 70 of its 400 glaciers. Snæfellsjökull, where this ephemeral cemetery was built, has lost more than half its size since the end of the 19th century. This glacier is well known to literature students, as it is the entrance to the center of the earth in Jules Verne’s novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”
According to Icelandic glaciologist Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson, if all Icelandic glaciers disappeared, the meltwater would contribute to a one centimeter rise in global sea levels, almost as much as all the glaciers in the Himalayas.
Iceland’s second largest glacier, Langjökull, is under serious threat: only 10% to 20% of it will remain by 2100.
“There is no indication that CO2 emissions are decreasing”
According to scientists, global warming has already caused thousands of glaciers to disappear around the world since 2000. At least half of them will have melted by 2100.
“It is likely that many more will follow, as there is no evidence that CO2 emissions are decreasing,” said Hrafnhildur Hannesdóttir, a glaciologist at the Icelandic Met Office, on the sidelines of the ceremony.
The aim of this burial is to sound the alarm, in prelude to the International Year of Glacier Conservation which has been designated for 2025.
