Today we went to a few places including the Skógafoss waterfall, the Skógar folk museum, and the Sólheimajökull glacier. My favorite site of the day was the Sólheimajökull glacier. I have never seen a glacier before and it was truly an amazing sight to see. Seeing it with my own eyes made me realize more how detrimental global warming really is because as we began our hike we were informed that a mere 30 years ago the glacier came all the way up to that point and we couldn’t even see it yet. During our hike we walked beside a lake that was formed by all of the water that had melted off from the glacier within the past 30 years. This is unfortunately happening to glaciers everywhere due to global warming.
The melting of glaciers in Iceland has many negative consequences on the ecosystem and the people living in the country. This glacial melt could mean massive flooding in certain areas which would unfortunately totally destroy anything in its path. This would severely affect everyone living in these areas and cause people to lose everything. The glaciers also help support some slopes which means that if enough of them melt the land will become destabilized and potentially cause landslides and mudslides. Glaciers are also a huge part of the tourism industry with people traveling from all over the world for the opportunity to traverse a glacier. Every year as more of them melt these glacier hikes become harder and harder to do.
There have been a few methods proposed and tried to stop the glaciers from melting too fast like using insulating blankets to slow the melt and by producing more snow using snow machines. These methods work to an extent but the only real solution to this problem is by funding global warming initiatives all around the world. We as a society need to stop producing so much waste and carbon emissions to have any chance at saving these beautiful glaciers.
Swanson School of Engineering 