Climate 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 first 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 fjords. If there isn’t the food, they’ll stay further out. We see icebergs coming into the fjords now, too.”

Climate change is causing the Gulf Stream – which brings warm, nutrientrich 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 affecting the ecosystem,” said Gisli Egill Hrafnsson at Brimslóð Atelier Guesthouse. “For a fishing nation, this could have a major impact on the economy and the sustainability of sparsely populated areas that depend on fishing.”

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.