UNA - the official magazine of Veraldarvinir - Worldwide Friends




1 Ph. Silke Van Broeck

SEPTEMBER 2020

UNA

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gang The Gang

Alida Racz

Jolien Kirchner

If you are looking for a tiny, brave and open minded german girl with red hair then here I am. My name is Jolien, I am almost in my twenties and I was born in Germany. I play three instruments, just love sports, and travelling fulfils me completely.

“Shine like the whole universe is yours.”

Hi, I’m Alida, a young girl living in Germany. I’m very joyful and always have a smile on my face. I love traveling, which is why I’m a volunteer in Iceland. In my free-time I love to do some sport and go for a walk with my dog.

Max Hahnbück

Elena Sofia Ferrari

Hello, i am Max from Germany. I enjoy playing chess, solving the Rubik's cube and going for a run from time to time. I like travelling, but fell in love with Iceland when I first came here 4 years ago. It also has made me more environmentally aware.

I started traveling because my parents did. Curiosity kept me going. Contemporary art got me addicted.

My superpower is finding cats and graffiti art wherever I go, and I’ve been all over the place. I’m Elly, camp leader for Worldwide Friends and editor of this edition of the magazine.

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Silke Van Broeck

Linda Greggio

I'm Linda, an Italian girl with a dream: travel around the world and capture the beauty of nature with my camera. I love spending my free time going to the mountains for climbing or hiking, but also to the sea for snorkelling. I love nature in all its forms and that's the reason why I fell in love with Iceland.

Hæ, Silke hér. I am a camp leader/ wannabe photographer for Worldwide Friends and I am loving it. Iceland has the most beautiful places and there is no greater joy than showing these spots and see the sparkles of joy in the eyes of my volunteers.

Davide Greggio

Viet Hoang Nguyen

Hi, I’m Davide and l’m passionate of photography and video making. I love travelling around the world with my camera and my drone to discover wonderful places. I’m attending artistic school and I want to become an architect. Creativity and outgoing are two of my favourite features of my personality.

My name is Viet and I feel I was born at the right time. I find myself on both side of the coin, the young journalist and the activist. I debate about climate change on stages, but I’ve never see the real change with my own eyes. I’m excited to transmit my impressions in the best way.

Johannes Küchler

I wanna tell you something about my nature: a friend once said he never met anyone like me. He was right. I always try to be different. I left my home planet called Germany to travel to Iceland and my purpose is to make you aware. My photographs should convey meanings, pushing you to think.

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Quarantined Plastic 

Quarantined Plastic

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Contents The Gang

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Contents

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From the Editor

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Worldwide Friends Veraldarvinir

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Camps of 2020

All Around Us

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Iceland’s Climate Change Revolution (and what we can learn from it)

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Would you drink from a plastic bottle?

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Pelting hopes: a journey from Russia to Iceland

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Colourful Iceland: Metal Houses

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Is Iceland the prototype for our future?

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Crying Glaciers

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Loving an Ice-Land: Why should every visitor of Iceland become a climate activist? 50

Poet’s corner

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Interview

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The Adventure

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From the Editor

þetta reddast

7 Ph. Silke Van Broeck

From the Editor 2020 has been quite the weird year for everyone.

If a year ago somebody told us what would have happened over the next twelve months, most of us would have laughed in their face. But here we are, wrapped up in yet another wave of Covid-19, almost forgetting about all the other catastrophes happened from the beginning of the year. Absurd meme predictions on social media seem at times more accurate than what politicians say.

Contrary to what you might have seen in the news, the pandemic and its consequences haven’t spared Iceland. In particular, for an organisation working with international volunteers, the effects have been harshly felt: only few of the participants came from outside of Europe, smaller work camps have sometimes merged with one another, and lately even part of the camp was spent under quarantine. Exactly what happened to the group of young people who took part in the production of this magazine.

The days between the two Covid-19 tests were spent with workshops, research, writing, and producing two photographic series: one about quarantine seen through a plastic perspective and one about the presence of single-use plastic in our daily lives.

The rest of our time was spent on the road, discovering the beauties of Iceland with our cameras and our eyes (and noses, nobody will ever forget certain smells!), and finding visual documentation for the articles.

Some of our writers found inspiration during the workshops about glaciers, oceans, plastic, aluminium, etc., some other let Iceland tackle their feelings and spark their inner passion, creativity, and even activism.

We’ll take you all over the place, from one tectonic plate to the other, from land to sea, from Earth to space…

I sincerely hope this edition of UNA Magazine might encourage you to follow in the footsteps of this wonderful team of journalists and photographers in our effort to look at the world with a critical eye, to notice what’s wrong, to spread the word, and to do something about it!

Elena Sofia Ferrari When not specified, the photos have been taken by the authors of the articles.

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Worldwide Friends Veraldarvinir Worldwide Friends Iceland was founded in 2001 as an organisation promoting nature protection, peace-oriented activities, friendship, and international understanding among people interested in spending time in Iceland in a useful way. WF also sends Icelanders abroad who wish to have similar volunteer experiences elsewhere in the world. The main activities offered by WF Iceland are short and longterm volunteering, summer camps for teenagers, exchange programs and educational tours.

Today the endeavour of attaining world peace has become a tangible possibility and the development and strengthening of bonds of cooperation and friendship through contact with people from other countries and cultures has proven to be one of the most fruitful means of achieving understanding and unity among nations. Veraldarvinir‘s main aim is to increase intercultural understanding through offering foreign volunteers the opportunity to take part in nature and peacerelated activities.

9 Ph. Silke Van Broeck

Ph. Silke Van Broeck

The goals of Veraldarvinir/WF Iceland are: • Promoting peace and friendship; • Promoting inter-cultural learning, exchange and awareness; • Preserving Icelandic nature and raising awareness about environmental issues; • Promoting voluntary work and a culture of volunteering.

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Camps of 2020 Even in these uncertain pandemic times, WF Iceland successfully offered camps all over the country, with a wide variety of participants.

The following table illustrates the number of completed camps for each program.

One Earth - Our home, let's prevent global warming

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Teenage camp - Let's fight global warming

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Hveragerði – Health and environment

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Journalism and photography – On the move

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East Iceland – Taking care of nature

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One earth, our home - Aurora hunting and global warming

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Hafnarfjörður - The village in the lava

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One earth – Our home, let's prevent global warming This camp has different kinds of tasks. Some days it focuses on renovation, painting, cleaning and fixing things around and inside the upcoming self-sustainable centre. Other days it offers the chance of cleaning the coastline and/or planting trees in the area.

Teenage camp - Let’s fight global warming With a special focus on global warming, the young volunteers receive workshops about climate change. In addition to the theoretical part, they put sustainable work ideas into practice. For example, planting trees is one of the main activities of the camps. Planting trees becomes a very useful action against climate change because trees absorb carbon dioxide, clean the air and prevent erosions.

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Hveragerði – Health and environment The Natural Health Association has a horticultural and environmental department, including forestry, gardening, and greenhouses, which is where Worldwide Friends volunteers work most of the time. Volunteers help with growing tomatoes, cucumbers and making tea made of Icelandic herbs and also do some environmental work around the property.

Journalism and photographing on the move The volunteers in this camp have a chance to explore the whole island through their camera lenses and let Iceland inspire their virtual pens.

The results are published by WF Iceland as the magazine in front of your eyes, called UNA, where people can read about the life of the organisation and learn about climate change.

East Iceland – Taking care of nature Volunteers engage in 5 hours of environmental work during weekdays for example cleaning the coastline and rivers, planting trees and flowers, taking down old fences, removing lupines or other plants, and fixing hiking paths. The work depends on the needs of the local community.

There is also the option of doing a little bit of renovation in the house or taking care of the garden when needed.

One earth - Aurora hunting and global warming Similar to the camp “One earth – Our home, let's prevent global warming”, this special edition takes place only during the season of Auroras.

Hafnarfjörður – The village in the lava Volunteers participate in environmental tasks in different areas within and around the city of Hafnarfjörður, for example cleaning the coastline from plastic and other trash.

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All Around Us All Around Us

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Iceland’s Climate Change Revolution (and what we can learn from it)

I know exactly what you are thinking.

Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, you are confronted with climate change in any possible way. Maybe it’s hotter outside than it usually was at that time of the year. Or there’s a TV on in the place you are. With a man on it you don’t know. Who’s complaining about some terrifying climate change effects, which you are not surprised at all to see coming.

It slightly annoys you to hear this big problem of our world every time you are on this planet. Since you start breathing, you hear complaints about our actions and what terrible things they cause. But you aren’t often hearing any solutions.

And even if you hear any, they seem too complex or too interfering into our so beloved lifestyle that nobody would actually implement those ideas. Everything seems hopeless.

The result of all this is that you don’t hear it anymore. You do the same with climate change as you did about that picture you took of yourself when you were at a party: smiling because you were too drunk, you reached the point that holding your mobile phone shouldn’t have been possible. You act like it doesn’t exist.

But now you got this magazine in your hands and read this title thinking that this article might give you some hope. Providing you with an exemplar country willing to make a difference. Unfortunately, Iceland isn’t perfect and has also some negative aspects to show. But in this article, I want to nurture your hopes with some positive aspects. Some things Iceland did great and what other countries could learn from it.

Ph. Elena Sofia Ferrari

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Before I start, you have to know that Iceland is in real danger because of climate change. Its own big, gorgeous glaciers are receding and about to vanish in 100-200 years and ocean acidification threatens the beautiful marine ecosystem. So, Iceland has vowed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Before 2040, it has committed to become carbon neutral.

Hold your breath, dear reader, because what Iceland has achieved now is what follows.

As I came into an Icelandic hotel and the receptionist said “it’s okay to drink tap water” my mind was blown away. For me, as a German person, it was unimaginable to get your snout under a tap or to refill your bottle with tap water.

I remember being with my friends. My lungs got a little bit dry. So, I went to the bathroom. My friends recognising it, thought I was insane. They run to me telling me it’s unhealthy to drink this unscented water and handed me water in a plastic bottle. What I learned from that is that Germans aren’t so open-minded about tap water. But in Iceland, nobody calls you insane seeing you drink tap water.

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To tell it explicitly, about 95% of the tap water is groundwater from 10-140-meter-deep wells. The water fills every hole and fracture in the strata. Before reaching this point, the water has to flow through many layers of unsaturated strata that sift impurities from the water. This process makes the water clear. Bjarki Kolbeinsson, an Icelandic citizen, told me that he drinks tap water to avoid expensive bottles. But besides the money reason, drinking more tap water and less bottled water can considerably reduce our plastic consumption.

After decades of plastic, mankind still doesn’t know what to do with it after usage. So why aren’t we just reducing our plastic consumption?

Drinking tap water could be a good alternative depending on how safe tap water is in your country.

I recently found out, drinking tap water is even safe in Germany. It’s the most controlled “food” of Germany. Germans think the chromium in the tap water injures their health. But in the reality, there are just traces of chromium considerably below health recommendations.

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17 Ph. Anna Pechoฤ ovรก

But let’s talk about Iceland again. As I was driving through the Icelandic countryside, I was surprised about the non-existence of trees. I’ve found a few trees a bit later, locked behind a fence, but it was far away from the huge number of trees I can enjoy in Germany. Here, in this small country, it’s impossible to hike in a seemingly endless forest. The reason for that lies in the past. As the Vikings found Iceland, they started a big deforestation. Timber was needed for building houses and ships. They also needed room for agricultural lands.

Nowadays, Iceland suffers from its history. Maybe you can already see some parallels. Soil erosion is very common now. Especially when the soil is exposed to strong winds and sandstorms occurs, the environment gets damaged. That’s why Icelandic people started a long process of reforestation and afforestation, with Worldwide Friends Veraldavinir taking part in it.

So, Iceland tries to mitigate the causes of the actions of its past.

Its government noticed the problem and tried to solve it.

This story from Iceland shows how our actions today will cause big sufferings in the future. We need to stop being like wild Vikings, start to think about the causes of our actions, and find functioning alternatives.

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The last thing I wanna talk about seems like magic. The wizards of Iceland have found a way to turn carbon emissions into rocks.

Okay, maybe you doubt the trust you gave me and want to stop reading this “fable” now but I’m not writing down a fantasy novel.

In fact, Icelandic people found something to do exactly this thing. When you go to Hellisheiði, you find a massive geothermal plant on a volcano. There the power plant pumps up the volcano water and send it to the turbines. The water brings the turbines to motion so that heat and electricity get produced. The scientists of a team called “CarbFix” capture the CO2 emissions produced by the plant’s steam and condense it into water. The scientists inject it into basalt rocks deep under the ground. The calcium, magnesium, and iron in the basalt interact with the carbon emissions and solidify the water. The CO2 becomes mineralised. That’s why the geothermal plant can produce electricity while a third of the generated carbon emissions don’t go into the atmosphere. Breathtaking!

But there are problems. First, you need tons of water. Second, this method is only possible because of the environment of Iceland. You need a place nearby a water source where you can also find basalt rocks. So, it’s hard to copy it all over the world. Nevertheless, I chose to tell you about this because it’s a great example of how to use your environment to mitigate climate change.

And that was my article. Hopefully, it took away your depression about the seemingly never-ending climate change. I know it still doesn’t seem easy to end it but maybe, I gave you some hope. And that was my intention with this article. I found it a little bit refreshing to hear that a government brought clear strategies to mitigate climate change and actually implement those.

Johannes Küchler

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are you content with single use?

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Would you drink from a plastic bottle?

Every year, 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced, and more than 8 million tonnes of it are dumped into the sea. With so much pollution in the oceans, it is obvious that marine animals are suffering from the widespread amount of plastic. However, plastic doesn’t affect only fish, mussels, and other marine animals, we humans also take plastic in us.

The whole thing is hard to imagine but the truth is we ingest small micro-plastic particles every day through our drinking water alone.

Micro-plastic pollution of drinking water is a growing problem all over the world. A study in September 2019 collected samples of water from all over the world, and discovered that 83% of our drinking water is polluted from a marine source.

Even in Iceland marine pollution affects the quality of drinking water. But until now, Iceland has been lucky! While scientists found up to 19 micro-plastic particles per 5 litres of drinking water in Europe, they only found 1 to 2 in Iceland.

It is not just us humans who suffer from the many plastics in the ocean.

Animals that live at the beach or in the sea have much bigger problems with the plastic. Often, animals are unable to differ plastic from their food. They eat the plastic without knowing how harmful it is to them. If you find dead birds on the beach and examine them, you can see very often that they have died because of too much plastic in their stomach, which they cannot digest.

Up to 276 small plastic particles have been found in a single bird. You would be that full only if you ate 12 entire pizzas!

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It is frightening to see that we are already so burdened by plastic. But a question also arises, how did it ever happen that there is so much plastic in the ocean?

There are different ways plastic gets into the ocean. 20% of the plastic in the oceans comes from ships: they lose garbage, and during strong storms even whole containers full of plastic. The other 80% comes from land. People leave their trash on the beach, and then wind and water take them into the ocean. Also, if people throw their trash into rivers, plastic finds its way for more than thousands of kilometres into the ocean. Another way plastic gets into the ocean is because of our cosmetic products. For example, peelings have little plastic balls inside.

Once they get into our water system, they will not get out, because they are too small to be filtered out of the water. It is incredible to see how far plastic gets through water. Which is exactly the problem, most people do not notice!

Plastic is everywhere. Packages, water, and even food! Fishes in the ocean, for example, eat the micro-plastic as well. That means, when we eat fish we also eat plastic. Today there is nearly no food which is not affected by plastic, and that is a fact which is kept in silence.

It is time to do something about the pollution of the oceans!

First, people have to prevent new plastic from reaching the ocean. Then, there is the need to clean the ocean from the plastic which is already inside. For example, Worldwide Friends organises beach clean-ups all over the country, to which I gladly participated in.

Iceland also wants to do something against marine pollution by reducing their marine litters in water. They want to reduce their use of plastic and increase recycling. Also they support the UN Clean Seas Campaign and a ban on micro-beads in cosmetics.

It is shocking, but facts tell the truth: Through drinking water we absorb the most plastic. Everyone takes up to 2.000 micro-plastic particles per week. That is 5 grams, which is as heavy as a credit card.

You have drank at least a few times from a plastic bottle, but would you actually drink the plastic bottle?

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I think this question is unnecessary now. Even if we do not want it, we can not prevent it. Plastic can no longer be thought out of our present world. We use it almost everywhere every day. If plastic is not disposed of properly, this problem will never be solved. And if it goes on like this, we humans will soon be the ones who have 12 plastic pizzas inside our stomach.

Alida Racz

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Pelting hopes: a journey from Russia to Iceland

Have you ever been surrounded by plastic in a way you thought you couldn't breath? Have you ever been the cause why a boat sinks to the bottom of the sea? Have you ever felt lonely and like nobody wants you anymore? Those things happened to me…

Hi, my name is Rekaviður! I am almost 600 years old and if you ask for my origin, you’ll find your answers in the riverside of Angaras. Long time ago I used to be a beautiful pine tree near the Yenisei river in Russia.

The story of how I grew up isn't that interesting, so I won’t tell you about that. It started getting exciting on my 500th Birthday.

Through our roots all my pine tree friends and I were connected. It was a simple way to communicate and no one else could listen to us.

Sometimes we told each other stories, myths or even jokes. So on my Birthday, in 1920, my friends congratulated me for reaching such a special age.

But some days before my birthday... A couple of humans chopped some of us down!

They used the river for transport.

I was pretty sad to lose them, but we all dreamed of the day we could start a journey around the world... You know... After a while it gets a little bit boring in the forest. So we were excited about who could have been the next!

The humans chopped me and the whole line behind my stub. You can not even imagine how thrilling that was!

The humans touched me with their tiny hands and I knew that it was THE moment! The moment to say goodbye to all my companions, the forest and my roots.

I was so upset it was hard to breathe.

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Since the first time I heard from some neighbour trees about my parents being part of a ship, I wanted to become a part of that too.

The humans cut me down very softly, so it was more tickling than painful. They threw us into the closest branch of the Yenisei river. And there we went...

I was so happy to travel with my friends, but through the water we couldn't communicate, or at least until we reached a new piece of land.

That was the last time I was happy and kind of optimistic. After a while I didn't see most of them anymore. A few minutes later the river dissipated.

"Now all the chopped trees are lost wood.", I thought. And I was right‌ The flux got stronger and stronger and I started to get nervous.

Some wise trees told us about the flow, but not about the fact that the land would have been going away. It got smaller and smaller, and after the third day i couldn't see it anymore.

I was too naive to realize that I would have never seen my home and my friends again.

All the time I was searching for them, but without any success. With the distance increasing, it also got colder. My whole tree trunk was freezing.

I felt sick and wet.

By now, I know that I floated from the Yenisei to the Norwegian Sea through the transpolar current. You cannot even imagine what kind of things I saw during that time!

A mass of transparent and crushing plastic! I really don't like these guys.

They are so clingy and they chased me for a very long time, even after my journey ended.

I saw some sad ice bears in the middle of nowhere. They just sat on their ice floe full of hunger and starving for a plan.

But the biggest catastrophe happened just a short time after I left the Yenisei river.

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So many driftwood took the same way as me into the middle of the sea.

Some bigger ships simply cracked some of us, whilst smaller ones just went fishing and left us unbothered. One time the flux was so strong that I ended up under water. I struggled and realized that I must have been under a boat. I was so terrified and just wanted to feel air again. After one second part of me got stuck in a kind of spinning motor. This thing made an awful sound and stopped moving instantly. I came back to the water surface and heard the humans rant very loudly. I was so sorry! I didn't want that to happen! They couldn't move the boat and had to wait for help for a couple of days. The whole time I felt so lonely and ashamed... I wanted to be an important part of a big, popular and wellesteemed ship. But at that moment I was just an annoying thing that sparked disaster and spread bad mood. Nobody was there to listen to me. Nobody was there to cheer me up or to say: "Don't worry! It was not your fault."

I am missing that so much... I miss my friends and their joking minds...

They always made me smile...

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That was not how I imagined my journey. Those two or three years were a sheer torment.

Then happiness came back the moment I saw land at the horizon. A new beginning was on its way. But then I was laying on this shore for more than 90 years with nobody even looking at me...

When I arrived here the other driftwood laughed at me because I was still so motivated that I could be part of a ship one day. Now the humans who visit the beach where I lay just kick me. Another driftwood who laid here for 150 years told me that long time ago there were "Vikings" who made everything out of wood: houses, fences, or even their fire. Sometimes they sent wood to Denmark to make pressed wood out of it. He also told me that the humans nowadays are lazy and stupid, which is why they pay for wood instead of picking us up from the beach. This wise wood has a talent in telling stories. He guessed that all of my friends went to Greenland or the FärÜer-Island. It's so interesting to listen to him.

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Ph. Silke Van Broeck

Another one I really like to listen to is my friend Refur. He is an arctic fox and he visits me every morning and evening to search for food. We became friends because I warned him about all the plastic I brought with me from the sea. He told me that we currently are in the East of Iceland, a country surrounded by water.

A few days ago some Icelandic people picked some of us up. Every time this happens it's like a highlight for us because those guys don't visit the beach that often. I asked Refur to follow them... It's quite interesting what's happening to the driftwood! Refur saw that they were parted in three groups: one for building material, the second for combustible material, and the last group went to a sawmill. That is really strange! I can see sheeps, sand, plastic, gras, and a lot of driftwood, but there are no trees. The whole coast looks so naked because there is no wood or forest, but then they have a sawmill.

I really feel like needless waste. It's autumn right now. Maybe I will be one of the lucky ones and an Icelandic family will pick me up to get their wood for the winter. I don't believe that I could survive one more January with those storms and ice, there is not so much that keeps me alive anymore...

Jolien Kirchner  30

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Colourful Iceland: Metal Houses

When I came to Iceland, one of the first things that caught my eye were the Icelandic houses. These metal houses are very colourful and very different from the houses in most of Europe. The Icelandic houses are sometimes accompanied by little elven houses and have the magical power of turning your frown upside down.

Unlike the brick houses I am used to seeing, Icelandic houses are embraced with metal: not only the roofs but also the outside walls. The building style ranges from mundane to marvellous, shacks to churches, homes to schools, mansions and commercial businesses.

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After a fire in 1915 at the capital, the government decided that all houses should be fireproof, which was of course in favour to the import of the corrugated metal. This and the lack of natural materials in Iceland encouraged the people to build houses, called bárujárnshús, with this corrugated metal.

The metal plates limit the use of wood in building houses.

Corrugated metal was developed in Britain and came to Iceland in the early 19th century. While the British came to the island to buy wool and sheep, they brought along these corrugated metal plates for trading. It’s ideal to use on volcanic grounds. The material is lightweight but strong, fire and moisture resistant, durable and can resist tough weather, floods and earthquakes. As building material it shows great potential and with very little maintenance it can last forever.

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Wood is very scarce in Iceland. Trees grow very slowly, sheep love to eat little saplings and the forests never really recovered from the Viking visits. If we look back we can see the Vikings decimated almost all the woods to build houses, ships and to make marshmallow fires.

The metal is still used today. Some of the houses come from the Scandinavian countries in construction kits. Not only are the kits very Ikea like, also the price is very agreeable. The corrugated sidings are placed vertically, which is more effective for the draining down the rain, salt and snow. The houses are not airtight which means the air quality is much better compared to a modern concrete house.

Today it is required to build your house earthquake resistance. Will the traditional metal houses continue to survive the earth dances or will the Icelanders go for the simple cemented house and lose some of its colourful impact on the city eyes?

Silke Van Broeck 

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Is Iceland the prototype for our future?

Let’s do a thought experiment. We could be 100 or just 30 years in the future. Who knows?

People did not change their behavior. Politicians did not listen to scientists. Humanity failed to stop climate change! The global temperature kept getting hotter and hotter. The ice kept on melting and the ocean level rose abnormally. Additionally, natural disasters started happening almost every day. As a consequence millions of people had to leave their homes. The extant regions suffered under millions of refugees. There was no turning back!

The only option was to leave Earth!

Unfortunately only 424’242 people were able to get on the spaceships.

The advance in spaceship technology was one of the very few things we achieved during our last days on earth. Each ship operates like a town: it can hold up to 25,000 people and produces enough food for all.

There are even schools, so everybody can learn from the past and is prepared for the future.

Now we are on the way to Kepler-186f, our new home. Our journey will last a few thousand years. *school bell rings* Teacher: Today's topic is energy. In the past we relied heavily on fossil fuels, which are not sustainable and not environmentally friendly. What can be done to achieve a reliable and sustainable supply with energy?

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Student: Ehm… I’m sorry, but what does sustainable actually mean?

T: It can have different definitions. It depends on the topic. The Cambridge dictionary defines sustainable as follows: “[...] causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time.” What we want is for future generations to still be able to live the same way we did. It means that you shouldn’t overuse Earth’s resources. Only use as much as the Earth can regenerate.

S: Okay, but have we ever had any good solutions on Earth? Most countries

were still relying on fossil fuels or nuclear power. I was told that there was no country that was really sustainable?!

T: Generally you’re right, but actually... A great example of sustainability in terms of energy on Earth was Iceland. In 2015 the country was able to cover around 85% of their energy consumption through energy from renewable resources. The biggest part came from geothermal energy but covered only 27% of the country's electricity consumption, while the rest was used directly, mostly for space heating. It was also very cheap compared to other energies.

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S: Oh‌ I didn’t know about this! Why could Iceland use geothermal energy?

Why couldn't every country do the same thing?

T: Theoretically every country could have used geothermal energy.

But geothermal energy is more cost efficient when areas with a high demand for heat such as cities or heavy industries are nearby so the energy can be used directly. Iceland was special because of its very good location on the mid-Atlantic ridge. It is the boundary between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plate. The plates are still drifting apart, resulting in strong volcanic activity. In this volcanic zone around the ridge there were about 20 hightemperature areas, which could reach temperatures up to 300°C. Next to the active zone there were about 250 low-temperature areas.

Both were hot enough, so the huge amount of hot water and steam caused by volcanic activity could be used for energy production in Iceland.

Our goal on Kepler-186f should be to find an area that is similar to Iceland. It would be smart to try to settle around there.

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S: But what if our population will grow again? Will it be enough energy?

T: Right now we have almost the same population as Iceland. When our population has grown, we will be still able to use the energy.

There is probably more energy than we can use. Only 17% of the potential of geothermal energy was used in Iceland. If we can't use the energy directly, we can still convert it to electric energy. And in case we need to access more energy in other places, we can still drill holes to reach deeper layers. The downside is that geothermal drilling is much more complicated than oil drilling as it has to pass through igneous and metamorphic rocks. It requires high initial cost and our technologies are still far from perfect. I am sure we will be able to improve in this area by the time we get there.

S: But is it really environmentally sustainable? Or will the resources get

depleted? It would be bad if we would have to move around every few hundred years.Â

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T: Don’t worry. When it comes to greenhouse gases, geothermal energy is extremely environmentally friendly. The footprint is only about 122 kg CO2 per megawatt-hour generated. The amount of heat contained in the earth is huge. Additionally, radioactive elements decay and continue to heat the planet. The energy that is lost through natural processes is much greater than through geothermal energy production. Of course, we will have to be careful and manage the resources properly, but excessive production can only be continued for a short period of time.

S: But this seems to be too perfect of a solution. What’s the catch?

T: Well, of course it has disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that while hot steam and water gets to the surface, gases and substances from inside the rocks are getting released, poisonous heavy metals for example. Some of them can be harmful for the environment. Also, the water that is extracted from the ground will need to be replaced to prevent cavities from being created. The cavities might collapse and cause earthquakes. Also, the reservoirs can get depleted if no fluid is reinjected. Like I said before, it’s very dependent on the location and comes with high initial costs. But apart from that it’s perfect.

S: But there are more ways to produce energy, like wind power. *school bell rings* T: Yes, we will talk about that in the next few days. We could start by talking about nuclear power and why it wasn’t a good solution in the past.

Max Hahnbück

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Crying Glaciers

Climate change: we all know about that problem, the real question is  How far is it from having an impact with our everyday lives?

Maybe not so far, and the crying of the glaciers can explain us the reason.

What scientists have discovered is an alarming rate of glacier melting, also witnessed by nature photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey (EIS).

Balog headed to Greenland, Iceland and Alaska in order to capture images that will help to convey the effects of global warming. He was initially skeptical about climate change when the issue entered scientific discussion, probably like most of us when we first heard about it. But after his first trip north, he became convinced of the impact humans have on the planet and became committed to bring the story to us.

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Thanks to his photos we can see through his eyes what climate change means for our glaciers, which are slowly becoming weaker under the indifference of humankind.

Research shows that glaciers are capable of absorbing about 20% of heat from the sun, reflecting back the remaining 80%. But now with the retreating of the glaciers the earth absorbs most of the heat and reflects a lower percentage. This is a vicious cycle which has already affected most parts of the planet. It will be quite problematic to stop if solutions are not put in place in the shortest time possible.

And what about the animals living on the sea ice?

For example polar bears are at risk of being starved into extinction by the end of the century!

As sea ice continues to vanish due to warming temperatures, polar bears are increasingly struggling to find the food they need to survive.

While we are looking for the next photo to post on Instagram or to the next mobile phone we’re going to buy, the crying of the glacier is getting stronger, and drop by drop it’s losing its natural power, under the hopeless look of its habitants.

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Even though glaciers are the main source of the fresh water available in the world, the current rate at which the melting ice is pouring into the sea is extremely concerning.

This intense melting of glaciers is producing a big ripple effect, like biodiversity loss and extreme flooding, the first practical example of how climate change can have an impact with our everyday lives.

There are areas that have glaciers on higher altitudes, and they are all thawing quickly, the melting is causing an abrupt rise in water input to other water bodies such as the rivers, lakes, and seas. The excess water may lead to the creation of new lakes that will continue growing in size.

These facts are very alarming because the water bodies could be very large in volume. The result is overflowing, which will be a major disaster as they will destroy everything on its way, and making thousands of people homeless like the case in Bangladesh. Floods have taken the lives of a lot of people there.

So the crying of the glaciers is arriving at people through the rivers in a destructive way.

The consequences of glaciers melting have not only been restricted to one part of the world, but to the whole globe. Each continent is experiencing the adverse effects of quickly melting ice glaciers such as glacier-related disasters, which require huge intervention in terms of financial capital to mitigate them. The worst part is that it is not possible to stop the fast melting of the glaciers due to the escalating rate of global warming.

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So the new questions are: How could we fight against this problem? How could we help polar bears to not lose their home?

If we look carefully around us we can see the sign of climate change everywhere, not only in glaciers. Droughts are becoming longer and more extreme around the world, tropical storms are more severe due to warmer ocean water temperatures.

So with our industrial politics and with our laziness we are reaching the nature’s limit, and now we can hear her scream.

But remember, she can give us what we need to produce energy without burning fossil fuels, that represent the major contributor to global warming and greenhouse effect.

The leader in renewable energy is Iceland, thanks to its remarkable geography and geology that provides both hydro- and geothermal resources. Almost all electricity in Iceland is produced using renewable energy sources and 90% of Icelandic households heated with geothermal water.

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So the land that is working in a more green way is the one that is losing a piece of her, the glaciers.

Therefore, we need to change our habits all over the world, and prefer renewable energy to fossil fuels, reducing their demand, because with renewable energy we can breathe more easily, stay cooler, and create a more comfortable world for generations to come.

Before setting goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the first thing we should do is to calculate our current carbon footprint, the amount of carbon we are releasing to the atmosphere through our activities. Additionally, we can determine the appliances which are producing a high amount of energy and work on eliminating them.

Unless we understand where our emissions come from, we cannot take effective steps to reduce our impact.

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When it comes to food habits, we should not consume meat daily as it leads to a higher carbon footprint. The whole process of getting meat down from the pasture to the table for consumption requires a lot of fuel together with energy.

Instead of throwing excess waste into the environment, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide, we could buy products with minimal packaging. Reducing waste also involves purchasing reusable products rather than disposable ones like getting a reusable water bottle.

Trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and, in turn, give off oxygen.

One tree absorbs around one ton of CO2 in the whole of its lifetime.

So trees can help glaciers to find their smile again. We can help nature to re-find her lost harmony.

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But how can we fight against people's indifference to nature’s crying?

Why don’t we take the issue into the pub, replacing the boring political discussion with an environmental one? This way we could increase people’s awareness about nature’s sufferings and maybe even come up with some crazy drunken idea that might actually work!

Open your eyes and you will hear nature’s scream.

Try to do something for her, before her tears reach you.

Linda Greggio & Davide Greggio

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Loving an Ice-Land: Why should every visitor of Iceland become a climate activist?

I'm a passionate climate activist, I know that my own purpose in life is to change the world and the history of my own future. Sometimes people ask me the question “why are you doing it, why are you a climate activist?” Like a political flowery phrase, I answer that it is the right thing, and we owe it to the world and our children and grandchildren, who deserve a livable world in the future. Everybody accepts my answer and goes their own way, except for me!

This question is still on my mind, because I can‘t accept it. I can’t accept that the reason for my own involvement in activism, to which I dedicate a lot of time, energy, and fighting spirit in it, can be explained with just a flowery sentence.

But why am I really doing it? I ask myself...

I've never seen the hard consequences of climate change before with my own eyes.

In my home region in Middle Germany, the only hint I see of climate change arising is that maybe, during the last few summers, the weather is much hotter than normal, and our farmers have problems to water their crops, or that in winter we don't have snow nor frozen streets anymore, so that our children can‘t use toboggan anymore. Sometimes I even forget we used to have snow!

Sad life... My little cousin can‘t have the adrenaline rush of childhood, driving with a toboggan in a tree down a hill.

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To be honest and speaking for myself, as someone who is always freezing and loves warm weather, living in the middle of Germany, far away from the sea, tornado regions, hot climate regions, I shouldn‘t be scared of the consequences of climate change, should I? The more I research about this topic, the more I am paranoid about the consequences. I learned that climate change doesn't spare any life or any place in this world.

It will change everything, our way of life and consumption.

It will raise the sea-level and will destroy thousands of cities and villages.

It will be the reason that millions of people will remain unsheltered.

It will be the reason for droughts, tsunamis, tornados, and a lot of natural disasters, which will kill several million of people, global warming will arise so that big parts of our worlds will become not habitable.

The consequence will be the biggest waves of refugees we have ever seen. And every country, even the most egoistic ones, should be aware that it is in their own self-interest to avoid such catastrophes like the ones I mentioned. Or so I thought, well..., I hope.

But my hopes are on the way of dying away. Since more than one year I‘ve been a passionate climate activist, but with every speech I hold, every congress I participate in, every panel discussion I debate, I'm getting more and more disappointed by society.

Every functioning human brain in this world knows about climate change and its consequences, but nearly nobody wants to do something real against it.

The reasons are different, from our economy to the freedom of decision of our democracy, from time problems (explanation using short-haul flights instead of trains) to planning problems (using cars instead of public transport). More and more I have the feeling that the human species is becoming too stupid to survive.

They’re self-destroying their own world and deserve to become extinct together with the millions of animal species getting this destiny as the consequences of our way of life.

So I decided to look for a place to discover the natural beauties of this world, the first visible heavy consequences of climate change, and a 51

country which understands the seriousness of the situation and has serious decisions to do something against it.

The winner is Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe!

Right... It is very empty in this country, which is just as big as former East Germany. But the landscape and the nature here are so wonderful! I have the feeling of not being on the earth anymore, everything is so surreal... It looks like a world-wide tour, maybe even out-worldly.

Because you can find volcanoes and lava in Kamchatka as well as in Iceland. You can also find high plateaus in Altiplano, South America or Mongolia, hot springs in relatively unspoiled environments exist in Yellowstone (USA), glacier tongues and glacier fluvial drift exist in Alaska and Svalbard. But nowhere on Earth, except in Iceland, you can see all these things in a three days trip.

So I'm in the lucky position of staying in Iceland for 10 days, getting more impressions than needed to write this article. More and more, I am getting depressed about the fact that a lot of these things will be destroyed by climate change.

Who in this world will willingly promote the destruction of these amazing natural wonders?

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It’s very sad to see that the big powerful glaciers in Iceland are melting, to the point that the name of this country won‘t make sense anymore.

From far away, the glaciers look similar to a milk cow, because they're white with a lot of brown spots. Maybe it could be attractive for photographers or for artists, but not for our environment or the world’s natural history. As a perfectionist, I prefer the glaciers to be still fully white, so the artists could be more sustainable with their colours.

During one of our hiking tours, we met a weird desert of sponge-like lawn, broken out like in pictures of drought. To watch it was very impressive but to hike it was very difficult, I often stumbled over the gaps and soft parts of the ground. This turned out to be melted permafrost, which is also a consequence of global warming. The results of it aren’t simply danger for clumsy hiking tourists who could fall over former ice wedges, but rather the fact that permafrost is one of our most effective carbon dioxide storage of this world. If we let them melt down, because of global warming, more CO2 will enter our atmosphere and support global warming, creating a vicious circle.

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The same thing goes for the oceans, they are the biggest storage of our CO2, but too much of it acidifies the oceans and destroys the natural balance of the ecosystem, so that the ocean and plants won’t store CO2 anymore.

Currently I'm sitting here in Stöðvarfjördur, a neat small town in East Iceland on the northern side of the fjord by the same name and I realise that I’m sitting on a big time bomb, not only because of my proximity to the permafrost and the Arctic Ocean, but also because I’m living on the surface of our planet formerly known as Earth and now called “Galactic Timebomb”!

Everybody knows that we don’t have a planet B. The current state of science has said the same. But even if we had an alternative planet, I am not ready to give up on this one yet!

The world doesn't need us, we aren’t guilty or responsible for the life of the planet, but we are for the survival of our life on the planet. The planet can and will regenerate itself, the question is whether with or without the human species on it. I dread a planet run by cockroaches!

Coming back to my original question, everybody should be a climate activist in order for us to survive the current climate crisis. But each one of the millions of people who have been visiting Iceland over the years should commit even more to it, because they could watch with their own eyes what is happening. For those who don’t trust their own eyes, maybe you will trust your own heart.

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I’ve heard from every tourist visiting Iceland that they fall in love with this unreal country, this country who has something special in it, where you can feel a unique connection with this one of a kind and nevertheless so pretty land, which you have the feeling of being so perfect you can reach its heart.

I don't get spared by these feelings, too. I’m falling in love with Iceland. But what happened with the other admirers of Iceland? They do the opposite of showing their love. Rather they play with it with a malicious joy, use it, abuse it, show their superficial admiration for it and throw it away when they have reached their aim, had enough fun with it, took good pictures and Instagram posts of this untouchable nature.

But how should they show their real love for Iceland in this time of digitalisation, nonverbal, impersonal communication? #IloveIceland doesn’t work, but it’s still easier than you thought or expected. If you fall in love with somebody, you have to take care of this person. When it comes to Iceland, you have to do everything wholeheartedly to protect Iceland and don’t get it hurt. Don’t let the amazing nature you are in love with get destroyed by yourself or anyone else. If you fall in love with somebody, you want that person to like you back and do everything to impress them and show yourself from the best side. But now every admirer is still showing their worst side. Do you really think that Iceland will fall in love with someone who hurts it, soil it with plastic waste, pollution, cigarette stubs and other dirty stuff? I ask Iceland about its type, and it answers that it likes people who take care of nature and our climate, who take a deep interest in nature rather than interest in making photos for social networks. A functional relationship is based on trust, on both sides. I believe that Iceland has a good heart, trusts you in everything, and loves you just like you are, but can you give this passion back? Iceland accepts everyone as they are and always shows them its best side. It doesn’t like certain behaviours, but gives everyone the opportunity to change their attitude. À-Propos, ‘change’ is a word with a lot of good or bad meanings. Change is the main reason for long relationships getting broken, but it could also be the reason to stabilise the relationship. Our world, and mostly Iceland, is changing!

Will you still love Iceland, when the glaciers have melted down and lost the meaning of their name?, when all of these beautiful villages and cities at the coast will disappear under the sea level? Do you really want these gentile and humorous Icelandic people dying because of natural catastrophes in the climate crises? I’m sure that everybody who has a 55

functioning heart will answer every question with “No”. And Iceland and the world have the same answer.

Climate change, two words that can panic the whole world, currently exists and is human made. It’s not invented by anyone, also not by me, it’s just science. Like everything in science or mathematics, you can create backlash, a change in the positive way. All you need is a good moral compass, a functioning brain and the willingness to do something about it.

We should trust in the will power of love, the love for Iceland, the love for the world, the love for every life on, under or over the surface of this planet.

I hope that I could change your point of view about climate change and maybe you should trust your own heart for making important decisions. I’ve already found my sense of life, my passion for protecting the climate and the future of our world, even before falling in love with Iceland. But with these heartwarming feelings, I feel much more on the right side and to be doing the right thing.

I hope that you follow me on our way to the future.

Greetings from Stöðvarfjördur, from Iceland, from the surface of the still livable earth.

Viet Hoang Nguyen

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Ph. Silke Van Broeck

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Poet’s corner Valentin Sturm

Hæ, I'm Valentin from Germany. I like gardening, skateboarding, cooking, and playing guitar. But my biggest hobby is writing poems and short stories in German.

I feel a special connection to Iceland so I want to express that feeling of mine with a short poem.

The lonely path gets through the green, but grey my past, that's what I've seen and now the light from different worlds change the colour in my words.

Sharp and harsh, no lovely structure, Water flows in curious ways.

Wildness lays on every texture and my soul found now a place.

Poet’s corner 58

«Like Interview other people need to sleep, I need to do art»

an interview with Anna Pechočová 59

«Art to me means a form of self expression that also should help other people to experience something nice or learn something new.», that's how Anna Pechočová describes her

passion. This 26 years old woman arrived in Iceland on the 17th June this year and is already inspiring everyone around her with her support and creative ideas.

During her time here, Anna is volunteering as a camp leader for Worldwide Friends Veraldarvinir. She already led a few camps, one of which called “Village in the lava”, where two camps were merged together as one. She did some beach cleaning and workshops in this camp. Anna learned about the organisation in a special way: a friend of hers, called Violeta, wanted to go to Iceland with a WF camp and convinced her to join. They planned everything together, but then her friend's flight was cancelled twice, so Violeta stayed home and Anna travelled to Iceland on her own. First, Anna freaked out because she knew she had to travel alone, but now she doesn’t regret it at all. As she said: «I like it and I enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn’t stay.»

Anna also enjoys her time in Iceland being an artist, you can follow her on Instagram UniqueornDesigns.

Painting since she was a small child, she was inspired by some artists like Vincent van Gogh or Frida Kahlo, but especially by one who comes from her home country, the Czech Republic. Her name is Toyen and she was a surrealist painter, cartoonist and graphic artist as well as a poetic representative.

Like her idol, Anna also uses watercolours. She specialises in working with flowers and animal portraits. This joyful Czech tried some drawings in pencil or charcoal and even paintings using tempera and acrylic, but she «really fell in love with watercolours».

She studied "Fashion Design and Dress Making" in secondary school and later "Interactive Graphics" in college. After that Anna graduated from a one year top-up course in "Graphic Design" at Southampton Solent University in 2019.

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Her current art project is in Brú, one of the buildings from Veraldarvinir located in the north-west of Iceland. She is painting a glass wall part of a bigger wall in the building, which is being renovated by some other volunteers of the organisation.

First she just wanted to paint some creatures living in the sea, but then she got inspired to add some images of trash into her painting. The idea was to show the current problem of marine pollution. First, people would look at the picture and see fishes, whales and sharks. But as they get closer they can see that there is also trash inside - and then they can start thinking about it.

«The problem is getting progressively worse and worse.»

Worldwide Friends Veraldarvinir is very concerned with the environment, which is why environmental protection is also an important issue for Anna. In her opinion, people just want to buy cheap stuff, use it a short time and then throw it away. That’s why the pollution of oceans, as well as global warming, are the biggest problems of the environment so far.

During her time here in Iceland, Anna hopes to advocate herself for the environment. She wants to learn much about environmental problems, so that she can change something about herself and also educate other people about the current issues. Even before her time here in Iceland, Anna paid attention to her way of life, for example she buys her clothes in second hand shops and tries to live with as little rubbish as possible.

Anna already does some up-cycling with her clothes by using old ones to create some new. She’s thinking about connecting her art with environmental issues and searches for opportunities to try out environmental art, but she didn’t think about it in detail.

The young woman even made a book about waste with the title "Throw away society".

"It explores the topic of waste and our attitude towards it. The entire book is made entirely out of recycled paper. (...) She bound the book by herself and cut the cover by hand (...)."

This expression of art is filled with commitment, pictures of garbage cans and statues, and hours of hard work.

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While she was living in England, the Czech student joined a garbage crew on one of their rounds, and took pictures with a digital camera.

For other parts of the book, she «took pictures of garbage bins with analogue camera and then scratched the film and poured bleach on it before exposing it.». This was an experimental project for her.

Anna has a clear plan for her future. The artist wants to grow her career, travel to other countries like Japan or New Zealand and fully support herself just with her art. But her biggest wish is «to find a way to have a positive impact on people and our planet».

She is independent and spontaneous in her decisions. Which is why she laughed to the question of how long she will stay in Iceland: «I don't know yet. That's a question I can not answer.»

Alida Racz & Jolien Kirchner

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The Adventure Adventure Jolien Kirchner

Alida Racz

What happens if you put an activist, an information scientist, and two freethinkers together with an artist, two globetrotters, and a nature lover?

I have experienced it at close quarters!

Maybe we look like a normal group of random people but we couldn't be more different!

It's so incredible that the camp and all of our articles worked that good in the face of our diversity and the quarantine, because of Covid-19, in the first five days.

I really enjoyed sharing the camp with these guys!

Actually, I don’t like road trips. You have to sit all day in your car, you are tired and hungry. But the last few days showed me that road trips can also be fun. We drove through Iceland and saw so many beautiful places.

Waterfalls, volcanos, glacier and geysers. It was very exciting, I had so much fun.

The thing it liked the most was our visit in a pool. The water was pretty warm, instead of the sea water right next to the pool - but we also went into that sea, of course!

Max Hahnbück

I think I learned a lot of new things during my stay in Iceland, although not everything was new to me. One of my favourite places we went to is the glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón. I am happy to be able to see the glaciers because future generations might not be able to see them. It was unfortunate that the camp took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, as we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know each other.

Nonetheless, it was an awesome week.

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Johannes Küchler

Linda Greggio

It was my first time in Iceland and I immediately fell in love with its landscapes. Waterfalls, glaciers, geysers and an unspoiled nature. Thanks to this experience I understood that I don't want to lose nature's beauty due to humankind's mistakes. So I became more aware about environmental problems.

10 days, 9 guys from different countries, a tour trip around Iceland and a final article with photos took along the trip for UNA Magazine. That's why this experience was amazing.

After I left Iceland and I‘m on the course to my home planet, my thoughts are still on those beautiful last days. I‘ve never seen those landscapes I‘ve seen in Iceland. It was breathtaking. I also love how small some things were. It‘s possible to cross Iceland in just one day.

The cities are smaller than most big cities on other planets which is a pleasant change.

The middle of a city isn’t that far away from the countryside. So I guess, even living in a city, you get a connection to nature.

Davide Greggio

Viet Hoang Nguyen

One day I found worldwide camps on the internet, I soon booked and on the 21st August I left. The first days I was in quarantine until the second test and it was a bit boring but after... When I met the other guys in the group I immediately bonded with them. They were fantastic, kind, and funny. I saw amazing places and landscapes. It was over my expectative! This camp made me aware how the world is changing, how this land is suffering from pollution.

Iceland has overtaken all of my expectations, I realise that it is the most beautiful country of the world. It began with a lot of stress and demotivation, because of new Corona restrictions. I recalled my own principle: I shouldn't judge too early, even if the first part is negative, things often turn out better. I was right, it became a life-changing adventure, where I realised I am on the right side protecting our so beautiful world for the next generations.

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Upcoming Exhibition

15. October 2020 Pakkhús, Geirsgata 11, 201 Reykjavík 65

Join us!

Check out this incredible drone video created by Davide throughout our Journalism and photography camp:

https://www.facebook.com/WFveraldarvinir

https://www.instagram.com/wf_veraldarvinir/

http://www.wf.is/

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