Icebergs don’t usually make it as far south as Glasgow, but one has, just in time for the UN Climate Change conference, COP26.
Shipped in by scientific activist group Arctic Basecamp to highlight the importance of Arctic ice to global weather systems to the negotiators trying to reach a deal to halt ever warming temperatures in the meeting rooms nearby.
“The Arctic is in crisis and that’s not just bad news for the polar bear,” Professor Gail Whiteman, founder of Arctic Basecamp told Reuters, “that’s bad news for countries and societies everywhere.”
“If we lose the snow and ice in the Arctic we will amplify global warming by 25 to 40 percent. So it is one eco-region that packs a big punch and we felt that negotiators here had to actually come face to face with the Arctic so we brought the iceberg,” Whiteman said.
The 4000kg stunt is intended to remind negotiators what they’re trying to achieve, Whiteman said.
“Our message is that this iceberg is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the climate emergency,” she said.
“This iceberg just is going to keep melting regardless of the negotiations that they come up with at the end of next week. However, perhaps if they come up with a good agreement, we will stop other icebergs melting,” she said.
The group are also presenting the COP with what they call a bottled warning. A bottle of clear melted ice water, labelled
“70 million of these bottles a second are melting off the Greenland ice sheet, based on the research that’s been done. And what else can we say? This is a bottled warning and they cant ignore this so that’s why we’ve brought the iceberg and the water to Glasgow,” Whiteman said holding a one litre bottle.
Whiteman said the iceberg came by ship from Greenland via Iceland to the east coast of England and then onward on a truck with it’s carbon footprint offset, of course.
