Why did Iceland hold a funeral for a glacier?
A despatch from one of the frontlines of climate change.
Last week around a hundred people in Iceland walked up the side of a windswept rocky mountain to attend the funeral… of a glacier. Okjokull’s death was a result of climate change, and scientists predict that within 200 years all of Iceland’s glaciers will go the same way.
So, what does the death of Okjokull mean for a country whose national identity is woven into its frozen landscape? And, why is ice melting in the subarctic a warning to the rest of the world?
We speak to the author Andri Snaer Magnusson about how you write a eulogy to a glacier, and what Okjokull’s death means to Iceland and its future. We also talk to climate scientist Ruth Mottram from the Danish Meteorological Institute about the science behind melting ice sheets and why the death of Ok should matter to us all.
Producers: Alicia Burrell and Jessica Beck
Mixed by Andy Mills
Editor: John Shields
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