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Iceland Holds Funeral for 700-Year-Old Glacier Killed by Climate Change

posted by martyb on Monday August 19 2019, @06:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the Ok-is-not-okay dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Sunday a funeral was held in Iceland to commemorate Okjokull, what was once a vast glacier, reports the Associated Press. It was estimated to span 15 square miles (38 square kilometers) in 1901. It now takes up less than half a square mile (under 1 square kilometer), according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson presented to the audience, which included Iceland's Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and around 100 others, a death certificate for Okjokull. In a symbolic move, a plaque was planted with a message to future generations. It 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." 

The funeral is actually a few years late, as Okjokull lost its glacier status in 2014. Since jokull is Icelandic for volcano, the former glacier now just goes by Ok -- named after the volcano it rested atop.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 20 2019, @10:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 20 2019, @10:01PM (#882815)

    Herpy derpy doooooo

    Gee, if only scientists knew about such things!

    The total solar irradiance (TSI) is the amount of solar radiative energy incident on the Earth's upper atmosphere. TSI variations were undetectable until satellite observations began in late 1978. A series of radiometers were launched on satellites from the 1970s to the 2000s.[51] TSI measurements varied from 1360 to 1370 W/m2 across ten satellites. One of the satellites, the ACRIMSAT was launched by the ACRIM group. The controversial 1989–1991 "ACRIM gap" between non-overlapping ACRIM satellites was interpolated by the ACRIM group into a composite showing +0.037%/decade rise. Another series based on the ACRIM data is produced by the PMOD group and shows a −0.008%/decade downward trend.[52] This 0.045%/decade difference impacts climate models.

    Note the last sentence. Also, the difference in solar energy between the minima and maxima is quite small, and again, the models account for the change in TSI.

    Time for you idiots to stop playing "gotcha" with shit you don't even understand. There is a reason experts tend to have that PhD in front of their names.