Langjokull is a great white monster that devours mountains. This glacier covers 935 square kilometres and is 580 metres thick in places.
I’ve read a lot about global warming, but seeing it so starkly in action is shocking, and it makes me wonder if I should be here at all, contributing to the problem. As we drive upwards, water gushes down, filled with coughed-up grime and boulders that could take off a wheel. Driving here is no longer a smooth skate but an obstacle course that has me clinging to my armrest.
One of Iceland’s glaciers, Okjokull, is already gone. All Iceland’s 400-plus glaciers are in retreat. The country is losing 11 billion tonnes of ice a year. We’re all shocked, and yet here we are, stomping along leaving enormous carbon footprints.