Iceland loses its first glacier, holds a funeral

The effects of global warming are fast showing in modern times, as Iceland just lost one of its glaciers. The glacier's funeral was recently held, and was attended by Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, alongside eminent scientists and politicians. The memorial was also marked by a copper plaque, where upon a letter to the future was written by Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason. The glacier Okjokull was located in western Iceland, atop the volcanic mountain of Ok.
Okjokull glacier was in fact pronounced dead back in 2014 by scientists, as the ice was no longer thick enough to move. Prime Minister Magnason said in an interview that the funeral is "a big symbolic moment. Climate change doesn't have a beginning or end and I think the philosophy behind this plaque is to place this warning sign to remind ourselves that historical events are happening, and we should not normalize them. We should put our feet down and say, okay, this is gone, this is significant."


Glaciologists revealed that in 2003, more snow was melting at Okjokull than it was officially needed to keep it going as a glacier. Then aerial photographs from 1978 showed that the glacier then covered an area of 15 sq km., whereas today it is less than 0.77 sq mi.
The letter to future on the copper plaque reads, "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. 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."