Foreign Affairs

Icelanders Hold Funeral For Extinct Glacier

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Icelandic officials and activists held a funeral Sunday for a glacier declared extinct a decade ago.

About 100 people, including activists, officials and children, hiked for two hours to perform a memorial service for Okjokull — a glacier Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson declared extinct about 10 years ago, according to The Associated Press.

Sigurðsson brought a death certificate with him for the glacier, dubbed “Ok.”

The crowd held a memorial service for the glacier marked by poems and speeches.

“This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” read a memorial plaque put on the glacier.

The glacier used to cover six miles of ground and is the first of Iceland’s glaciers to disappear, AP reported. Sigurdsson said all Iceland’s glaciers will be gone within 200 years.

“I know my grandchildren will ask me how this day was and why I didn’t do enough,” 17-year-old Gunnhildur Hallgrimsdottir said, according to AP.

“We see the consequences of the climate crisis,” said Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. “We have no time to lose.”

The prime minister added she will discuss climate change when she meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nordic leaders Tuesday.