Climate change is real and will affect us all. So it is good that the Fridays for Future protests have reached Iceland. Scientists in German-speaking countries made their statement that these concerns are justified and supported by the best available science: The current measures for climate, biodiversity, forest, marine, and soil protection are far from sufficient.

I am participating in the eSTICC (eScience Tools for Investigating Climate Change at High Northern Latitudes) NordForsk-funded research project. As part of the project an impressing (or depressing) simulation of the Greenland ice sheet and climate change has been created (the simulations ran on a supercomputer located in Iceland) that shows the surface air temperature in the Arctic and Greenland glacier ice thickness, e.g. when will the Arctic sea ice be gone during summer (we got used to already now) and during winter (=no ice at the North pole in winter -- imagine this) according to the simulations:

We all should act:

• A carbon tax would be a strong incentive for all sectors to reduce CO2, so urge politicians to introduce a carbon tax. (The 2018 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was about the effects of a carbon tax on climate while still allowing economic growth.)
• No joke: Consume less meat and milk products! What many do not have in mind is the climate impact of animal farming (for meat and dairy): e.g. cows emit a lot of methane (which has 28 times the impact on temperature of a carbon dioxide emission of the same mass).
• And finally: reduce flights! One transatlantic flight (back and forth) is in terms of CO2 comparable to one year of average car usage. While living on a far-away island like Iceland involves flying, at least compensate by CO2 offsetting, e.g. via atmosfair or myclimate.