First glacier lost to climate crisis memorialised in Iceland
Okjökull, the Icelandic glacier that was the subject of the 2018 documentary "Not OK" has melted away, and three activists have memorialized the loss, as well as hundreds of other Icelandic glaciers that are at risk of the same fate, with a plaque titled "A Letter to the Future."
The plaque will be unveiled in an August 18 ceremony at the site where the glacier once towered over the land.
Now, to memorialize the loss of Ok and the hundreds of other Icelandic glaciers that may share Ok's fate, researchers from Iceland and the United States have created a memorial plaque to forever mark the spot where Ok once towered over the landscape.
"Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier," the plaque reads.
"In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it."
In a statement, Rice University anthropologist Cymene Howe said this is the first time a monument has been erected to mark a glacier lost to climate change.
"These bodies of ice are the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and frozen within them are histories of the atmosphere," Howe said.
"With this memorial, we want to underscore that it is up to us, the living, to collectively respond to the rapid loss of glaciers and the ongoing impacts of climate change. For Ok glacier it is already too late; it is now what scientists call 'dead ice."
Howe said scientists fear all of Iceland's 400-plus glaciers could be gone by 2200, should current trends continue.
