Iceland

Before leaving for this trip I read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. I was pleasantly surprised to find a chapter on Iceland, which is the first country I visited. Diamond begins by declaring that, “Iceland is ecologically the most heavily damaged country in Europe. Since human settlement began, most of the country's original trees and vegetation have been destroyed, and about half of the original soils have eroded into the ocean.” At the Icelandic National Museum in Reykjavik they have an animation showing a simulated satellite image of the island before humans arrived, when forests covered a good portion of the land, and after when trees were a rarity. However, it is important to note that this is largely not due to human activity. The Hekla volcano erupted in 1104 which smothered much of the vegetation and killed most of the trees.

Today, driving through the Icelandic landscape is very surreal because of the lack of trees. Most of the land is rocky or covered in grass, lichen and the occasional very spindly weatherbeaten small shrub. Only in a few rare wind blocked hill sides do clusters of trees survive, and even those trees are pretty scrawny. Outside of the capital city of Rejkavik,where more than 60% of the population lives, towns are basically defined by anyplace with a gas station and a food market or restaurant. Besides that its mostly barren except for some sheep farms. Most of these farms are gorgeous, nestled next to cliffs leading up to glacier covered mountains, and often overlooking the ocean or a major river. The sheep seem to live a pretty good life staying fit grazing on the steep hills and sleeping in the earth bermed barns.

Since there are no trees, Icelandic architecture is quite interesting since wood is such a rare and highly valued commodity. The early settlers of Iceland built homes primarily of stone and sod. What little wood they had was used for basic structure, doors, and window sills. With such thick earthen walls, the homes were very well insulated. There are very few windows, but I guess in a part of the world where half the year it never gets dark, and half the year it basically never gets light feeling connected to the outside world isn't that important. For the most part, modern Icelandic buildings are really bland and boring. Corrugated metal is a favorite construction material because it is cheaper to import than wood. Houses are fairly small by American standards, and although they're generally not hideous, they're very plain and unadorned. Just paying for the raw materials to put a roof over their head is all that most Icelanders can afford since the island has so few natural resources. Many modern farms use corrugated metal in conjunction with traditional sod building techniques to build barns and shelters for the livestock.

There are three primary environmental issues that frequent the Icelandic media and sometimes make it into international news. The first is whaling. My friend from RPI, Eric, who I was traveling with insisted on trying a minke whale steak, because you can't order that back home. According to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), there are about 179,000 Minke Whales living in the central and North East Atlantic. Iceland has an interesting history with the IWC, leaving in 1992, but then rejoining in 2002. When "scientific" killing of whales resumed in 2003, three quarters of the Icelandic population approved. About 40% of Iceland's economy is driven by the fishing industry, which makes this country extremely vulnerable to global fishery collapses that are increasingly reported on by the media.

The second issue is the huge hopped up 4x4s that many Icelanders love to take into the otherwise inaccessible center of the island. These “Jeeps” as they're called regardless of brand would put most souped up American trucks to shame with enormous tires, beefed up suspension and winches out the wazoo. People sink a lot of money into their trucks, and with gas over $8 a gallon now, many of them can't afford to take the expeditions they built their vehicles for. There is also the issue of land damage caused by these beastly vehicles. Whether they are lost in the icy middle of nowhere, or just disrespecting the rules, drivers often end up where 4x4s are not allowed. With such a slow moving and fragile environment, tire tracks remain scars on the landscape for decades before erosion and plant life fill them in. Along the side of dirt roads, and even hiking where there is no trail I found tire tracks that may have been years old.

The last and perhaps biggest environmental debate in Iceland is over hydro power. Seventy percent of Iceland's power comes from renewable energy, more than any other nation. They are aiming to use entirely renewable energy by 2050, and have lofty goals of building a hydrogen economy and transportation network. Eighty percent of this renewable energy comes from large scale hydro electric plants, and the rest is from geothermal power. It's important to note that geothermal is largely used for district heating (they even heat some of the streets so they don't have to plow), so that energy isn't accounted for in the electricity percentages. However, residents of Iceland on average still have a higher carbon footprint than residents of France, largely due to transportation fuel usage. In recent years Icelandic environmentalists have protested the construction of these large scale hydro plants because they flood large areas of untouched wilderness, and disrupt the river ecosystem which is in turn tied to the ecosystem of the entire island. On the other side of the fence are the people who welcome the new jobs, mostly from multinational aluminum smelting corporations, like Alcoa, who want the cheap electricity for their energy intensive smelters.