The Icelandic forestry service is encouraging people to hug trees while social distancing measures prevent them from hugging other people.
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The Icelandic language was…
The Icelandic language was kept isolated for so long that modern speakers can still read and understand texts written in Old Norse, the language of the original viking settlers from Scandinavia that settled the Island over 1000 years ago.
Jolabokaflod is a Christmas Eve…
Jolabokaflod is a Christmas Eve tradition in Iceland where friends and family get together to exchange books and then they all read them together while eating chocolate and drinking cocoa.
In Iceland, there is an elf…
In Iceland, there is an elf whisperer who inspects construction sites before building to ensure no elves are hanging around.
Take a Look at Iceland’s First Dead Glacier Captured in Satellite Images
This is scary and sad at the same time.
The Okjökull glacier was dead, declared Oddur Sigurðsson, a geologist in the Icelandic Meteorological Office back in 2014.
By then, the glacier had mostly disappeared.
Fast forward five years and Sigurðsson and other scientists are hiking to the old summit to place a plaque commemorating it upon the volcano it once dominated. It is officially the first glacier lost to climate change.
These dramatic satellite images show the tragic change of the glacier between 1986 and 2019.
On August 18, 2019, scientists will be among those who gather for a memorial atop Ok volcano in west-central #Iceland. The deceased being remembered is Okjökull—a once-iconic #glacier that was declared dead in 2014. https://t.co/IbwDha54cB #NASA #Landsat pic.twitter.com/pSFD08UohO
— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) August 12, 2019
The Okjökull glacier is only one of Iceland’s receding glaciers, many of which are also changing at dramatic rates. According to Sigurðsson, glacier conditions all around the world are on the decline due to the impending climate crisis.
He has been documenting the vanishing of approximately 56 out of the 300ish smaller glaciers in the northern part of Iceland.
Here is the image of the Okjökull glacier in September, 1986.
Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
Here is the image of the glacier taken August, 2019.
Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
Every continent, except for Australia which does not have glaciers, is experiencing the loss of glaciers, some slow, others much quicker.
Alex Gardner, a NASA glaciologist, told Mashable, “We’re not trying to figure out whether the glaciers will melt in the future. We’re just trying to find out how much and how fast.”
Since 2001, 18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred. The warm temperatures have thinned the rivers of ice that create the glaciers.
Photo Credit: Vojife
Sigurðsson calculated that in 1890 the Okjökull glacier occupied 16 square kilometers, or 6 square mile. By 1945, it was dwindling, and it eventually died in 2014. Now, only small amounts of snow and ice exist along the slope.
Assuming warming trends continue along with unchanged rates of carbon emissions – which seems to be our trajectory unless something dramatic happens in the global political landscape – Iceland will see a decline in its glaciers of 40 percent by the end of the century.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, all of Iceland’s ice masses could disappear by 2200, if not sooner.
In the meantime, Sigurðsson is taking on the sad task of tracking all the living glaciers, especially those in retreat.
The post Take a Look at Iceland’s First Dead Glacier Captured in Satellite Images appeared first on UberFacts.
This American’s Experience with Iceland’s Healthcare System Really Strikes a Nerve
Stop me if you’re heard this somewhere, possibly from your local politician: “We have the best health care ever invented! Of all time! Can’t be touched!”
I think most people know that A WHOLE LOT of other countries on the planet have much better health care than Americans do – plus, overseas it’s CHEAP. But that’s not what politicians and insurance companies want you to hear.
A woman named Mary Robinette Kowal shared her health care experience in Iceland, and her tweets went viral. I think that this will be very eye-opening for a lot of you. It sure was for me.
Let’s take a look at Kowal’s Twitter thread.
When I lived in Iceland, I found a lump. I had no idea how to navigate finding a doctor, so I went to our show's production manager.
Me: I found a lump. Can you help me find a doctor?
PM: Just go to the cancer center.
Me: Okay. How do a get a referral?
PM: What's a referral?— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
After I explain what a referral is, he looks baffled.
PM: Just go to the cancer center.
Me: But…referral?He shrugs and hands me the phone number to the cancer center. I call and explain.
CC: A lump, ah yes. You should come in.
Me: Don't I need a referral?
CC: A what?— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
Having accepted that I don't need a referral, I say, "How do I make an appointment?"
CC: An appointment? Yes, we can do that if your schedule is very busy, otherwise just come in.
Me: I don't need an appointment?
CC: You found a lump! You know your body, yes? Come in.— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
So I go. The nurse checking me in apologizes because, since I'm not Icelandic, I'll have to pay for the visit.
It's 3 krónur.
That's 3 dollars at that point.
I pay and sit down to wait.
CC: Kowal?
Me: Already?
CC: You found a lump.— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
3 dollars…
She escorts me into an examining room and palpates the area.
CC: Yes, that does feel like a lump. Let's do a mammogram.
I prepare to hear about making an appointment for that.
CC: I'm sorry, but it's across the hall. Do you mind following me?
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
I've been in the building for about twenty minutes at this point when I'm strapped into the mammogram — WHICH HAD WARMERS — and she does her thing.
CC: There is something there, you are right. I want to see it with an ultrasound.
And then she leads me next door.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
She does the ultrasound and when we're finished, she tells me to get dressed and to meet her in the waiting room.
I head out to the changing room, put my top back on, and walk out to the waiting room. I sit down to wait.
CC: Kowal?
Me: Already?
CC: It is only cyst.— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
Forty-five minutes after walking into the Icelandic Cancer Center and 3 krónur poorer, I had the answer.
In the US, a similar lump took two weeks and three different office visits.
I think about this every time I have to fight with medical insurance in the US.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
PS for clarity, I used my surname, but I'm pretty sure it was my first name the entire time, because Iceland.
PPS Why don't all mammograms have warmers?
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 3, 2019
Kowal offered a little clarification about an earlier tweet.
PPPS I said 3 kronur, but it was actually 300 kronur. I got so used to throwing an imaginary decimal place in there to do conversions in my head that I botched it in the thread.
The bit about being it basically three bucks though, that was the point.
— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) June 4, 2019
We get your point, Ms. Kowal. Something to think about…
What do you think? Share in the comments, we’d love to hear from you!
The post This American’s Experience with Iceland’s Healthcare System Really Strikes a Nerve appeared first on UberFacts.
The Strange Reason Iceland Gets Its Ice from Other Countries
The first time I found out about this, it totally tripped me up. You see, Iceland – a country with 11% of its surface covered by glaciers; a country whose name literally starts with the word “Ice” – imports most of the ice they use in their beverages. What the what?
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Maybe not so much, when you consider that the country’s rugged geography makes extracting many natural resources difficult. Not only that, but economics play a part; Iceland has extremely high domestic labor costs compared to cheap inbound shipping costs, which means they can import ice for far less than it would cost to pay a crew to harvest it.
If you’re interested in learning more, check out the video below from Half as Interesting.
The imported ice cubes are sold in grocery stores for far less than the price of native cubes, which can be up to 40% higher, and come from Norway, the U.K. and the U.S.
Biologist Rannveig Magnusdottir, who works at Icelandic Environment Association, commented that he finds “this completely insane, as I’m sure most people do, and I think our cousins in Norway and Scotland laugh at the fact that they can sell Icelanders ice.”
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Funny or not, believe it – it’s true!
The post The Strange Reason Iceland Gets Its Ice from Other Countries appeared first on UberFacts.
Official instagram of the Reykjavík metropolitan police
via instagram
American service members…
American service members drank so much beer in Iceland that they cause a shortage and some bars ran out completely.
In addition to Father Christmas…
In addition to Father Christmas, Icelanders are visited by the 13 Yule Lads (including Sausage-Swiper, Spoon-Licker, & Door-Sniffer), as well as their giant pet cat Jólakötturinn, who eats children who don’t receive new clothes for Christmas.