Tag archives for Iceland
Quantum Correlations: Chasing Ice Review: Prepare for “Glacier-Less National Park”
Posted by alevine on December 15, 2012 By Alaina G. Levine Like Ice? Recognize its importance to the health of the planet and the very existence of humankind? Then prepare to be horrified and generally freaked-out by a new documentary that shows in shocking detail how fast our glaciers are retreating, melting and disappearing. It’s history in the making, says James Balog,…
Posted by “There is still so much to explore and discover about our planet,” National Geographic Executive Vice President for Mission Programs, Terry Garcia, said today at the launch of National Geographic’s new Global Exploration Fund. “We are at the beginning of our greatest age of exploration.”
Hear the views of three young people with the perspective of indigenous nations — their hopes and aspirations to make a contribution to a world changing by a warming climate and the consequent economic development of the northernmost part of the planet.
In this video interview, Martin Lougheed, of the Inuit Quajisarvingat Knowledge Center, Ottawa, Canada, makes the case for blending Inuit traditional knowledge with Western science to help understand and find solutions to sweeping changes in the Arctic.
Salmon in all their varieties are a great resource for humanity. But for the Peoples of the North Pacific the iconic fish also represent a critical heritage that goes back thousands of years. Plagued by overfishing, industrial pollution, and contamination of rivers, salmon are in trouble across their ancient habitat.
In this video interview at the Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS VII), held recently in Iceland, Sven Haakanson, executive director of the Alutiiq Museum, talks about how 7,500 years of history, language, and arts are being “repatriated” to Kodiak’s indigenous people.
In this video interview at the Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS VII), held recently in Iceland, Alona Yefimenko explains her role as representative of the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat of the Arctic Council, and how Arctic indigenous peoples are participating in international forums to talk about not only their issues of concern, but also their language, culture, health, and traditional knowledge.
President of the International Arctic Sciences Association (IASSA) Joan Nymand Larsen took some time out at this week’s ICASS VII conference to talk about the importance of social sciences in the debate about the future of the Arctic.
ICASS VII, or The Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, convened some 450 delegates from 30 countries in Akureyri, Iceland.
More than 300 papers were delivered and numerous workshops discussed a wide range of topics about the physical and human changes at the top of the world.
“Instead of being a frozen barrier, the Arctic Ocean could become a new Mediterranean Sea at the top of the world,” Iceland’s Minister for the Environment, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, told hundreds of social scientists gathered this week to discuss the sweeping changes in the polar region.
Britain is a no-fly zone. “Today’s closure of UK airspace is unprecedented. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks in America, transatlantic flights were suspended and the airspace over London alone was closed. But this is the first time all flights into and out of the UK have been grounded.”–Text message from BBC correspondent Jane Peel. The…
Icelandic Saga: Puffin Quest
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 28, 2009 When last I wrote about the 2009 National Geographic Student Expedition to Iceland, we were clambering up the margin of the world’s third-largest glacier. Our next stop: Ingólfshöfthi, where Ingólfur Arnarson—the Viking who founded Reykjavik—wintered over in the year 874 (give or take a few) before heading west to settle what would become Iceland’s capital…
Full Moon Rises on Google Earth
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 20, 2009 Exactly 40 years after Neil Armstrong took his famous “one small step for man,” and less than six months after adding the ocean to its virtual planet, Google unveiled the moon in Google Earth today. Much as you could already fly to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or the Mariana Trench, perch on top…
Icelandic Saga: Crampons and Axes
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 14, 2009 Days of camping without power and Internet access interrupted the story of my trans-Icelandic journey with Nat Geo Student Expeditions. Now I’m back on the grid, and the saga continues… After a rainy night of camping at Skaftafell—newly consolidated with other territory by the Icelandic government into Vatnajökull National Park, which is Europe’s largest—the weather…
Icelandic Saga: Black Ice
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 8, 2009 We get our first real taste of ice on Iceland‘s southern coast at Solheimajökull, one of the glaciers photo-chronicled in James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey. (The last part of the name is pronounced yokel, as in “local yokel,” and means “glacier” in Icelandic.) Quick Earth science lesson—grab some coffee: Glaciers work like conveyor belts or…
Icelandic Saga: Wonder Falls
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 7, 2009 Greenland is famously buried beneath an enormous glacier, so largely white, while Iceland is largely green. That said, there’s still plenty of ice on Iceland—for the moment, at least. Vatnajökull, the world’s third-largest glacier, covers much of Iceland’s southeast quarter. Smaller (but plenty impressive) glaciers dot the rest of the island. Glaciers typically melt at…
Icelandic Saga: Hot & Cold Running Water
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 5, 2009 Hello once more from Iceland. I’m newly arrived here with Nat Geo Student Expeditions, sharing highlights of our trek. Welcome! I met up with the students I’d be traveling with for the next ten days in Reykjavik late last week, fired up and ready to roll. After a (perhaps too authentic) meal at a “Viking…
An Icelandic Summer Saga: Day One
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 2, 2009 Late-night twilight greetings from Iceland! I’m here with Nat Geo Student Expeditions and a group of (I asked what adjective to use to describe them, and they chose) extraordinary teens. We’ve come to photograph this island, to study the wild geology that put it here just south of the Arctic Circle. We’re documenting the effects…
