Reykjavík Grapevine - jun 2023, Qupperneq 12

The Reykjavík Grapevine 7 / 23 12Feature
WORDS Catharine Fulton
IMAGES Art Bicnick
We are living in a time where
every aspect of our daily lives is
touched by the effects of the cli-
mate crisis. We see it first hand
here in Iceland. Glaciers are melt-
ing, weather patterns are changing,
wildlife populations are in decline.
None of this is new. We’ve been liv-
ing in a world affected by the impact
of human activity since the very
dawn of humanity. After all, all living
creatures impact their surroundings
and environments in some way, no
matter how lightly they tread.
But human impact on the environ-
ment has grown to an extent that
it may have ushered us into a new
epoch. The Anthropocene is a term
coined by Paul J. Crutzen and Eu-
gene Stoermer in 2000, a combina-
tion of anthropo- from the Ancient
Greek meaning “human,” and -cene
meaning “new” or “recent.” Some
suggest the Anthropocene began
with the advent of farming and the
mass augmentation of landscapes
that ever-growing agricultural prac-
tices brought about. Others posit
the hypothesised epoch began
around 1950 when nuclear weap-
ons spewed radioactive elements
around the globe.
The International Commission on
Stratigraphy has yet to graduate
the world from the Holocene, the
geological epoch that began more
than 11,700 years with the Holocene
glacial retreat. Such temporal units
are classified based on the features
of the Earth’s strata and the fossils
contained within them. However,
a working committee at the com-
mission made the case in 2019 for
recognizing the Anthropocene as a
formal chrono-stratigraphic unit.
Whether we acknowledge the dawn-
ing of a new epoch or not, there’s
no getting around the fact that the
world is in the midst of a climate
crisis. The question is what are we
going to do about it?
What is Iceland doing about it? How
will Iceland’s climate targets bring
about positive change for the coun-
try and the world?
Is there a path beyond the Anthro-
pocene?
WHERE ACTIONS FAIL TO
MEET TARGETS
“They’re only reaching about 28% of
their commitment,” explains Smári
McCarthy, a software developer and
former Pirate Party MP now focused
on creating accessible climate data
through his startup Ecosophy. He’s
referencing the Icelandic govern-
ment’s goal of a 55% reduction in
emissions by 2030. The next aspira-
tional milestone is carbon neutrality
by 2040. “And that’s about half of
where they should be. So obviously,
they need to do more.”
The Icelandic government released
its current climate plan in 2020,
reaffirming those aforementioned
targets and delineating how it will
implement changes across various
sectors to achieve emissions reduc-
tions. It estimates a 21% decrease
in carbon dioxide emissions from
land transport, a 42% reduction in
emissions from ships and ports,
67% fewer emissions from energy
production and small industry and
66% fewer emissions from waste
management.
The emissions of Iceland’s heavy in-
dustry – including silicon plants and
aluminium smelters that set up shop
in the country lured by the promise
of cheap and abundant geothermal
energy – will be addressed through
the European Union’s Emissions
Trading System (EU ETS), a cap and
trade system that sees companies
buy emissions credits from within
the participating region. The EU
ETS has a regional goal of reducing
emissions by 43% over 2005 num-
bers by 2030.
“When they started talking about
this, they had 10 years to do it,”
Smári recalls. “We now have seven
years until 2030. I don’t think there’s
been a reduction of 300,000 tons
per year in those three years since
that was decided. So the problem is
that, they’re all looking at these big
goals, but they’re also kind of hoping
and dreaming that it will somehow
magically materialise the day before
the deadline and that’s not really a
good strategy.”
“One thing I would like to see hap-
pen,” he continues, “is that we start
measuring modelling and enacting
policy on the basis of the outcomes
of those models because otherwise
we’re mostly just firing large sums
of money out into the world, into the
ether, the cosmos, and not neces-
sarily knowing if it’s being effective
and that’s not good for the govern-
ment – that’s not good for anybody.”
The constant focus on CO2 is also
something that Smári believes
needs to be reconsidered.
“The problem with a lot of discus-
sions about climate change is that
they are primarily focused on the
CO2,” he explains. “CO2 is a great
metric for the scale of the problem,
but it’s a terrible metric for the effec-
tiveness of the solution, in the sense
that even if we could remove all CO2
overnight to pre-industrial levels,
that wouldn’t necessarily mean
that our planet is healthy since
we’re in the middle of like a mass
extinction event. There’s massive
desertification, massive damage to
ecosystems that we rely on to keep
the atmosphere and the oceans in
balance.”
THE THREE NEW RS
Children have long been taught the
importance of heeding the three Rs
when it comes to managing their
own impact on the environment. Re-
Feature Surviving The Anthropocene
Exploring Iceland’s role in addressing climate change
The problem is that, they’re all
looking at these big goals, but
they’re also kind of hoping and
dreaming that it will somehow
magically materialise the day
before the deadline and that’s
not really a good strategy.