Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumEvery Single Glacier In Iceland Is Melting; Fishing In Trouble As Capelin Retreat To Colder Waters
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Glaciers occupy over a tenth of this famously frigid island near the Arctic Circle. Every single one is melting. So are the massive, centuries-old ice sheets of Greenland and the polar regions. Where other countries face rising seas, Iceland is confronting a rise in land in its southernmost regions, and considers the changing landscape and climate a matter of national urgency.
When Europe suffered record-breaking heat in July, Icelands capital, Reykjavik, clocked its highest temperatures ever. Icelands economy is on the cusp of a recession, partly because an important export, the capelin fish, vanished this year in search of colder waters. This week, the United Nations warned that the worlds land and water resources are being exploited at an unprecedented rate.
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That includes Vatnajökull, which once stretched over more than a tenth of Iceland and now covers 8 percent of this 40,000-square mile island. Named a Unesco World Heritage site in June, it is shrinking by a length of nearly three football fields a year in some places. In Höfn, Mr. Ingólfssons business has been thwarted by the change. While the land here has risen nearly 20 inches since the 1930s, in the last decade alone, it has floated four inches above sea level. It is forecast to rise as much as six feet in the coming century, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
That new land is preventing Mr. Ingólfsson from acquiring bigger-capacity trawlers that his competitors use. HB Grandi, a Reykjavik-based rival that is one of Icelands largest fishing companies, has invested in enormous super-trawlers that use less fossil fuel and allow for a larger catch. This year, cold water capelin cant be found. But mackerel are now swimming in the warmer currents around Iceland, and the value of the catch has risen noticeably. Such investment which also translates into smaller fleets is running through Icelands fishing industry, and fits a national strategy to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to ocean acidification and harm fish. The transformation is important and strategic: Fish account for 39 percent of Icelands exports.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/business/iceland-ice-melt-global-warming-climate-change.html
True Dough
(17,091 posts)as the water in the pot slowly starts to boil. We're not jumping, just sitting idle.