tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/iceland-2000/articlesIceland – The Conversation2024-01-17T13:37:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212832024-01-17T13:37:30Z2024-01-17T13:37:30ZIceland battles a lava flow: Countries have built barriers and tried explosives in the past, but it’s hard to stop molten rock<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569684/original/file-20240116-25-6bp82a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C22%2C1637%2C996&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lava flows from a fissure near Grindavik, Iceland, on Jan. 14, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/Almannavarnir/">Iceland Department of Civil Protection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fountains of lava erupted from the Sundhnúkur volcanic system in southwest Iceland on Jan. 14, 2024. As the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqudj0x0POA">world watched on webcams and social media</a>, lava flows cut off roads and bubbled from a new fissure that invaded the outskirts of the coastal town of Grindavík, burning down at least three houses in their path.</p>
<p>Nearby, construction vehicles that had been working for weeks to <a href="https://www.constructionbriefing.com/news/the-construction-teams-working-to-hold-back-a-volcano/8033447.article">build large earthen dams and berms</a> in an attempt to divert the lava’s flow had to pull back.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The glow from lava lights up the sky with a town nearby in front of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569683/original/file-20240116-19-avqjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The lava flow on Jan. 14, 2024, with Grindavík in the foreground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/Almannavarnir/">Iceland Department of Civil Protection</a></span>
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<p>Humans have tried many ways to stop lava in the past, from attempting to freeze it in place by cooling it with sea water, to using explosives to disrupt its supply, to building earthen barriers. </p>
<p>It’s too soon to say if Iceland’s earthworks will succeed in saving Grindavík, a town of <a href="https://guidetoiceland.is/travel-iceland/drive/grindavik">about 3,500 residents</a>, and a nearby <a href="https://www.visir.is/g/20232488946d/um-thrjatiu-vorubilar-notadir-til-ad-saekja-efni-ur-stapafelli">geothermal power plant</a>. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9NUvHX4AAAAJ&hl=en">a volcanologist</a>, I follow these methods. The most successful attempts to stop or reroute lava have involved diversions like Iceland’s. </p>
<h2>Why lava is so hard to stop</h2>
<p>Lava is a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/lava-flows-destroy-everything-their-path">sluggish, viscous fluid</a> that behaves somewhat like tar. It is subject to gravity, so like other fluids, it will flow downslope along a path of steepest descent.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C9etIuS5hBg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Images of Grindavik and the barrier being built to try to protect the town and geothermal power plant. Insider News.</span></figcaption>
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<p>With the temperature of its molten rock often <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/news/volcano-watch-how-do-lava-flows-cool-and-how-long-does-it-take">well above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit</a> (1,000 Celsius), not much can stand in its way.</p>
<h2>Freezing lava in its tracks</h2>
<p>In 1973, Icelanders attempted the <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/methods.html">most famous “lava freezing” experiment</a>. They used water hoses from a flotilla of small boats and fishing vessels to protect the small island community of Heimaey from the Eldfell volcano’s lava.</p>
<p>The lava flows were threatening to close off the harbor, which is critical to the region’s fishing industry and a lifeline to the Icelandic mainland. The eruption ended before the success of the strategy could be properly evaluated, but the harbor survived.</p>
<h2>Fighting lava with explosives</h2>
<p>Hawaiians used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02600367">explosives dropped from planes in 1935 and 1942</a> to try to disrupt lava flows from Mauna Loa volcano that were threatening the town of Hilo on the Big Island. </p>
<p>The idea was to disrupt the channels or lava tubes in the volcano that were supplying lava to the surface. Neither attempt was successful. The explosions created new channels, but the newly formed lava flows soon <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1801/downloads/pp1801_Chap10_Tilling.pdf">rejoined the original lava channel</a>.</p>
<h2>Lava barriers and diversions</h2>
<p>Most recent efforts have focused instead on a third strategy: building dams or ditches in an attempt to divert the lava’s flow toward a different path of steepest descent, into a different “lavashed,” a <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/watershed.html">concept similar to a watershed</a> but where lava would naturally flow.</p>
<p>Results have been mixed, but diversion can be successful if the lava flow can be clearly diverted into a distinct area where lava would naturally flow – without threatening a different community in the process.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An earthen berm with black lava along the one side of it. The lava broke through along a highway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569688/original/file-20240116-17-hi8it9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lava breached one section of the earthen barrier near Grindavík after the Jan. 14, 2024, eruption, but it largely followed the effort to divert it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/drone-is-capturing-the-town-of-grindavik-during-the-news-photo/1928389535?adppopup=true">NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Many attempts to divert lava have failed, however. Barriers built in Italy to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-0273(93)90048-V">stop Mt. Etna’s lava flows</a> in 1992 slowed the flow, but the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/news/volcano-watch-what-does-it-take-successfully-divert-a-lava-flow">lava eventually overtopped each one</a>.</p>
<h2>Iceland’s diversion efforts</h2>
<p>Icelandic authorities evacuated Grindavík’s residents in November 2023 <a href="https://theconversation.com/volcanic-iceland-is-rumbling-again-as-magma-rises-a-geologist-explains-eruptions-in-the-land-of-fire-and-ice-217671">after swarms of earthquakes</a> indicated a reactivation of the nearby volcanic system.</p>
<p>Shortly afterward, construction began on protective barriers for the town and some nearby critical infrastructure – notably, the Svartsengi geothermal power station. Construction had to be put on hold in mid-December, when a <a href="https://theconversation.com/volcanic-eruption-lights-up-iceland-after-weeks-of-earthquake-warnings-a-geologist-explains-whats-happening-220193">first volcanic eruption</a> occurred about 2.5 miles northeast of Grindavík, but work resumed in January. Work was still underway when magma reached the surface again on Jan. 14.</p>
<p>Diverting lava in this region is difficult, in part because the land around Grindavík is relatively flat. That makes it harder to identify a clear alternative path of steepest descent for redirecting the lava. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">Icelandic officials reported</a> on Jan. 15 that most of the lava from the main fissure had flowed along the outside the barrier, however a <a href="https://guidetoiceland.imgix.net/1322526/x/0/grindavik-2.jpg">new fissure</a> had also opened inside the perimeter, sending lava into a neighborhood. Unfortunately, that implies that Grindavík remains at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Loÿc Vanderkluysen receives funding from the National Science Foundation</span></em></p>Iceland, Hawaii and Italy have all tried to control lava to save cities in the past. A volcanologist explains the methods.Loÿc Vanderkluysen, Associate Professor of Earth Science, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201932023-12-19T21:59:56Z2023-12-19T21:59:56ZVolcanic eruption lights up Iceland after weeks of earthquake warnings − a geologist explains what’s happening<p>Lava erupted through a fissure in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula on Dec. 18, 2023, shooting <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">almost 100 feet (30 meters)</a> in the air in its early hours.</p>
<p>Icelanders had been anticipating an eruption in the area for weeks, ever since a <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">swarm of thousands of small earthquakes</a> began on Oct. 23 northeast of the fishing town of Grindavík, signaling volcanic activity below. </p>
<p>In the days that followed those first rumblings, a series of small rifts opened under the town, breaking streets, rupturing utility lines and tilting houses. GPS stations detected the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/earthquake-activity-in-fagradalsfjall-area">ground sinking and rising</a> over a large area.</p>
<p>Geologists from the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">Icelandic Met Office</a> interpreted the events as evidence that a basalt dike – pressurized magma that forces its way into a fracture – had intruded under Grindavík. The activity there had tapered off by early December, but 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north of town, the ground under the <a href="https://www.verkis.com/projects/energy-production/geothermal-energy/nr/936">Svartsengi</a> geothermal power plant was moving.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows the location of the fissure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566683/original/file-20231219-19-6waspp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The location of the fissure where magma erupted starting Dec. 18, 2023, a few miles from the town of Grindavík and just east of Svartsengi power plant and ajacent Blue Lagoon thermal spa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">Icelandic Met Office</a></span>
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<p>The ground had dropped 10 inches (25 centimeters) as the basalt dike filled, but then it began to rise in a broad dome, indicating that magma was reinflating and repressurizing the magma chamber. The result was the nearby eruption on Dec. 18.</p>
<p>If the fissure continues to propagate to the south, or if a large volume of lava erupts, the evacuated town of Grindavík, with a population of around 3,500, may be in danger. The lava could also spill to the northwest toward the power plant, although the utility built rock walls to try to divert lava flows.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial photo shows the lights of Grindavík and glow of the eruption very nearby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566707/original/file-20231219-25-zfbj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The evacuated town of Grindavík and a nearby geothermal power plant are still at risk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-evacuated-icelandic-town-of-grindavik-is-seen-as-smoke-news-photo/1860420658?adppopup=true">Viken Kantarci/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Iceland is known as “the land of fire and ice” for a reason. Its residents have learned over centuries to live with its overactive geology.</p>
<p>The reason for Iceland’s volcanism has two parts: One has to do with what geologists unimaginatively <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/volcanic-hotspot.html">call a hot spot</a>, and the other involves giant tectonic plates that are pulling apart beneath the island. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r8FqGBEAAAAJ&hl=en">a geologist</a>, I study both.</p>
<h2>Life on the edge of two tectonic plates</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/animation/plate_tectonic_theorya_brief_history">plate tectonic theory</a> was emerging in the 1960s, geologists realized that many volcanoes are located in zones where tectonic plates meet. Tectonic plates are gigantic chunks of Earth’s rigid outer layer that carry both continents and oceans and are constantly in motion. They <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/tectonic-plates-earth">cover the planet</a> like large pieces of a spherical jigsaw puzzle.</p>
<p>Many of these volcanoes are in subduction zones, like the Pacific’s <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/plate-tectonics-ring-fire/">Ring of Fire</a>, where thinner oceanic plates slowly sink into <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mantle/">Earth’s mantle</a>. These are the postcard stratovolcanoes like Mount Fuji, in Japan, or Mount Rainier, outside of Seattle. Because of their high gas content, they tend to erupt catastrophically, shooting ash high into the atmosphere with the energy of nuclear bombs, as <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st.-helens/science/1980-cataclysmic-eruption">Mount St. Helens did in 1980</a>.</p>
<p>A second, typically quieter kind of volcano forms <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/mid-ocean-ridge.html">where plates pull apart</a>.</p>
<p>The volcanic activity near Grindavík is directly related to this kind of plate tectonic motion. The mid-Atlantic ridge between the Eurasian and North American plates cuts right through that part of the island.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows where the earthquakes are taking place in a southwest peninsula and where the tectonic plates meet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iceland sits atop the meeting of two tectonic plates, the North American to the west and Eurasian to the east, indicated by the red line crossing the island. The maps show the earthquake swarms on Nov. 12-14, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-infographic-titled-iceland-prepares-for-volcanic-news-photo/1782148842?adppopup=true">Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows details of midocean ridges looking like seams on a baseball as they wind through the major oceans." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the 1950s, cartographer Marie Tharp used echo soundings gathered by ships to develop the first map showing the ocean floor in detail. It clearly revealed the mid-ocean ridges. This hand-painted version of her map includes annotations showing hot spot tracks related to movement of the plates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/">Heinrich C. Berann via Library of Congress; annotations by Jaime Toro</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, at <a href="https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/ingvellir-national-park">Thingvellir National Park</a> you can literally walk between the two tectonic plates. You can see the topographic scars of the rift in the long, linear valleys that extend to the northeast from Grindavík. They align with the swarms of earthquakes, the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/bigimg/4511?ListID=0">ground deformation</a>, and the fissure eruption of 2023.</p>
<p>Where plates pull away from each other, the underlying mantle rises toward the surface to fill the gap, carrying its heat with it and moving into an area of lower pressure. Those <a href="https://www.e-education.psu.edu/rocco/node/1988">two processes</a> cause melting at depth and volcanic activity at the surface.</p>
<p>This is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheeted_dyke_complex">same process that creates new oceanic crust</a> underwater at mid-ocean ridges. After the magma solidifies as basalt rock, it will look like vertical walls intruded into the surrounding area.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The uplift is in a large area that includes a nearby power plant and the Blue Lagoon thermal spa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566733/original/file-20231219-19-4i4dgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map shows the uplift of the ground (bright red) north of Grindavík prior to the Dec. 18, 2023, eruption, as well as the extent of the new lava flow (black).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.vedur.is/">Icelandic Met Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sitting on a hot spot</h2>
<p>In Iceland, the large volcanoes in the interior also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.02.022">appear to be over a mantle plume</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-mauna-loas-lava-is-coming-from-and-why-hawaiis-volcanoes-are-different-from-most-195633">similar to Hawaii</a>.</p>
<p>This kind of volcano typically erupts basalt lava, which melts at very high temperature and tends to flow easily. Eruptions are generally not explosive because the runny lava allows gases to escape. </p>
<p>Exactly what causes hot material to rise at hot spots is still debated, but the most commonly accepted idea is that they are caused by plumes of super-heated rock that originate at the transition <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.349.6252.1032">between Earth’s metallic core and rocky mantle</a>. Hot spots are a mechanism for the Earth to give off some of its <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-s-insides-are-cooling-faster-than-we-thought-and-it-will-mess-things-up">internal heat</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hl1gfV-TdU0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How hot spots develop. Video by Volcano Museum.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Typically, fissure eruptions are not explosive. However, when lava that is 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,000 degrees Celsius) hits water, the flash to steam can cause explosions that can scatter ash over a larger area. </p>
<h2>A silver lining of Iceland’s volcanoes</h2>
<p>Living in an active volcanic area has some advantages, particularly for energy.</p>
<p>Iceland derives 30% of its electricity from geothermal sources that use underground heat to drive turbines and produce power. It’s almost like a controlled version of a lava flow hitting the sea, and it helps make Iceland <a href="https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-iceland#details">one of the cleanest economies on earth</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People sit in an eggshell-blue lake surrounded by black lava rocks. Steam rises in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iceland has a lot of natural hot springs, but its Blue Lagoon has an unusual origin linked to geothermal energy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/people-swimming-on-hot-spring-near-mountain-during-daytime-jTeQavJjBDs">Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.verkis.com/projects/energy-production/geothermal-energy/nr/936">Svartsengi</a> hydrothermal plant uses the underground heat from the same magma chamber that is now erupting to provide hot water for several thousand homes, plus 75 megawatts of electricity.</p>
<p>That power plant is also part of the reason the <a href="https://www.bluelagoon.com/">Blue Lagoon</a> is so popular. When the power plant was built in 1976, the plan was to discharge its still hot wastewater into an adjacent low area, expecting that it would seep into the ground. However, the geothermal water was loaded with dissolved silica, which became solid minerals when the water cooled, creating an impermeable layer. A small lake began to form.</p>
<p>Because of its high silica content, the water in this lake is a spectacular blue color that inspired the creation of the geothermal spa. The Blue Lagoon is one of the top tourist attractions in the country.</p>
<p>Now the Blue Lagoon is at risk: Sometimes the volcano gives, sometimes it takes away.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-leruption-volcanique-en-islande-na-rien-dune-surprise-les-explications-dun-geologue-220292">Lire en français</a></em></p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/volcanic-iceland-is-rumbling-again-as-magma-rises-a-geologist-explains-eruptions-in-the-land-of-fire-and-ice-217671">article published Nov. 15, 2023</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaime Toro works for West Virginia University. In the past, he has received funding from NSF, USGS and DOE.
</span></em></p>Iceland is known as ‘the land of fire and ice’ for a reason.Jaime Toro, Professor of Geology, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176712023-11-15T19:01:26Z2023-11-15T19:01:26ZVolcanic Iceland is rumbling again as magma rises − a geologist explains eruptions in the land of fire and ice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559685/original/file-20231115-25-q2cv1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C247%2C3627%2C2264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The same region of Iceland saw an eruption in July 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-watch-flowing-lava-during-an-volcanic-eruption-near-news-photo/1521694001">Kristinn Magnusson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">Thousands of earthquakes</a> in recent weeks have shaken the Icelandic fishing town of Grindavík, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the capital Reykjavik. They have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iceland-volcano-earthquakes-evacuation-aviation-3bb2f4d18cb7c62967a7ce16cc1b70d3">triggered evacuations</a> and warnings that a volcanic eruption may be imminent.</p>
<p>While the idea of magma rising was no doubt scary for tourists visiting the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, which was <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueLagoonIS/status/1722551468958294515">closed as a precaution</a>, Iceland’s residents have learned over centuries to live with their island’s overactive geology.</p>
<p>So, why is Iceland so volcanically active?</p>
<p>The answer has two parts: One has to do with what geologists unimaginatively <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/volcanic-hotspot.html">call a hotspot</a>, and the other involves giant tectonic plates that are pulling apart right beneath the island. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r8FqGBEAAAAJ&hl=en">a geologist</a>, I study both.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Magma runs downhill in multiple streams over cooled lava." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559686/original/file-20231115-19-bcq5zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eruptions in this region of Iceland tend to flow rather than being explosive, as residents saw in July 2023 and in 2021-22.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-aerial-photograph-taken-on-july-10-2023-shows-flowing-news-photo/1520071527">Kristinn Magnusson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Life on the edge of two tectonic plates</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/animation/plate_tectonic_theorya_brief_history">plate tectonic theory</a> was emerging in the 1960s, geologists realized that many volcanoes are located in zones where tectonic plates meet. Tectonic plates are gigantic chunks of Earth’s rigid outer layer that carry both continents and oceans and are constantly in motion. They <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/tectonic-plates-earth">cover the planet</a> like large pieces of a spherical jigsaw puzzle.</p>
<p>Many of these volcanoes are in subduction zones, like the Pacific’s <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/plate-tectonics-ring-fire/">Ring of Fire</a>, where thinner oceanic plates slowly sink into <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mantle/">Earth’s mantle</a>. These are the postcard stratovolcanoes like Mount Fuji, in Japan, or Mount Rainier, outside of Seattle. Because of their high gas content, they tend to erupt catastrophically, shooting ash high into the atmosphere with the energy of nuclear bombs, as <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st.-helens/1980-cataclysmic-eruption">Mount St. Helens did in 1980</a>.</p>
<p>A second, typically quieter kind of volcano forms <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/mid-ocean-ridge.html">where plates pull apart</a>.</p>
<p>The volcanic activity near Grindavík is directly related to this kind of plate tectonic motion. The mid-Atlantic ridge between the Eurasian and North American plates cuts right through that part of the island.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows where the earthquakes are taking place in a southwest peninsula and where the tectonic plates meet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559688/original/file-20231115-22-mdyae8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iceland sits atop the meeting of two tectonic plates, the North American to the west and Eurasian to the east, indicated by the red line crossing the island. The maps show the earthquake swarms on Nov. 12-14, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-infographic-titled-iceland-prepares-for-volcanic-news-photo/1782148842?adppopup=true">Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map shows details of midocean ridges looking like seams on a baseball as they wind through the major oceans." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559732/original/file-20231115-27-7uf0ky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the 1950s, cartographer Marie Tharp used echo soundings gathered by ships to develop the first map showing the ocean floor in detail. It clearly revealed the mid-ocean ridges. This hand-painted version of her map includes annotations showing hotspot tracks related to movement of the plates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/">Heinrich C. Berann via Library of Congress; annotations by Jaime Toro</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, at <a href="https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/ingvellir-national-park">Thingvellir National Park</a> you can literally walk between the two tectonic plates. You can see the topographic scars of the rift in the long, linear valleys that extend to the northeast from Grindavík. They align with the recent swarm of earthquakes and the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/bigimg/4511?ListID=0">ground deformation</a> that is happening. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">Radar satellite data</a> from the Icelandic Meteorological Office show that a broad area around Grindavík sank by about 3 feet (1 meter) over 10 days, and the <a href="https://strokkur.raunvis.hi.is/gps/">GPS station</a> in town moved about 3 feet (1 meter) to the southeast with respect to the North American plate from Oct. 28 to Nov. 9. Large cracks have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4rkITMtyqU">broken streets and houses</a> in Grindavík.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A color-coded map shows where an area about 3 miles (5 km) long and about half a mile (1 km) wide depressed by more than 3 feet (1 meter)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559441/original/file-20231114-19-iziwv5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Estimates of how the ground deformed near Grindavík, Iceland, on Nov. 10-11, 2023. The vertical movements of more than 3 feet (dark purple), between Grindavík on the ocean and the Blue Lagoon north of it, were caused by the magma dike’s movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/bigimg/4511?ListID=0">Icelandic Met Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Where plates pull away from each other, the underlying mantle rises toward the surface to fill the gap, carrying its heat with it and moving into an area of lower pressure. Those <a href="https://www.e-education.psu.edu/rocco/node/1988">two processes</a> cause melting at depth and volcanic activity at the surface.</p>
<p>Starting in October 2023, this pressurized magma began pushing its way along a fissure toward the surface, triggering the earthquake swarms and creating the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">possibility of an eruption</a>.</p>
<p>This is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheeted_dyke_complex">same process that creates new oceanic crust</a> underwater at mid-ocean ridges. After the magma solidifies as basalt rock, it will look like vertical walls intruded into the surrounding area. The Grindavík dike appeared to have reached within about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of the surface by Nov. 14 and could soon reach the surface.</p>
<h2>Sitting on a hotspot</h2>
<p>In Iceland, the large volcanoes in the interior also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.02.022">appear to be over a mantle plume</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-mauna-loas-lava-is-coming-from-and-why-hawaiis-volcanoes-are-different-from-most-195633">similar to Hawaii</a>. </p>
<p>This kind of volcano typically erupts basalt lava, which melts at very high temperature and tends to flow easily. Eruptions are generally not explosive because the runny lava allows gases to escape. This is the reason why tourists often <a href="https://youtu.be/GUrIjV82I40?feature=shared">can safely watch lava flows</a> in Hawaii or Iceland.</p>
<p>Exactly what causes hot material to rise at hotspots is still debated, but the most commonly accepted idea is that they are caused by plumes of super-heated rock that originate at the transition <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.349.6252.1032">between Earth’s metallic core and rocky mantle</a>. Hotspots are a mechanism for the Earth to give off some of its <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-s-insides-are-cooling-faster-than-we-thought-and-it-will-mess-things-up">internal heat</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hl1gfV-TdU0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How hotspots develop. Video by Volcano Museum.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there is an eruption in Iceland, the basaltic lava will most likely flow relatively peacefully downhill, as it did when Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted in 2021-22 just east of Grindavík, until it reaches the sea. However, when lava that is 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,000 Celsius) hits water, it will flash to steam, causing explosions that can scatter ash over a large area. </p>
<h2>A silver lining of Iceland’s volcanoes</h2>
<p>Living in an active volcanic area has some advantages, particularly for energy.</p>
<p>Iceland derives 30% of its electricity from geothermal sources that use underground heat to drive turbines and produce power. It’s almost like a controlled version of a lava flow hitting the sea, and it helps make Iceland <a href="https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-iceland#details">one of the cleanest economies on earth</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People sit in an eggshell-blue lake surrounded by black lava rocks. Steam rises in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559465/original/file-20231114-21-f3fk7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iceland has a lot of natural hot springs, but its Blue Lagoon has an unusual origin linked to geothermal energy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/people-swimming-on-hot-spring-near-mountain-during-daytime-jTeQavJjBDs">Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A hydrothermal plant called <a href="https://www.verkis.com/projects/energy-production/geothermal-energy/nr/936">Svartsengi</a>, near Grindavík, uses the underground heat to provide hot water for several thousand homes plus 75 megawatts of electricity. The plant pumps water through wells drilled into the volcanic field. This water boils to steam, which is then fed to turbines that generate power and to heat exchangers that make hot water for direct heating of homes.</p>
<p>That power plant is also part of the reason the <a href="https://www.bluelagoon.com/">Blue Lagoon</a> is so popular. When the power plant was built in 1976, the plan was to discharge its still hot wastewater into an adjacent low area, expecting that it would seep into the ground. However, the geothermal water was loaded with dissolved silica, which became solid minerals when the water cooled, creating an impermeable layer. A small lake began to form.</p>
<p>Because of its high silica content, the water in this lake is a spectacular blue color that inspired the creation of the geothermal spa. The Blue Lagoon is now one of the top tourist attractions in the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaime Toro works for West Virginia University. In the past, he has received funding from NSF, USGS and DOE. </span></em></p>Iceland’s volcanic activity is generally tame compared with explosive eruptions along the Pacific’s Ring of Fire. This time, it’s shaking up a town.Jaime Toro, Professor of Geology, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176052023-11-14T17:06:54Z2023-11-14T17:06:54ZIceland on high alert for volcanic eruption – what we know so far<p>The Reykjanes peninsula in south-west Iceland trembled with an intense swarm of earthquakes on the afternoon of Friday November 10. Hundreds of quakes were detected on the regional networks of seismometers and several were strong enough to be felt in Reykjavik, 50 kilometres away. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night">civil protection alert was called</a> warning of the risk of an eruption – which would be the fourth since 2021. Why is this happening again, and what might happen next? </p>
<p>Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian plates creep apart at about 2cm a year. In the Earth’s mantle below ground, where rocks behave like very stiff toffee, the plates can extend continuously. </p>
<p>But near the surface the rocks of Earth’s crust are cold and brittle, and they can only stretch by breaking. Like pulling the ends of a chocolate bar with a soft interior but a hard shell, the build-up of strain as the plates pull apart is released in bursts as the coating breaks. </p>
<p>The Reykjanes peninsula forms the south-western tip of Iceland, where the mid-Atlantic rift <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(91)90501-I">rises out of the sea</a>. Here, the crust responds to inexorable tectonic forces by breaking every few hundred years, forming a rift. </p>
<p>The last sequence of rifting and eruptions here was over 800 years ago. Since then, the plates should have moved apart by about 16 metres. </p>
<p>We are now in another phase of rifting marked by hundreds to thousands of earthquakes, many large enough to be felt across south-western Iceland and all driven by the arrival of magma near the surface. </p>
<p>Each earthquake and eruption releases a bit more pent-up motion in these tectonic plates, and eventually, when that strain has been released, the eruptions will stop. We have seen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1428">similar bursts of rifting and eruption</a> a couple of times in the past 50 years around the world. </p>
<p>From 1975 to 1984, 18 earthquake swarms and nine lava eruptions struck northern Iceland during the Krafla fires. Between 2005 and 2010, 14 earthquake swarms and three eruptions occurred along an 80km section of a rift valley in Afar, northern Ethiopia.</p>
<p>As at all oceanic ridges, the rifting process is lubricated by magma. Magma is forming continuously at depth, and its buoyancy means that it is destined to rise. </p>
<p>In the brittle crust, the magma can only rise once there are some fractures to follow. But once it starts to rise, it will force its way to shallower and shallower depths, increasing the risk of eruptions. </p>
<h2>The view from above</h2>
<p>The scientists of the <a href="https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes">Icelandic Meteorological Office</a> can detect <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05798-7">what is happening at depth</a> and locate the tiniest of shakes using networks of seismometers. These alert the team to the fresh breaking of rock in the crust and pinpoint where it is happening. </p>
<p>Sensors communicating with constellations of navigation satellites can provide spot measurements of the tiny movements of the Earth’s surface and radar satellite images can be used to map out and measure the three-dimensional shape of the changing surface. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1723129082261446997"}"></div></p>
<p>The earthquake swarm that began in late October is the latest in a sequence of events that started in early 2020, and which has so far culminated in three eruptions at the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system in south-west Iceland in 2021, 2022 and most recently, summer 2023. </p>
<p>When the earthquakes began this time, they clustered around and under another volcanic system – Thorbjörn, 10 kilometres west of Fagradalsfjall. To start with, there was no visible deformation of the Earth’s surface and it wasn’t clear whether this was just a bit of the crust readjusting to the previous episode of rifting.</p>
<p>But once the signals showed that the Earth’s surface was starting to bulge, this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05083-4">indicated new magma</a> was coming into the crust. Over the past weekend, things developed rapidly. The size, number and locations of earthquakes all pointed to the filling of a fracture in the crust with magma at about 5km depth. </p>
<p>As the magma continued to flow into it, the tips of the fracture opened up, breaking a path through the crust until the new dike was about 15km long. The magma hasn’t yet reached the surface, but the patterns of ground movement and computer models suggest that a pool of magma has now collected within a kilometre of the surface. </p>
<h2>Is an eruption imminent?</h2>
<p>At the time of writing, it seems quite likely that this magma will break through to the surface and start an eruption. But the monitoring teams will only know when and where this is about to happen once they spot the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00445-023-01671-y">tell-tale signs of moving magma</a>. These signs could include the repetitive “hum” of a volcanic tremor, signalling that magma may erupt within hours, or earthquakes proliferating at very shallow depths.</p>
<p>For now, the dike appears to extend directly underneath the town of Grindavik, a fishing community near Iceland’s south-western tip. If there is an eruption onto the land surface, it is likely to be similar to the eruptions of 2021–2023 at Fagradalsfjall, with a crack or fissure opening at the Earth’s surface and fountains of red hot molten rock, with lava flowing downhill and away from the eruption site.</p>
<p>This will pose a threat depending on where the eruption starts and how far the lava flows. Gas fumes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.05.025">released from erupting magma</a> combined with the burning of peat and vegetation could create toxic air depending on eruption rates and wind directions. </p>
<p>If an eruption begins within the town of Grindavik, the effects could be similar to those of the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/01/the-eldfell-eruption-of-1973/514394/">eruption of Eldfell</a> which buried a part of the town of Heimaey in 1973. Hence the pre-emptive evacuation of the town, of the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power station and the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s best-known tourist attractions.</p>
<p>If an eruption starts at the southern end of the dike which extends offshore, hot lava meeting seawater in a submarine eruption could generate small-scale explosions and local ash clouds, and release further noxious gases from the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2006.02.005">boiling sea water</a>. </p>
<p>While this probably wouldn’t have effects as widespread as those of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00572">2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption</a>, which closed the air space over a wide area of northern Europe for several weeks, even a small submarine eruption would add to the challenges that the authorities must manage even in a well-prepared country like Iceland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pyle receives funding from NERC, AHRC and the Oxford Martin School. He is a member of the Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamsin Mather receives funding from the NERC (COMET and V-PLUS), the ERC (V-ECHO) and the Oxford Martin School.</span></em></p>Evidence suggests magma is close to the surface in south-west Iceland, prompting evacuations.David Pyle, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of OxfordTamsin Mather, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164992023-10-27T15:19:42Z2023-10-27T15:19:42ZWhat the anti-woke backlash against liberal feminism misses about causes like the gender pay gap<p>This week, thousands of women across <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/23/icelands-first-full-day-womens-strike-in-48-years-aims-to-close-pay-gap">Iceland</a> went on strike to demand greater gender equality. That’s right, Iceland: the country that has <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/06/global-gender-gap-parity/">ranked highest</a> in the world for gender equality for the past 14 years in a row. </p>
<p>So even in places such as Iceland that have focused on narrowing the gender pay gap, women are still concerned about how housework and caregiving falls on their shoulders, is undervalued in society and impacts their careers. </p>
<p>Indeed, this is <a href="https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-day-off">Iceland’s seventh</a> <em>kvennaverkfall</em> (<a href="https://kvennafri.is/en/womens-strike-2023/">women’s strike</a>). The first, in 1975, saw <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iceland-women-strike-equal-pay-970669466116a2b1a5673a8737089d46">90% of the country’s women</a> stop working, cleaning and minding the kids to <a href="https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-day-off-1975#:%7E:text=A%20flyer%20in%20English%20from%20the%20day.">draw attention to gender inequality</a>.</p>
<p>The country passed a law guaranteeing equal rights the following year, but the gender pay gap <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/06/global-gender-gap-parity/">still stands at about 10%</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jcs53l0F1LE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Footage from Iceland’s first women’s strike in 1975.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My <a href="https://www.cubsucc.com/faculty-directory/dr-lauren-bari/">research</a> explores how sex and parenthood can result in wage gaps, among other outcomes. This is not just a simple comparison of male and female earnings; it’s symptomatic of wider societal structures in which women often end up poorer than men. </p>
<p>But the topic of gender pay gaps has increasingly been the subject of scepticism. I’ve recently heard it described as “<a href="https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1633230507193384963?lang=en">a radical leftist lie</a>”, “<a href="https://youtu.be/HSvLnlX-VG4">a crazy thing to argue</a>”, and not to mention “<a href="https://twitter.com/GrantCardone/status/1680249117224648708">a myth</a>”. I try not to take it personally. </p>
<p>Feminists and feminism have always been <a href="https://sites.uni.edu/palczews/postcard_archive.html">the subject of ridicule</a>, blamed for everything from the breakdown of the family to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/whats-the-matter-with-men">a crisis of masculinity</a>. </p>
<p>Whether or not the word “feminist” makes you wrinkle your nose, the movement has achieved a great deal in the century or more since it began. Feminism should continue to evolve, to keep protecting and promoting the rights of women now and in the future. </p>
<h2>The rise of liberal feminism</h2>
<p>Because of my interest in wage gaps and labour market outcomes, you might put me in the “liberal” feminist camp. This strand of feminism has traditionally been concerned with equal opportunities, legal, political and economic equality and the promotion of more egalitarian gender roles within households. </p>
<p>These concerns have helped to usher in policy and legislative change since feminism’s “<a href="https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/womens-studies/collections/second-wave-feminism">second wave</a>” in the 1960s and 1970s. </p>
<p>The type of feminism that developed tended to work within prevailing structures and systems, rather than trying to overthrow them, and so aligned itself with <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp">dominant neoliberal value systems</a> that developed in the late 20th century. </p>
<p>By its early 2000s zenith, the liberal feminist message of freedom and empowerment, typified by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cosmopolitan-magazine">Cosmopolitan</a> magazine and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/">Sex and the City</a>, chimed with a broader message of individuality in a free market. </p>
<p>The realities of motherhood, caring and family - key aspects of the second wave - were increasingly disregarded, the assumption being that care could be outsourced or that men would take up caring roles.</p>
<p>While still forming the basis of gender equality policy at national and EU/regional level, what are perceived as liberal feminist values have been falling out of fashion with the wider public. </p>
<p>In line with a wider “anti-woke” backlash, criticism of liberal feminism as unworkable, elitist or irrelevant is coming from across the political and ideological spectrum.</p>
<h2>Criticism of liberal feminism</h2>
<p>The manosphere has been described as “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305119872953">loosely unified by an anti-feminist worldview</a>”. Growing numbers of social media personalities promote notions of masculinity centred around strict, often toxic, gender roles based on female inferiority. </p>
<p>There are even calls for the rollback of basic freedoms, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHs7p6o5oBo">women’s right to vote</a>. Such an extreme withdrawal of rights is unlikely, but these voices and their millions of followers should not be ignored. </p>
<p>The popularity of “<a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/07/14/trad-wife-meaning-controversy/70407456007/">trad</a>” ideas online (traditional sex roles within families) is not necessarily aligned with the exaggerated hyper-masculinity of the manopshere. </p>
<p>However, it reflects a reignited trend towards conservatism or at least a rejection of the perceived progressive attitudes to gender equality of the last two decades. The rejection of feminist values coming from more hardline or conservative forms of religiosity add further weight to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539523000079">growing anti-progressive sentiment</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a new wave of both radical and more conservative or “<a href="https://swiftpress.com/book/feminism-against-progress/">reactionary</a>” feminists believe liberal feminism has lost its way. The freedom-first, choice-based narrative, some say, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDU3A_MU7rQ">undermines women’s material interests</a> by championing an “elite” set of values that commodify the bodies of poor women, devalue care work and ignore important differences between the sexes.</p>
<p>They argue liberal feminism is <a href="https://www.dubraybooks.ie/product/feminism-for-women-9781472132628">too mainstream</a>, too in bed with the system and too sidetracked by relative trivialities such as microagressions, boardroom representation and, yes, the gender pay gap.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Woman carrying a tote bag that says march like a girl." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recently, feminist messaging sometimes takes a more commercial direction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-tote-bag-claiming-womens-day-2064158204">Laura Libran/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The empowerment message of liberal feminism seen in “smash the patriarchy” tote bags and “girls just want to have FUNdamental rights” t-shirts rings almost embarrassingly corporate – out of touch with the more complex issues facing women and girls today.</p>
<h2>Reclaiming feminism</h2>
<p>I think it’s time to step back and reclaim feminism’s original purpose and ask how can it contribute to positive change in a tumultuous world. </p>
<p>In Europe at least, feminism has brought us <a href="https://www.eurodev.com/blog/maternity-leave-europe#:%7E:text=Maternity%20leave%20in%20Europe%20is,the%20national%20sick%20pay%20level.">maternity provision</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-pay-gap-reporting-guidance-for-employers/overview#:%7E:text=Equal%20pay%20means%20that%20men,holiday%20entitlement">equal pay</a> and drastically expanded opportunities outside of the home. </p>
<p>Women’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/global-education?insight=the-gender-gap-in-school-attendance-has-closed-across-most-of-the-world#key-insights:%7E:text=of%20the%20world-,The%20gender%20gap%20in%20school%20attendance,-has%20closed%20across">education levels have increased</a> globally and (despite a few Tik Toks promoting the virtues of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/23/the-bimbo-is-back-and-as-a-feminist-i-couldnt-be-more-delighted">bimbofication</a>”) women will continue to want to be educated, have careers and contribute to public life.</p>
<p>Liberal feminists care about women’s economic independence and, in lieu of some massive structural shift in how our societies are run, money still matters. Women across the social and economic spectrum still grapple with issues of work, care and family. </p>
<p>Feminism still has a role to play in analysing these issues and developing policy solutions that make life easier for women and families. </p>
<p>The gender pay gap is not the most important issue facing women, but as a symbol of wider issues it’s worth addressing. Yes, liberal feminism has some soul-searching to do. It ignores changes in the zeitgeist at its peril. But in the rush to embrace something more radical, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Bari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Longstanding concerns like the gender wage gap remain important but second-wave feminism must listen and evolve to continue to protect and promote women’s concerns.Lauren Bari, Lecturer in Management, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160282023-10-26T10:39:21Z2023-10-26T10:39:21ZFive witchcraft myths debunked by an expert<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555782/original/file-20231025-29-zmv3lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C3000%2C1706&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three women executed as witches in Derneburg Germany in October 1555</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/three-women-executed-witches-derneburg-germany-237235090">Everett Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>About 400 years ago, the European witch hunts were at their peak. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, an estimated <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810872455/Historical-Dictionary-of-Witchcraft-Second-Edition">50,000 people</a>, mostly women, were executed for witchcraft across Europe. They were accused of devil-worship, heresy and harming their neighbours by using witchcraft.
The 1620s was the most intense phase of persecution in places like <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/12801?language=en">Eichstätt</a> in Germany, where almost 300 witches were executed between 1617 and 1631. </p>
<p>The witchcraft trials have endured as a matter of curiosity, entertainment and debate. But despite this interest, popular understandings of the European witch-hunts are riddled with error and misconceptions. So, given it’s the season of the witch, it’s time to dispel some myths.</p>
<h2>1. Witchcraft is a medieval idea</h2>
<p>It isn’t – it’s modern. The Christian church was <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/witchcraft-and-magic-in-europe-volume-3-9780485891034/">sceptical</a> about the reality of witchcraft until the 15th century. Even then, many theologians and clergymen did not believe that witchcraft was a threat. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/263689">first trials</a> of people who were believed to be malevolent worshippers of the Devil who actively caused harm happened in the 15th century. The most intense period of witch hunting ran from about 1560 to about 1630. </p>
<p>Before that there were very few witchcraft trials, because acts of witchcraft were believed to be an <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/witchcraft-and-magic-in-europe-volume-3-9780485891034/">illusion</a> caused by the Devil with the permission of God.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woodcut of witches on broomsticks cavorting with the Devil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1507%2C1264&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555779/original/file-20231025-21-gw57iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Witches on broomsticks, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/abkab8tq/images?id=hbe9wc8m">The Wellcome Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Witchcraft trials occurred everywhere</h2>
<p>Most witchcraft trials happened in central, western, or northern Europe. These were the areas which were the cradle of the Protestant and Catholic <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/115/2/351/10371?searchresult=1">Reformations</a>, which saw the transformation of the religious geography of Europe. And the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renaissance-quarterly/article/abs/witches-of-durer-and-hans-baldung-grien/5839650C1787984F1CAA1A9CD1B4B06E">northern Renaissance</a> and the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300260953/the-decline-of-magic/">scientific revolution</a> had transformed how the world was understood. </p>
<p>More than 50% of all trials in Europe happened in Germany. But even there, witch persecution was limited to a few of the very many autonomous and semi-autonomous territories of which it was comprised. </p>
<p>In places like <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/early-modern-european-witchcraft-9780198203889?q=Early%20Modern%20European%20Witchcraft%20Centres&lang=en&cc=gb">Iceland</a> and <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/a-history-of-magic-and-witchcraft-in-wales/9780752428260/">Wales</a>, there were very few witchcraft trials at all. It seems that local beliefs about magic and witchcraft, alongside the attitudes of clergymen and judges, may be the reasons for this. </p>
<h2>3. The Inquisition tried and executed most witches</h2>
<p>The Roman, Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, established in the 16th century, were responsible for dealing with matters of heresy. They have become notorious for their rigour in rooting out opposition to Catholic orthodoxy. Yet, they burned very few witch suspects. Across the whole of the <a href="https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/8436?language=en">Iberian</a> and <a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/3515/">Italian</a> peninsulas, the inquisitions executed fewer suspects than were hanged in England.</p>
<p>The Spanish Inquisition put a stop to the witchcraft trials that had spilled over from France in the early 17th century by assuming jurisdiction over witchcraft accusations.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An illustration of witches being burned while a man stokes the fire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555777/original/file-20231025-21-87mzxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The execution of alleged witches in central Europe, 1587.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Wickiana3.jpg">Zurich Central Library/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Only women were tried for witchcraft</h2>
<p>It’s true that 80% of those tried and executed for witchcraft were women. Many witch hunters, like those in <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/12801?language=en">Eichstätt</a>, also selected female suspects over male ones, even though the evidence could be very similar. </p>
<p>However, in some places, like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/male-witches-and-gendered-categories-in-seventeenthcentury-russia/F9FA9F79E0576D4F0AC5EA29E3EFF59A">Russia</a>, it was men who formed the majority of witch suspects. This was primarily because Russians conceptualised gender very differently to people in western Europe.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether the witch suspects were accused before magistrates or denounced under torture, their female neighbours were the ones most likely to accuse them. </p>
<p>In England, women on the margins of society were more vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft when things went wrong for their neighbours, such as inexplicable deaths or harm. This was the case with Ursley Kemp, one of the two witch suspects of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/136/578/26/6121677">St Osyth</a>, Essex, who were hanged in 1582. Kemp was a marginal figure in the town, a woman with an illegitimate son making ends meet through her healing skills. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/12801?language=en">Eichstatt</a>, it was a product of the processes of torture. When the suspects (more than 90% of whom were women) had to name names under torture, they gave those of their neighbours. The suspects’ networks were founded on their sex; women named women and the few male suspects named men. </p>
<h2>5. Witches were really the followers of a pagan fertility cult</h2>
<p>This myth was promoted by the Egyptologist <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.1994.9715877">Margaret Murray</a> in the early 20th century and was then <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Witchcraft_and_Demonism/Tm12ngEACAAJ?hl=en">debunked</a> by the historian C. L'Estrange Ewen almost as soon as it appeared. It was founded on a partial reading of the available witchcraft evidence. </p>
<p>It persisted because Murray wrote the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on witchcraft that remained in print for 40 years, until 1969, and actively supported the new <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-triumph-of-the-moon-9780198870371?q=triumph%20of%20the%20moon&lang=en&cc=gb">Wiccan religion</a> in print in the 1950s. This new religion was founded by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27782244">Gerald Gardner</a> who revived what he believed to be ancient pagan witchcraft in the 1930s. But it has no material connection to any form of historic witchcraft.</p>
<p>Most witches were ordinary Christian women who found themselves accused of witchcraft by their neighbours, or denounced by other suspects under torture.</p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Durrant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Witchcraft is an enduring source of fascination but also prone to popular misconceptions.Jonathan Durrant, Principal Lecturer in History, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145502023-10-03T19:05:01Z2023-10-03T19:05:01ZIn the depths of Hobart’s MONA, a volcano is stirring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551600/original/file-20231003-25-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C8155%2C5432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hrafntinna (Obsidian), 2021, Jónsi. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford Image Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the darkness, a rumble. A sonorous boom. Deep within the subterranean caverns of MONA, a volcano stirs. This is Hrafntinna (Obsidian), an immersive installation by Icelandic artist and musician Jónsi.</p>
<p>While living in Los Angeles in 2021, pandemic restrictions prevented Jónsi (frontman of Sigur Rós) from experiencing firsthand the eruption of Fagradalsfjall, 40 km from his hometown of Reykjavik, Iceland. </p>
<p>Dormant for nearly 800 years, the volcano became a symbol of isolation for the artist, provoking a sense of disconnection with his homeland.</p>
<p>Inspired by this event, Hrafntinna (Obsidian) employs sensory triggers, sound and scent as vehicles for longing and connection across time and geographical distance.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-volcano-is-erupting-again-in-iceland-is-climate-change-causing-more-eruptions-187858">A volcano is erupting again in Iceland. Is climate change causing more eruptions?</a>
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</em>
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<h2>To sense before seeing</h2>
<p>Stepping into the blackened space, we wait for a burst of light to linger long enough to guide our path into the centre of the room, where a circular wooden bench awaits. A dim, round light, like an open crater above, provides the only illumination. Its brightness and hue subtly shift in synchronicity with the sound – flickering and flashing during moments of intensity. </p>
<p>An almost 360-degree installation of nearly 200 speakers offers true immersion into a sonic structure of choral harmonies, ethereal and reverent, accompanied by machinic vibrations of tectonic shifts, and simmering pops and hisses. </p>
<p>The bench vibrates with the low frequencies of a hidden subwoofer, transmitting the sound into our bones. A smoky scent settles upon us. It is the earthen aroma of fossilised amber, extracted from ancient tree resin that has been buried for millennia.</p>
<p>The installation is deeply affecting, with eyes open or closed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black room with many speakers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551602/original/file-20231003-21-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hrafntinna (Obsidian), 2021, Jónsi. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford Image Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Obsidian emerges from a growing wave of sensory-based works that signals a shift away from <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Downcast_Eyes/2aMwDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=martin+jay+downcast+eyes&printsec=frontcover">ocularcentrism</a> (a prioritising of what we can see) within contemporary art and visual culture. </p>
<p>Rather than maintaining the primacy of sight, these works decentre the visual experience, instead creating affective encounters through sonic, tactile and olfactory elements. </p>
<p>Sight is often considered synonymous with our human objective reality. Understanding sensory experiences opens up the possibility of contemporary art that is firmly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.627">posthumanist</a>. </p>
<p>As Jónsi’s Obsidian shows (whether intentionally or incidentally), experiential and sensory works create new opportunities for understanding or knowing, and new possibilities for art to facilitate empathetic connections across great distances – and beyond the human.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A wall of speakers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551601/original/file-20231003-17-8gek3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hrafntinna (Obsidian), 2021, Jónsi. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford Image Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
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<p>Through surround sound installation and vibration, Jónsi creates what composer <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/On_Sonic_Art/h2J9v3hx_FgC?hl=en">Trevor Wishart</a> might call a “virtual acoustic space” in which we can create an internal landscape. Here, we are deep inside the belly of a far away volcano, which neither the artist nor we have seen.</p>
<p>As I sit and feel the resonance of the work in my body, I am reminded of historian <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Staying_with_the_Trouble/QShEjwEACAAJ?hl=en">Donna Haraway</a>’s notion of “intimacy without proximity” as a “practice of caring without the neediness of touching”. </p>
<p>While Jónsi may have been motivated by a feeling of longing, perhaps, through the making process, he did (in some loopy material way) pull himself closer to the source of his desire.</p>
<h2>Transcending thresholds of time and place</h2>
<p>The smoky aroma combined with the sound is transporting – not only across distance, but through time. </p>
<p>The scent of fossilised amber conjures an ancient memory from the earth. The low frequency sounds evoke transcendence from human timescales into deep, geological time. </p>
<p>In a more intimately embodied way, this sense of primal knowing is also carried through the choral sections of the piece. When I spoke to Jónsi, he described the voice as “the very first instrument we had”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it touches on something deep within us all, without us knowing why. It makes us feel, somehow, something primitive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sensorial triggers may transport us, but here, they are facilitated by raw emotion – through the yearning expressly conjured by exquisite vocal melodies, and by the throbbing bass rumbling of geological discontent.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551603/original/file-20231003-15-mildf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jónsi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford Image Courtesy Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I stay in the space for two cycles of Obsidian’s 20-minute sound piece. The second time through, I lie down to feel the vibrations more intensely. </p>
<p>Looking up at the glowing light above me, I experience a shifting perspective, moving between looking into and out of the volcano’s interior. As the light extinguishes, I am brought to my body’s own interior, and an underlying, subtle feeling of familiarity.</p>
<p>During our interview, Jónsi commented on the similarities between Tasmania and Iceland: places where cities are surrounded by “intense, beautiful, and brutal nature”. Perhaps this plays a part in my sense of already-knowing. I recognise the relationship and have felt the same longing.</p>
<p>As a multi-sensory, immersive installation, Hrafntinna (Obsidian) is a transporting experience, but it is also a grounding one. In the dark, it shines a light on our inherent, embodied connection to place, and to the world.</p>
<p><em>Hrafntinna (Obsidian) is at MONA, Hobart, until April 1 2024.</em> </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/living-near-the-fire-500-million-people-worldwide-have-active-volcanoes-as-neighbors-206977">Living near the fire – 500 million people worldwide have active volcanoes as neighbors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Foley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pandemic restrictions prevented Jónsi (frontman of Sigur Rós) from experiencing firsthand the eruption of Fagradalsfjall, Iceland. He made this work in response.Hannah Foley, PhD Candidate, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108412023-08-08T14:58:15Z2023-08-08T14:58:15ZHow climate change might trigger more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541708/original/file-20230808-21-64ruai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2423%2C2337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A volcanic eruption at the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland in May 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/geldingadalir-iceland-may-11-2021-small-1973100038">Thorir Ingvarsson/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earth’s climate is changing rapidly. In some areas, escalating temperatures are increasing the frequency and likelihood of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-022-03409-9">wildfires and drought</a>. In others, they are making <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70816-2">downpours</a> and <a href="https://tyndall.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/sciencebrief_review_cyclones_mar2021.pdf">storms</a> more intense or accelerating the pace of glacial melting.</p>
<p>The past month is a stark illustration of exactly this. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66435160">Parts of Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CANADA-WILDFIRE/HISTORIC/znvnzebmavl/">Canada</a> are being devastated by wildfires, while Beijing has recorded <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-beijing-rainfall-floods-1a8f968799bd539d11f3421010b8f2a9">its heaviest rainfall</a> in at least 140 years. Looking back further, between 2000 and 2019 the world’s glaciers lost around <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03436-z">267 gigatonnes of ice</a> per year. Melting glaciers contribute to rising sea levels (currently rising by about <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/sea-level">3.3mm per year</a>) and more coastal hazards such as flooding and erosion.</p>
<p>But research suggests that our changing climate may not solely influence hazards at the Earth’s surface. Climate change – and specifically rising rainfall rates and glacial melting – could also exacerbate dangers beneath the Earth’s surface, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.</p>
<p>Drought in <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/nearly-half-of-european-union-land-slides-into-drought-12921475">Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/us-drought-weekly-report-august-1-2023">North America</a> has received a lot of recent media coverage. But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">Sixth Assessment Report</a> in 2021 revealed that average rainfall has actually increased in many world regions since 1950. A warmer atmosphere can retain more water vapour, subsequently leading to higher levels of precipitation.</p>
<p>Interestingly, geologists have long <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13371-heavy-rain-can-trigger-earthquakes/">identified a relationship</a> between rainfall rates and seismic activity. In the Himalayas, for example, the <a href="http://tectonics.caltech.edu/publications/pdf/bettinelli_avouacEPSLfeb08.pdf">frequency of earthquakes</a> is influenced by the annual rainfall cycle of the summer monsoon season. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674984722000404">Research</a> reveals that 48% of Himalayan earthquakes strike during the drier pre-monsoon months of March, April and May, while just 16% occur in the monsoon season.</p>
<p>During the summer monsoon season, the weight of up to 4 metres of rainfall compresses the crust both vertically and horizontally, stabilising it. When this water disappears in the winter, the effective “rebound” destabilises the region and increases the number of earthquakes that occur. </p>
<p><strong>The number of earthquakes that occurred seasonally from 2003-2020</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing the seasonal fluctuation in earthquake occurrence with more earthquakes happening pre-monsoon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the pre-monsoon period, the number of earthquakes increases.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Shashikant Nagale et al. (2022)/Geodesy and Geodynamics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Climate change could intensify this phenomenon. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg3848">Climate models</a> project that the intensity of monsoon rainfall in southern Asia will increase in the future as a result of climate change. This could feasibly enhance the winter rebound and cause more seismic events. </p>
<p>The impact of water’s weight on the Earth’s crust goes beyond just precipitation; it extends to glacial ice as well. As the last ice age came to an end roughly 10,000 years ago, the thawing of heavy glacial ice masses caused parts of the Earth’s crust to rebound upwards. This process, called <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17723774-900-the-word-isostatic-rebound/">isostatic rebound</a>, is evidenced by raised beaches in Scotland – some of which are up to 45 metres above current sea level. </p>
<p><a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016GL069359">Evidence from Scandinavia</a> suggests that such uplift, coupled with the destabilisation of the region’s tectonics, triggered numerous earthquake events between 11,000 and 7,000 years ago. Some of these earthquakes even exceeded a magnitude of 8.0 which indicates <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Richter-scale">severe destruction and loss of life</a>. The concern is that the continued melting of glacial ice today could result in similar effects elsewhere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Raised beaches at Tongue Bay, Scotland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541702/original/file-20230808-27-44b8nb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Raised beaches at Tongue Bay in Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/~rsgs/ifa/gems/landformraisedbeach.html">Patrick Bailey/Royal Scottish Geographical Society</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How about volcanic activity?</h2>
<p><a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/46/1/47/521232/Climatic-control-on-Icelandic-volcanic-activity">Research</a> has also found a correlation between glacial-load changes on the Earth’s crust and the occurrence of volcanic activity. Approximately 5,500–4,500 years ago, Earth’s climate briefly cooled and glaciers began to expand in Iceland. Analysis of volcanic ash deposits spread throughout Europe suggest that volcanic activity in Iceland markedly reduced during this period. </p>
<p>There was a subsequent increase in volcanic activity following the end of this cool period, albeit with a delay of several hundred years. </p>
<p>This phenomenon can be explained by the weight of glaciers compressing both the Earth’s crust and the underlying mantle (the mostly solid bulk of Earth’s interior). This kept the material that makes up the mantle under higher pressure, preventing it from melting and forming the magma required for volcanic eruptions. </p>
<p>However, deglaciation and the associated loss of weight on the Earth’s surface allowed a process called <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019GC008222">decompression melting</a> to occur, where lower pressure facilitates melting in the mantle. Such melting resulted in the formation of the liquid magma that fuelled the subsequent volcanic activity in Iceland. </p>
<p>Even today, this process is responsible for driving some volcanic activity in Iceland. Eruptions at two volcanoes, Grímsvötn and Katla, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/181/3/1510/604035?login=false">consistently occur during the summer period</a> when glaciers retreat.</p>
<p>It is therefore feasible that ongoing glacial retreat due to global warming could potentially increase volcanic activity in the future. However, the time lag between glacial changes and the volcanic response is reassuring for now. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Katla volcano covered by the Mýrdalsjökull glacier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541703/original/file-20230808-27-u2dvxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Katla volcano covered by the Mýrdalsjökull glacier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/katla-volcano-glacier-iceland-2287047711">muratart/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The impacts of a changing climate are becoming more evident, with unusual weather events having become the norm rather than the exception. However, the indirect impacts of climate change on the ground beneath our feet are neither widely known or discussed. </p>
<p>This must change if we are to minimise the effects of the changing climate that have already been set firmly in motion.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Blackett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climate change is causing increasingly severe weather – but it’s not just hazards at the Earth’s surface we should be concerned about.Matthew Blackett, Reader in Physical Geography and Natural Hazards, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1865832023-03-29T15:47:52Z2023-03-29T15:47:52ZHow branding can show people’s love for a place and also help to highlight local challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518005/original/file-20230328-18-uoj98c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C53%2C3868%2C2550&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-15-may-2019-1743364979">Ingus Kruklitis/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The I ♥ NY logo was launched in the 1970s when New York City was at its grittiest and most dangerous. Since then graphic designer Milton Glaser’s creation has been emblazoned on every kind of souvenir imaginable, not to mention inspiring <a href="https://tribecafilm.com/films/i-heart-ny-2018">movies</a>, <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/news/a20354/raf-simons-new-york-fashion-show/">clothing</a>, <a href="https://newyorkcityfeelings.com/buff-monster-i-love-new-york-graffiti-art-mural/">graffiti</a> and even <a href="https://www.eater.com/2013/3/1/6474109/first-look-the-i-heart-ny-cookbook-from-daniel-humm-will-guidara">food</a>.</p>
<p>More than 50 years later, New York has just updated its iconic branding – <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/story-behind-iconic-post-911-i-heart-new-york-more-ever-logo">not for the first time</a> – to say We ♥ NY as part of an attempt to revitalise the city after COVID lockdowns.</p>
<p>And while lots of people <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-we-heart-nyc-logo-flop">hate the rebrand</a>, it still reflects the intent behind the much-loved original logo. These days it’s hard to argue that the brand hasn’t done the job of communicating exactly how New Yorkers – and many tourists – feel about the city. </p>
<p>Indeed, unlike the kind of brand advertising created for a product, this campaign was never designed to sell anything, but to communicate a feeling about the city by its people. And if people feel more positive about a city or an area, they will be more ready to help improve it. </p>
<p>Such campaigns are developed as part of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02672571003683797">branding process</a> used to whip up feelings about a place. These so-called “place branding” efforts can gather communities around whichever ideas matter most to these people, whether they are social, economic, or even environmental. </p>
<p>Developing a place brand can be complex and challenging, but also immensely rewarding. It can involve government, companies and society in general. It can include events, ideas and investments focused on winning over visitors, residents and investors – all to help social community and local businesses thrive and grow. </p>
<p><a href="https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/">People Make Glasgow</a> is an example of a flexible place brand that can be associated with a wide range of assets and activities. But this kind of brand doesn’t have to convey a straight, positive message about an area, town or city, it can also be connected to specific challenges. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The famous shopping district in the city, Buchanan Street, is shown filled with people during an afternoon day. A pink sign on a lamp post says " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crowds pass underneath a sign emblazoned with Glasgow’s place branding logo on Buchanan Street in the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasgow-scotland-june-8-2019-famous-1431162593">Kilmer Media/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recent attempts at branding a location have aimed to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2013.800901">galvanise</a> communities to work together to create and communicate a shared identity – not just right now, but also in the future. In many cases, this includes highlighting challenges such as the impact of climate change. </p>
<h2>Using branding to inspire support</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.12581">climate change increasingly affects areas in different ways</a>, communities are starting to use place branding to help address specific environmental challenges. This makes sense since <a href="https://josis.org/index.php/josis/article/view/209">people tend to be attached to where they live</a>, and <a href="https://egin.org.uk/learn-more/renew-wales/">communities often seek ways to act locally</a> to work against or mitigate the effects of climate change. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/">Inspired by Iceland</a> is a good example of this. The country launched a “<a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2019/06/07/iceland-gives-tap-water-luxury-branding-in-plastic-free-tourism-push">premium tap water</a>” brand in 2019 to encourage residents and visitors to go plastic-free while in Iceland by drinking its tap water.</p>
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<p>Integrating climate-related issues into the branding process communicates to everyone – including tourists, investors, residents and public and private sector bodies – that climate action is a priority. It shows that it’s integral to <a href="https://josis.org/index.php/josis/article/view/114">local identity and discourse</a>, as residents seek to protect their home’s environmental features. </p>
<p>Place branding may also affect local or even national government policy making. This is what happened in Palau, a Micronesian island in the western Pacific. In 2017 its government started to <a href="https://palaupledge.com/#:%7E:text=Palau%20Pledge&text=Palau%20is%20the%20first%20nation,and%20future%20generations%20of%20Palauans.">require all visitors to sign a pledge</a> to be “ecologically and culturally responsible” before they could set foot in the country.</p>
<p><a href="https://visitfaroeislands.com/en/closed">The Faroe Islands</a> in the north Atlantic, took a slightly different approach in 2019 by declaring itself “closed for maintenance, open for voluntourism”. This initiative was used by islanders and local businesses to promote community cohesion. It also offers tourists a unique chance to connect with the core values of the country.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W4jBMrDpFXI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Adapting to new challenges</h2>
<p>Most places are limited in their ability to adapt to challenges such as climate change. Unlike residents, local businesses and tourists, a city or country can’t relocate itself. Instead, an area must adapt, which can become <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026151771400212X">a multifaceted and politically challenging process</a> simply due to the range of people and organisations involved. Diverse community needs and imbalances of power held by public and private sector organisations only add to the challenge. </p>
<p>In reality, even though place branding is very much about community cohesion, diverse communities are not necessarily equally involved in the decision-making process. It’s important to recognise that initiatives – whether national, regional, or local – can only go so far, and policy-led change is also required, especially when dealing with challenges such as environmental degradation.</p>
<p>Place branding has become a useful tool to accompany such policies. People can also become quite attached to these brands. Indeed, rather than any reluctance to help the city face new challenges, the opposition to the We ♥ NY update shows the strength of feeling for the city and perhaps even for its brand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonya Hanna receives funding through the Bangor University Innovation and Impact Award, respectively for projects titled: 'Lucozade and Litter: how can we prevent single-use plastic pollution' and 'Capitalising on the Slate Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Development of Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism in Northwest Wales'.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thora Tenbrink works for Bangor University and currently receives funding through the Bangor University Innovation and Impact Award, by SellSTEM MSCA ITN Project No. 956124, and by the UKRI-funded RECLAIM Network Plus grant (EP/W034034/1).</span></em></p>Places as diverse as New York City and the Faroe Islands have developed brands to build positive feelings that translate into tourist dollars and, increasingly, support for the environment.Sonya Hanna, Lecturer in Marketing, Bangor UniversityThora Tenbrink, Professor of Linguistics, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1989732023-02-15T23:11:04Z2023-02-15T23:11:04ZTo prepare for future pandemics, we can learn from the OECD’s top two performers: New Zealand and Iceland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510213/original/file-20230214-16-jul1zd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C5572%2C3343&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Iryna Inshyna</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://covid19.govt.nz/news-and-data/latest-news/royal-commission-to-draw-lessons-from-pandemic-response/">Royal Commission of Inquiry</a> into New Zealand’s COVID response began work this month, with a goal to prepare the country for future pandemics.</p>
<p>It will focus on lessons not only from New Zealand’s pandemic experience but also from other countries and jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Early in the pandemic, it became clear some countries had higher numbers of COVID deaths than others. New Zealand and Iceland had the lowest mortality among high-income nations: placed first and second in the OECD for <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-deaths-cumulative-per-100k-economist?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL%7ECHN%7EIND%7EUSA%7EIDN%7EBRA">lowest excess mortality</a> as of June 2022, respectively.</p>
<p>A previous <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-and-small-island-nations-what-we-can-learn-from-new-zealand-and-iceland-145303">article</a> outlined lessons from both Iceland and New Zealand in September 2020. In a recently published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948221149143">study</a>, we extended this comparison through to June 2022.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the pandemic, both countries rapidly implemented similar control measures, including testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine, gathering limits and physical distancing. Both nations were relatively slow to require mass masking. </p>
<p>Rapid border management was likely easier in these countries because both are island nations with only one (Iceland) or a few (New Zealand) international airports. However, both nations had to work quickly to increase testing and contact tracing capacity and purchase additional personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.</p>
<p>But apart from these measures, the two nations pursued different strategies. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-and-small-island-nations-what-we-can-learn-from-new-zealand-and-iceland-145303">COVID-19 and small island nations: what we can learn from New Zealand and Iceland</a>
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<h2>Elimination or mitigation</h2>
<p>Iceland did not implement an elimination strategy and instead focused on mitigation, even though community transmission was eliminated early on. Iceland’s response did not involve the use of lockdowns or official border closures. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, New Zealand initially planned to follow a mitigation strategy, but then shifted quickly to an elimination strategy early in the pandemic. It employed the use of a strict lockdown and largely closed its international border (though low levels of essential travel continued with two weeks of quarantine for returning citizens at the border). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One of Auckland's managed isolation and quarantine facilities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510215/original/file-20230214-28-561l4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All arrivals in New Zealand had to spent two weeks in a managed isolation and quarantine facility.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Bradley/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Elimination seeks to <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)02489-8/fulltext">reduce transmission to zero</a> within a defined jurisdiction. By comparison, control strategies like suppression aim to keep case numbers low to minimise illness and death. Mitigation implies lighter controls, more calibrated towards preventing health systems becoming overwhelmed. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025203">elimination strategy worked</a> in the early stages of the pandemic and allowed for a return to near-normal life for most people in the country. That was until late 2021, when an outbreak of the Delta variant led the government to shift to a suppression strategy. </p>
<p>Then, following a wave of the Omicron variant in early 2022, New Zealand began to reopen its border in stages, marking a <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-response-planning/covid-19-minimisation-and-protection-strategy-aotearoa-new-zealand">shift to mitigation</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-costly-lesson-from-covid-why-elimination-should-be-the-default-global-strategy-for-future-pandemics-197806">The costly lesson from COVID: why elimination should be the default global strategy for future pandemics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The economic costs of the pandemic</h2>
<p>Iceland and New Zealand both introduced economic interventions shortly after the first COVID cases were detected. Government provision of financial assistance as a <a href="https://data.oecd.org/gdp/gross-domestic-product-gdp.htm#indicator-chart">proportion of GDP</a> in 2020 and 2021 was twice as high in New Zealand as in Iceland. </p>
<p>Despite economic support measures, both nations saw a contraction in GDP in 2020, although much greater in Iceland (-8·27% vs -1·22%). Iceland also experienced a higher peak unemployment rate (7·2% vs 5·3%), but with a quick rebound in 2021. This difference may in part reflect Iceland’s stronger reliance on its tourism sector, but it’s also possible the measures taken in New Zealand were more effective for supporting its economy.</p>
<p>There were many similarities between Iceland’s and New Zealand’s responses. Both nations had existing universal healthcare coverage and pandemic plans targeted towards influenza. However, neither country had a dedicated national institution to respond to infectious diseases.</p>
<p>There was clear communication involving regular briefings by senior officials in both Iceland and New Zealand. This included daily press briefings that were nationally broadcast and early communications about the pandemic framed as a shared threat. In Iceland the phrase “we are all civil protection” was commonly used, while in New Zealand, there was frequent reference to the “team of five million”.</p>
<p>Scientists also played a particularly prominent role in the response. There was a high level of public trust in the response in both countries, especially early in the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Differences in vaccination and testing</h2>
<p>Iceland performed much better than New Zealand with vaccination, beginning its campaign several months earlier. The slow progress with vaccination in New Zealand was a point of criticism at the time (along with delays in reaching Māori and Pasifika) and should be an area of focus for the Royal Commission of Inquiry. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign inviting Pasifika to get vaccinated" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510216/original/file-20230214-3402-chrz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Zealand’s vaccination campaign was slow to reach Māori and Pasifika.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Lakeview Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, New Zealand did catch up to Iceland. By June 2022, both countries had similar vaccination coverage rates. Differences in the timing of vaccination probably had little net effect.</p>
<p>Iceland’s success at keeping COVID cases and deaths relatively low without the use of stringent restrictions led to the question of whether New Zealand could have achieved similar results without a border closure and lockdowns. </p>
<p>It seems to us unlikely New Zealand could have achieved similar results without substantially increasing testing capacity. Iceland conducted almost four times more tests (per 1000 population) than New Zealand during the study period. This increase in capacity was made possible in part by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/06/icelands-genetic-goldmine-and-the-man-behind-it.html">collaboration</a> with <a href="https://www.decode.com/">deCODE Genetics</a>.</p>
<p>While efforts to increase testing capacity in New Zealand progressed rapidly in the first year of the pandemic, a backlog developed during the initial stage of the Omicron wave in early 2022 because many <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/covid-19-pcr-testing-backlog-rapid-review">laboratories were overwhelmed</a> by the number of tests.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-keys-to-preventing-future-pandemics-153326">The keys to preventing future pandemics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Considering the impact of alternative pandemic responses is challenging, but country comparisons can give some clues. Also, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210488">disease modelling</a> suggests that had New Zealand delayed implementing its lockdown, the first pandemic wave would have been larger and taken longer to control. Elimination might have become impossible. </p>
<p>Overall, many of the pandemic control measures deployed by Iceland and New Zealand appeared successful. Features of the responses in both countries could potentially be adopted by other jurisdictions to address future pandemic threats. Indeed, some of us have argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-costly-lesson-from-covid-why-elimination-should-be-the-default-global-strategy-for-future-pandemics-197806">elimination should be the default strategy</a> for future pandemics above a certain severity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding for this work was received from the University of Otago (grant number ORG 0122-0623) and the Health Research Council of New Zealand (grant number 20/1066).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Kvalsvig's employer, the University of Otago, receives funding for her research on Covid-19 and other infectious diseases from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Summers receives funding from the Ministry of Health to conduct Covid-19 research and funding for this work was received from the University of Otago (grant number ORG 0122-0623).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magnús Gottfreðsson collaborates with deCODE Genetics on academic research related to infectious diseases, including Covid-19. He has also provided consultations to Gilead Sciences in the past.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Baker's employer, the University of Otago, receives funding for his research on Covid-19 and other infectious diseases from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both New Zealand and Iceland kept death rates from COVID low, but used different strategies. While New Zealand relied on lockdowns and border closures, Iceland ramped up its testing capacity.Leah M. Grout, Assistant Professor, University of VermontAmanda Kvalsvig, Research associate professor, University of OtagoJennifer Summers, Senior Research Fellow, University of OtagoMagnús Gottfreðsson, Professor, infectious diseases, University of IcelandMichael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of OtagoNick Wilson, Professor of Public Health, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981452023-02-02T13:34:46Z2023-02-02T13:34:46ZThe world’s first environmental clean-up happened 400 million years ago<p>One of the biggest environmental challenges today is to treat land that is contaminated by toxic elements from industrial activity, elements like <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/arsenic-properties-incident-management-and-toxicology/arsenic-general-information">arsenic</a>, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/antimony-statistics-and-information">antimony</a> and <a href="https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/74/tungsten">tungsten</a>.</p>
<p>But these same elements can be brought to the Earth’s surface by natural processes such as the bubbling up of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/hot-spring">hot springs</a>. So it is valuable to understand how they were dealt with by the environment before humans came along. A site in Aberdeenshire in Scotland which is famous for early fossil life preserved by hot springs, shows us how it could have happened. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A round cross section of a fossilised plant stem detailed in cream and brown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505725/original/file-20230122-49501-wrokic.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A cross-section of a stem preserved as a silica petrifaction, detailing its cellular structure, found at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paleobotany#Media/File:Rhynia_stem.jpg">Wikiwand</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Some of the world’s <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/geosciences/departments/geology/what-is-the-rhynie-chert-1892.php">most well preserved fossilised plants</a> are found in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir//Rhynie,+Huntly+AB54+4GJ/@57.4217189,-3.8006635,8.2z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x48844b525cd28473:0x42651503db9b8f55!2m2!1d-2.835357!2d57.333126!3e0">Rhynie</a>, just west of Aberdeen, in deposits thought to have come from the world’s oldest land ecosystem. </p>
<p>Exquisitely detailed plants – as well as spiders, insects, fungi and other life – were preserved there by hot springs about 410 million years ago. These are some of the earliest fossilised plants known, so are important in what they can tell us about plant evolution.</p>
<p>But those hot springs also introduced elements that would have been toxic to most forms of life. Our latest <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GC010647">research</a> shows how minerals deposited among the plants extracted the toxic metals from the spring water and limited their impact on the environment.</p>
<h2>Minerals and toxic metals</h2>
<p>The plants at Rhynie were encased in the mineral <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/silica">silica</a>, which deposits around hot springs. At tourist spots like <a href="https://homepages.see.leeds.ac.uk/%7Eearlgb/Publications/Tobler%20et%20al%20Iceland%20geochem_Geobiology.pdf">Iceland</a>, <a href="https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-living-crystals-of-dead-geysers/#:%7E:text=of%20New%20Zealand's%20thermal%20centres,water%20discharges%20at%20the%20surface.">New Zealand</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027321002201">Yellowstone National Park</a> in the US, bacteria in the water are involved in producing these silica deposits, and this would have been the same at Rhynie.</p>
<p>As well as silica, the fossils contain certain minerals including <a href="https://geology.com/minerals/pyrite.shtml">pyrite</a> (iron sulphide, so-called fool’s gold), <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.96.7.3447#:%7E:text=Mn%20oxides%20are%20the%20predominant,migration%20and%20reprecipitation%20(4).">manganese oxides</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780815515784500123">titanium oxides</a>. It’s these minerals, produced by the bacteria and other lifeforms, that would have soaked up the toxic metals. </p>
<p>Pyrite, formed by the bacteria, soaked up arsenic from the spring water. Manganese oxides, <a href="http://awarticles.s3.amazonaws.com/22591055.pdf">commonly deposited by fungi</a>, also absorbed arsenic. Titanium oxides, formed particularly around decomposing plant remains, absorbed tungsten and antimony. </p>
<p>So between them, the minerals formed by biological activity accounted for the main sources of toxicity. The evidence from Rhynie shows how natural processes have helped clean the environment since life first colonised the land.</p>
<h2>The magic of mushrooms</h2>
<p>Our solutions to man-made environmental problems, such as contamination from industry and mining, typically include a range of <a href="https://www.pollutionsolutions-online.com/news/soil-remediation/18/breaking-news/which-chemicals-are-used-for-soil-treatment/58235">chemical treatments</a>. But an exciting “natural” approach is the technique of <a href="https://www.ffungi.org/why-fungi/mycoremediation">mycoremediation</a>, where fungi concentrate and store contaminating elements in their substance. </p>
<p>Fungi can be very resilient, and adapt rapidly to substances we regard as toxic. One strategy is to harvest fungi that live on mining or industrial waste and which are predisposed to cope with it, then use the fungi to clean up waste on other problem sites. In this way, fungi can be used to recover land contaminated by harmful metals.</p>
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<p>Biologist <a href="https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/">Merlin Sheldrake</a>, in his award-winning 2020 book <a href="https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life">Entangled Life</a>, argues: “Fungi are some of the best-qualified organisms for environmental remediation … fine-tuned over a billion years of evolution.”</p>
<p>Evolution is a key word here. The ecosystem (plants, animals and their habitat, including minerals) does not “intend” to clean up toxic chemicals as humans do. However, life is more likely to thrive and reproduce in ecosystems that strip out harmful substances. Just as particular fungi can be <a href="https://www.ffungi.org/why-fungi/mycoremediation">selected</a> to help deal with contaminated land, evolution favoured the species that adapted to environmental changes in the geological past, as implied at Rhynie.</p>
<h2>Remaining questions</h2>
<p>The deposits at this special geological site were formed by hot springs, whose waters preserved the plant cells. But because the hot springs that formed the Rhynie deposit were rich in arsenic, antimony and other trace elements, there is uncertainty about how representative these fossils may be of early plant communities.</p>
<p>Scientists <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4142659.pdf">might argue</a>
that the plants found at Rhynie could be an adaptation to an environment that was chemically unusual. There is no clear answer to whether this was so, but our observations do suggest that the ecosystem was able to respond to the water chemistry, so the existence of these plants was not necessarily abnormal.</p>
<p>Visitors to hot springs in New Zealand and Yellowstone today can see orange and yellow crusts containing the harmful arsenic, antimony and so on, but also precious metals like gold and silver, so the springs attract commercial interest. </p>
<p>Hot springs worldwide also contain an element that was pretty much ignored until recently: <a href="https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/3/lithium">lithium</a>. The spring waters provide a renewable supply of this element which is currently fundamental to rechargeable batteries – especially in electric vehicles, which are essential in the quest to achieve carbon emission targets. So hot springs may have more than one role in helping clean up the environment.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Parnell receives funding from NERC. </span></em></p>When it comes to cleaning up land contaminated by toxic waste, we can follow nature’s example before humans populated the earth.John Parnell, Professor of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1867092022-08-12T12:18:20Z2022-08-12T12:18:20ZThe Soviet Union once hunted endangered whales to the brink of extinction – but its scientists opposed whaling and secretly tracked its toll<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478792/original/file-20220811-17-rlavkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5084%2C3237&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Soviet whalers manning mechanized harpoons in 1960.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/whalers-russia-1960-news-photo/1205993604">Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, an estimated <a href="https://awionline.org/content/whale-watching">13 million people</a> go whale-watching around the world, marveling at the sight of the largest animals ever to inhabit Earth. It’s a dramatic reversal from a century ago, when few people ever saw a living whale. The creatures are still recovering from massive industrial-scale hunting that <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-whaling-slaughter-tallied-at-3-million/">nearly wiped out several species</a> in the 20th century. </p>
<p>The history of whaling shows how humans have wreaked careless havoc on the ocean, but also how they can change course. In my new book, “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo137529766.html">Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling</a>,” I describe how the Soviet Union was central both to this deadly industry and to scientific research that helps us understand whales’ recovery. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kye7QuBiLNc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A humpback whale breaches in Boston Harbor on Aug. 2, 2022. Whaling greatly reduced humpback whale numbers, but the species is recovering under international protection.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From wood to steel and bad to worse</h2>
<p>At the start of the 20th century, it seemed whales might gain a reprieve after years of hunting. The era of whaling from sail boats, depicted in such memorable detail by Herman Melville in “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/">Moby-Dick</a>,” had nearly wiped out slow, fat species like right and bowhead whales, and also wreaked substantial harm to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/whaling-interview-dr-tim-d-smith/">sperm whales</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1800s, U.S. whalers sailed without restraint or hindrance into every corner of the world’s oceans, including waters around Russia’s Siberian empire. There, tsarist officials watched in helpless rage as Americans slaughtered whales upon which <a href="https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/aboriginal/russian-federation">many of the region’s Indigenous peoples relied</a>. </p>
<p>In the 1870s, petroleum began to replace whale oil as a fuel. With few catchable whales remaining, the industry appeared to be near its end. But whalers found new markets. Through hydrogenation – a chemical process that can be used to <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-hydrogenation-604530">turn liquid oils into solid or semi-solid fats</a> – manufacturers were able to <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-margarine-made-of">transform smelly whale products</a> into odorless margarine for human consumption. </p>
<p>Around the same time, Norwegians invented the <a href="http://www.mobydick-hermanmelville.com/History_Historical_Archive/Harpoons_Harpooning_Explosive_Whaling.html">explosive harpoon</a>, which killed whales more efficiently than hand-thrown versions, and the <a href="https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol08/nm_8_1_21-37.pdf">stern slipway</a>, which allowed whale carcasses to be processed on board ships. Along with diesel engines and steel hulls, these technologies enabled whalers to target previously untouched species in once-inaccesible locations, such as the Antarctic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large metal vessels on a stony beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478804/original/file-20220811-26-v2yx47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These cookers and boilers at Whalers Bay, Deception Island, Antarctica, were used to boil down whales’ skin and blubber, extracting their oil, from 1912 to 1931.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2ngFpzv">David Stanley/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Late to the party, late to leave</h2>
<p>As mechanized whaling gained force in the 1920s and ‘30s, Norwegian, British and Japanese whalers cut through populations of blue, fin and humpback whales on a scale that is hard to believe today. In what scientists once thought was the peak catch year, 1937, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276844456_Emptying_the_Oceans_A_Summary_of_Industrial_Whaling_Catches_in_the_20th_Century">over 63,000 large whales were killed and processed</a>. </p>
<p>World War II briefly suspended this slaughter, which many governments were starting to realize threatened the survival of some whale species. In 1946, whalers, statesmen and scientists created the <a href="https://iwc.int/commission/history-and-purpose">International Whaling Commission</a> in hopes of heading off a return to disastrous prewar levels of whaling. </p>
<p>That same year, the USSR joined the IWC and took control over a former Nazi whaleship, which it renamed the Slava, or Glory. No one suspected the central role the country would play in the most disastrous two decades of whales’ long history on Earth. </p>
<h2>The madness of modern whaling</h2>
<p>Despite the IWC’s best intentions, postwar catches rose quickly. By the mid-1950s, even longtime whalers had to admit that big whales were becoming too scarce for their industries to be profitable. All nations except Japan began to ponder the end of whaling.</p>
<p>It thus came as a shock when the Soviet Union announced in 1956 that it planned to build seven new “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18142832?downloadScope=page">floating factories</a>” – gigantic industrial processing ships, accompanied by fleets of smaller “<a href="https://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/whales_whaling/0049.php">catcher” boats</a> that would scour the oceans for whales. </p>
<p>Soviet whale scientists were as stunned as observers elsewhere. These biologists and oceanographers had been watching the decline from ships and from their labs in the Fisheries Ministry and Academy of Sciences since the 1930s.</p>
<p>Instead of supporting the fleet expansion, they argued forcefully that whales stood on the brink of extinction, and whaling should <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/847804">decrease radically, not expand</a>. This was how the Soviet planned economy was meant to work: Science, not profit, would help guide economic decisions, letting planners know how much could be extracted from the natural world and when to stop.</p>
<p>But Soviet officials were determined to finally catch whales on a large scale, as Western nations had done for so long. The Fisheries Ministry ignored its scientists’ recommendations and built five of the seven planned floating factories over the next decade. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man reclines on a beach inside the upper jaw of a whale, lined with baleen plates." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478795/original/file-20220811-24-z8evm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Soviet harpooner poses inside the jaw of a baleen whale in 1965 at an unspecified location.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/soviet-harpooner-whaling-1965-news-photo/1177015343">Touring Club Italiano/Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>By the 1960s, the Soviet Union was the world’s largest whaling nation. Whalers such as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1965/07/22/archives/popular-soviet-whaler-denounced-as-a-tyrant-captain-is-accused-of.html">legendary captain Aleksei Solyanik</a> were celebrated as superstars, comparable to astronauts like Yuri Gagarin.</p>
<p>But the scientists had been right: Many whales species were nearly gone. To produce large catches, Solyanik and other captains decided to ignore international quotas and secretly targeted the most endangered whale species, including blue, humpback and fin whales in the Antarctic and the North Pacific. </p>
<p>In 1961, for example, Soviet fleets killed 9,619 rare humpbacks south of New Zealand, while <a href="https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/pdf-content/mfr761-21.pdf">reporting only 302 to the IWC</a>. This was only a portion of their global catch, which the Soviet Union continued to underreport for years. Driven by <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-senseless-environment-crime-of-the-20th-century-russia-whaling-67774">Moscow’s demands for ever-increasing production</a>, whalers worked at reckless speed, wasting much of the fat and meat taken from the dead whales. It is doubtful the industry was ever profitable. </p>
<p>Thanks to Soviet scientists who preserved some records of these illegal kills and to subsequent work by other scholars, it now appears likely that the Soviet Union killed around 550,000 whales after World War II while <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Too-Much-Is-Never-Enough%3A-The-Cautionary-Tale-of-Ivashchenko-Clapham/2f47ecbcdc3aec60ca3442baff6ed425a06d1872">reporting only 360,000</a>. We now know that global whale harvesting peaked in 1964, not 1937, with a total of 91,783 whales killed – about 40% by Soviet whalers. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCR46bn6Txo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In this 1976 news video, Greenpeace activists confront a Soviet whaling ship on the high seas. NOTE: Contains footage that some viewers may find disturbing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not quite extinct</h2>
<p>By the 1970s, populations of large whales had dwindled to insignificance. Many observers were sure extinction was inevitable. But momentum for whale conservation was growing. </p>
<p>The U.S. <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species-directory/threatened-endangered">listed blue, fin, sei, sperm</a> and <a href="https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=specialstatus.fedsummary&species=humpbackwhale">humpback whales</a> under the law that preceded the Endangered Species Act in 1970, then continued to protect them under that law, enacted in 1973. Whales also received protection in U.S. waters under the <a href="https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/marine-mammal-protection-act">1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to pressure from environmentalists and its own citizens, the Soviet Union ended its whaling industry in 1987. The country accepted a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which remains in force today with only <a href="https://iwc.int/management-and-conservation/whaling/commercial">three holdouts: Norway, Iceland and Japan</a>.</p>
<p>Whale numbers almost immediately began to rebound. Humpback whales were especially successful, but populations of bowhead, fin and sperm whales also expanded in the near absence of commercial whaling. However, some species, notably North Atlantic right whales, remain <a href="https://iucn-csg.org/status-of-the-worlds-cetaceans/">endangered or critically endangered</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic showing number of whale calves born yearly 2007-2022." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478803/original/file-20220811-22-u7l2ly.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered, with a population estimated at less than 368 animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2022-north-atlantic-right-whale-unusual-mortality-event">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one of the greatest conservation successes, Eastern Pacific gray whales are today estimated to have returned to pre-exploitation abundance, and may actually be reaching the limits of what their <a href="https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/gemmlab/2019/06/04/current-gray-whale-die-off-a-concern-or-simply-the-circle-of-life/">primary foraging grounds in the Bering Sea can support</a>. And in 2018 and 2019, German scientists and researchers from the BBC observed and filmed fin whales feeding around the Antarctic peninsula in vast pods that recalled the way the ocean must have looked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13798-7">before the 20th century</a>. </p>
<p>Thanks to the Russian scientists who opposed their country’s disastrous whaling expansion and kept its records, we know how many whales were lost in the 20th century. That information can also help scientists, governments and conservationists judge whales’ remarkable but far from complete recovery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186709/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Jones receives funding from Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. </span></em></p>The Soviet Union was a latecomer to industrial whaling, but it slaughtered whales by the thousands once it started and radically under-reported its take to international monitors.Ryan Jones, Associate Professor of History, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841422022-06-01T03:32:48Z2022-06-01T03:32:48ZShould you feed child guests dinner? What #Swedengate tells us about food culture and social expectations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466471/original/file-20220601-48845-4zgi4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C5431%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From meatballs and cakes to soups and seafood, Sweden is known for its hearty cuisine. It’s also renowned for its <a href="https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/sweden/">quality of life</a>, topping many countries in happiness, equality and social connection.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is why news on Reddit and Twitter that Swedes don’t feed child guests dinner caused a stir online. As <a href="https://twitter.com/SamQari/status/1529868644846641153">one poster explained</a>, while over at a friend’s house as a child, the family ate dinner together – and the friend was expected to wait.</p>
<p>Some Swedes supported these claims, saying unannounced child guests often weren’t accounted for in meal planning, that it could be <a href="https://twitter.com/malin_ryden/status/1530849758755028994">down to class</a>, or food wasn’t offered “<a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20220530/fact-check-do-swedish-parents-really-not-feed-kids-on-playdates/">out of respect</a>” for the parents of the visiting child – they might have planned dinner which would then be “wasted”.</p>
<p>Who is allowed to go without in a prosperous and inclusive society was debated under the hashtag #Swedengate, and ignited discussion about expectations of hospitality in Sweden and further abroad.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1529868644846641153"}"></div></p>
<h2>The anthropology of food</h2>
<p>The act of eating is steeped in cultural practice. Food and eating possess cultural meanings that impose order on what is eaten, when, how and by whom. </p>
<p>Social anthropologists have long studied how people eat and what this says about cultural norms.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3614777.html">Claude Lévi-Strauss’ work</a> among Brazilian Indigenous peoples highlighted ingrained cultural habits about food preparation and how these practices can inform a culture’s system of knowledge. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674212770">Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis</a> of French society showed how a person’s ability to exercise “good taste” is connected to the operation of power and their position in society.</p>
<p>The company we keep during mealtimes has also been explored by anthropologists. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971306?seq=1">Maurice Bloch famously quipped</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>in all societies, sharing food is a way of establishing closeness, while, conversely, the refusal to share is one of the clearest marks of distance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is easy to observe this in our own lives. We prefer to eat with friends rather than strangers. It is possible to sit too closely to people we don’t know and sometimes not sit closely enough to loved ones. There are observable differences in expected behaviours when consuming finger food versus a sit-down dinner.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1530940506506674178"}"></div></p>
<h2>The kindness of a meal</h2>
<p>The #Swedengate controversy demonstrates how cultural norms regulate behaviour and produce expectations. </p>
<p>In Australia – and seemingly most countries, accounting for the ensuing discussion on Reddit and Twitter – we believe physical presence should lead to a meal invitation.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-elementary-structures-of-kinship-9780807046692">Lévi-Strauss wrote</a>, eating with others is based on reciprocity: receiving guests is repaid through offering a meal. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1530961995209805824"}"></div></p>
<p>Twitter users quickly <a href="https://twitter.com/QJUXUQ/status/1531092011280891904">suggested</a> meals were similarly not offered to unaccounted for children in other Nordic countries, with comparisons made to more “hospitable” areas of <a href="https://twitter.com/KantyashLive/status/1530914952319475714">Europe</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Mystic_Cabbages/status/1530961995209805824">Asia</a>.</p>
<p>Connections were also made with Nordic Viking culture from antiquity and how a meal or gift was <a href="https://twitter.com/WallySierk/status/1530956689855217665">similar to a debt</a>.</p>
<p>There is limited evidence of the honour and debt practices of the Vikings bearing on contemporary Nordic culture. But we can clearly see how differences in eating practices can highlight the different meanings different communities attach to sharing a meal.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-americas-sandwiches-the-story-of-a-nation-86649">In America's sandwiches, the story of a nation</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Sharing meals in Iceland</h2>
<p>The culture of not extending an invitation to guests for dinner is certainly not standard across all Nordic cultures.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02757206.2020.1762589">research I conducted</a> among Icelandic families after the 2008 global financial crisis, I observed the way I was received at mealtimes as a cultural “outsider”.</p>
<p>At one gathering, I sat as an invited guest among a family of seven spaced out around a large dining table, highlighting the formality of the afternoon. </p>
<p>At another event, a farewell party, several people known to one another crowded around a four-seat kitchen table, picking at food on a few plates. The closeness of bodies at this event gestured at its informality and social intimacy.</p>
<p>But meals aren’t always to be shared. One woman I interviewed recalled her decision to walk out of a restaurant when a banker associated with the economic crisis arrived:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I just looked at him and walked out. We don’t forgive or forget, not these men. Most people wouldn’t scream or anything, we’re a little more polite. We walk away. They can have the restaurant to themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1531266478909149184"}"></div></p>
<h2>The meaning of a meal</h2>
<p>The offer or denial of a meal can be telling of social relations. #Swedengate shows how invites can be dependent on historical precedent, parental expectation or food wastage.</p>
<p>Localised norms have existed in all cultures across history. Denial isn’t necessarily an act of inhospitality – it just points to cultural norms, contested as they may be, as seen through the #Swedengate controversy.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1531296270077288450"}"></div></p>
<p>Hasty judgements about food and eating are not always accurate. Deeper meanings have always been behind mealtime offerings. </p>
<p>Perhaps what is most interesting about #Swedengate is not what it tells us about Sweden, but what it tells us about ourselves.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-european-countries-ever-take-meaningful-steps-to-end-colonial-legacies-148581">Will European countries ever take meaningful steps to end colonial legacies?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by the Australian Government's Research Training Program (RTP). Timothy Heffernan is also affiliated with ANU College of Health and Medicine as a research assistant.</span></em></p>Perhaps what is most interesting about #Swedengate is not what it tells us about Sweden, but what it tells us about ourselves.Timothy Heffernan, Postdoctoral fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814672022-04-20T12:17:00Z2022-04-20T12:17:00ZWhy freezing the Arctic Council is bad news for global security<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458671/original/file-20220419-11-9cudmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C143%2C2249%2C1390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eight countries with territory in the Arctic make up the Arctic Council.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/xArWvGrQUG4">Mike Swigunski/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past quarter-century, the Arctic has been a unique <a href="https://arctic-council.org/news/reflections-on-the-past-and-future-of-the-arctic-council/">zone of cooperation</a> among the eight countries of the high north: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States. Even when relations between Moscow and the West soured, the <a href="https://arctic-council.org/">Arctic Council</a>’s work was a reminder that multilateral partnerships could thrive despite global discord.</p>
<p>The point of the Arctic Council is to foster collaboration in areas such as scientific research, search and rescue operations and the challenges posed by climate change. Under its auspices, friends and adversaries alike – as well as nonstate actors, such as Indigenous groups – can sit down, talk and find common ground. In early 2022, lawmakers from Norway <a href="https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/arctic-council-nominated-nobel-peace-prize">nominated the council</a> for the Nobel Peace Prize for its collaborative spirit.</p>
<p>That collaboration ended shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. One week after the start of the war, seven of the eight Arctic Council members announced that they would “<a href="https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-arctic-council-cooperation-following-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/">pause” their work</a> with the organization. Russia, which holds the council’s presidency through 2023, was left ostracized.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map centered on the North pole showing the Arctic Circle and the countries with Arctic territory." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458460/original/file-20220418-1583-yxwwni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of the Arctic shows sea routes and the eight Arctic countries. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Kingdom of Denmark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_shipping_routes#/media/File:Map_of_the_Arctic_region_showing_the_Northeast_Passage,_the_Northern_Sea_Route_and_Northwest_Passage,_and_bathymetry.png">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The freeze of the Arctic Council is a loss on many fronts. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1flW-MIAAAAJ&hl=enhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1flW-MIAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of</a> <a href="https://polisci.colostate.edu/gabriella-gricius/">Arctic security</a>, I see cooperation in the region as essential to global security, and I believe an expanded set of institutions is needed to reflect new global realities as the Arctic warms.</p>
<h2>Security and cooperation in the Arctic</h2>
<p>The eight Arctic countries formed the Arctic Council in 1996. While the council <a href="https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/85">explicitly steers clear of military issues</a>, its members are stewards of the Arctic region. Unsurprisingly, the organization has grown in importance with <a href="https://acia.amap.no/">global warming</a>. </p>
<p>Warmer temperatures and <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/">declining sea ice</a> are opening <a href="https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/geopolitical-implications-arctic-shipping-lanes/">new shipping routes</a> and, likely, expanding opportunities to exploit <a href="https://nordregio.org/maps/resources-in-the-arctic-2019/">oil, gas and other critical minerals</a> – changes that <a href="https://mwi.usma.edu/why-does-russia-want-to-resume-military-dialogue-in-the-arctic/">could spur conflict</a> if not handled carefully.</p>
<p>Through the council, the Arctic states have made agreements related to <a href="https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/531">search and rescue</a> operations, <a href="https://arctic-council.org/news/ratification-completed-for-agreement-on-oil-pollution-preparedness-and-response/">oil pollution</a> and <a href="https://arctic-council.org/news/scientific-cooperation-agreement-enters-into-force/">scientific collaboration</a>. The council has tracked environmental changes in the region with its yearly Arctic <a href="https://acia.amap.no/">Climate Impact Assessment reports</a>. Even when relations between East and West were <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/">at their worst</a>, including in 2014 when Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, joint endeavors in the Arctic remained strong.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Six people sitting around a table. Blinken and Lavrov are making eye contact from opposite sides of the table. The U.S. and Russian flags are in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458712/original/file-20220419-13-rv7r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in 2021 in Iceland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IcelandUnitedStatesRussia/c5c3ca054c8c4bb18ed833fd74532fe0/photo?Query=21139779948765&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pausing the work of the Arctic Council was an understandable <a href="https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-arctic-council-cooperation-following-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/">response</a> to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet in doing so, the other Arctic countries lost a valuable line of communication with Moscow. In time, it will be important to resume the council or establish a new institution in its place.</p>
<p>Indeed, working with Russia in the Arctic is even more important now than it was before the invasion. From a global security perspective, it is essential that the hot war in Europe be prevented from spilling over into the Arctic and one of the world’s last wildernesses.</p>
<h2>The case for engaging Russia</h2>
<p>Consider, for example, that while tensions are at an all-time high in Ukraine, it might be easy to <a href="https://livableworld.org/the-close-calls-how-false-alarms-triggered-fears-of-nuclear-war/">mistake a flock of geese</a> or a meteor shower for a military attack. Having a way for errors like these to be quickly remedied will be important in this new era of geopolitical competition.</p>
<p>Preserving and enhancing cooperation in the Arctic will take bold leadership. Some critics argue that institutionalizing military dialogue with Russia in the Arctic is an improper response to wanton aggression in Eastern Europe and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/01/31/lessons-from-ukraine-for-the-arctic-russian-dialogue-isnt-always-what-it-seems/">could be seen as legitimizing Russia’s actions</a>. These are valid concerns.</p>
<p>However, giving up on cooperation would be a mistake. The whole world will benefit if the high north can avoid the <a href="https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/the-history-and-future-of-arctic-state-conflict-the-arctic-institute-conflict-series">fate of militarization</a>, a costly arms race and the terrible specter of war.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A servicemember in military coat and hat stands with military ships behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458713/original/file-20220419-14894-fbrcod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russia’s North Atlantic fleet has a base at Severomorsk, not far from Russia’s borders with Norway and Finland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-shows-warships-at-the-russian-northern-fleets-arctic-news-photo/1232870065">Maxime Popov/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ideally, engaging Russia within an expanded set of regional institutions – an invigorated Arctic Council, to be sure, but also a new military forum – would precipitate a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Meeting_China_Halfway/f_x0DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22cooperation%20spiral%22&pg=PA12&printsec=frontcover&bsq=%22cooperation%20spiral%22">cooperation spiral</a>, increasing cooperation that could help lessen tensions elsewhere. Even if collaboration were confined to the Arctic, this would <a href="https://www.rand.org/blog/2022/03/putins-actions-in-ukraine-are-spilling-north.html">boost</a> global security.</p>
<h2>A new Arctic?</h2>
<p>In the past, the Arctic states sought to maintain peace and stability in their region by divorcing contentious military issues from areas where common ground was easier to find. This has been the <a href="https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/bitstream/handle/11374/85/EDOCS-1752-v2-ACMMCA00_Ottawa_1996_Founding_Declaration.PDF">modus vivendi of the Arctic Council</a> since its founding.</p>
<p>Going forward, it would be better to recognize that robust and ongoing cooperation is needed on security issues, too. Trust between Russia and the West might never return, but cooperation in the Arctic cannot be allowed to disappear with it.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=politics&source=inline-politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriella Gricius does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Arctic Council was the world’s primary forum for cooperation among the eight Arctic nations and a channel for diplomacy – until Russia launched a war.Gabriella Gricius, Graduate Fellow with North American and Arctic Defense Security Network, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753562022-01-21T12:52:04Z2022-01-21T12:52:04ZA killer app for the metaverse? Fill it with AI avatars of ourselves – so we don’t need to go there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441734/original/file-20220120-9300-1glq55t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready avatar one?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-rendering-abstract-two-ai-humans-1042711414">Athitat Shinagowin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big numbers coming. Microsoft’s US$75 billion (£55 billion) acquisition of Activision Blizzard has landed – true to Call of Duty vernacular – “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b96246ec-e70e-48b6-9a70-fb0800f79bd8">like a bomb</a>” on the US$200 billion revenue video games industry. </p>
<p>It heavily arms the Xbox giant for its vision of the metaverse, in which gaming is the marketing adrenaline of this much-touted online future that is to be experienced immersively through virtual reality (VR) headsets or augmented-reality (AR) glasses. The stock market knocked US$10 billion off Playstation maker Sony’s valuation on the news. </p>
<p>The metaverse was also a big noise at the <a href="https://www.ces.tech/">Consumer Electronics Show</a> in Las Vegas earlier this month, branded “<a href="https://variety.com/vip-special-reports/metaverse-and-media-how-techs-hottest-trend-will-impact-the-entertainment-industry-1235116381/">tech’s hottest trend</a>” by Variety magazine. Product launches included Samsung’s new VR world <a href="https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-joins-metaverse-ces-my-house-virtual-space/">My House</a>, offering virtual home makeovers; and US beauty tech group <a href="https://www.perfectcorp.com/business">Perfect Corp’s</a> AR-driven virtual beauty <a href="https://martechseries.com/predictive-ai/ai-platforms-machine-learning/perfect-corp-launches-ces-2022-metaverse-booth-experience-showcasing-the-latest-beauty-fashion-metaverse-ready-tech-solutions/">makeover range</a>, which lets people experiment with cosmetics and accessories using AR. </p>
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<p>Certainly the metaverse has been fast-moving, even since (in October 2021) Facebook renamed itself Meta - a bold step when VR only brings in <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/facebooks-vr-business-is-bigger-than-you-think-and-it-is-masking-the-companys-true-profitability-51624895223">about 3%</a> of the company’s current revenue. But Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/metaverse-may-be-800-billion-market-next-tech-platform/">is predicting</a> that the overall metaverse will be generating revenues of US$800 billion as soon as 2024 (compared to US$500 billion in 2020), so the prize is huge. </p>
<p>About half of that 2024 projection is expected from video games, while a substantial remainder is from live entertainment – and major artists like Ariana Grande and Marshmello have already been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5EAPwXxcng">holding concerts</a> in the virtual world. </p>
<p>Yet besides niche attractions for early adopters, what about the rest of us? Will we sign up for virtual interaction en masse when the technology is ready in a few years time? Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg thinks that the <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/meta-facebook-connect-2021-metaverse-event-transcript">metaverse will</a> allow people “to feel present – like we’re right there … no matter how far apart we actually are”. </p>
<h2>But hang on a second</h2>
<p>Maybe Zuckerberg shouldn’t be so sure. Change in tech and entertainment is never predictable – as anyone who remembers <a href="https://entertainment.ie/movies/movie-news/the-slow-quiet-death-of-3d-cinema-447459/">3D movies</a> will confirm.</p>
<p>As Elon Musk said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRKd4U6Ixg">in December</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I currently am unable to see a compelling metaverse situation … I don’t see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day and not wanting to ever leave. Sure, you can put a TV on your nose. I’m not sure that makes you ‘in the metaverse’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An organisation that promotes all things Icelandic, Inspired by Iceland, tapped into similar concerns with an November 2021 commercial titled “Introducing the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMwwQy_noI">Icelandverse</a>”. The host parodied Zuckerberg’s evangelical “I’m so excited to tell you” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIxPRwgXFQg">launch film</a> for Meta, to champion analogue existence instead: “It’s already here … Enhanced actual reality, without silly-looking headsets … It’s completely immersive, with water that’s wet.” </p>
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<p>Those makers <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/11/12/22778984/facebook-meta-metaverse-parody-video-iceland-icelandverse">deserve an award</a> for spotting the zeitgeist. Social and entertainment trends show plenty of people craving real-world experiences. US data shows an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-citylab-how-americans-moved/">urban shuffle</a> out of cities to smaller towns and the great outdoors, for instance. Touring is the <a href="https://medium.com/bandbasher/why-touring-will-be-your-biggest-source-of-revenue-2464fd47b655">principle revenue driver</a> in music (pandemic aside). </p>
<p>German filmmaker Jens Meurer’s analogue-celebrating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVmy7ZgPO9E">The Impossible Project</a> has just hit the cinemas, about the man who saved the last Polaroid factory. The UK’s BBC One has a hit show in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l581p">The Repair Shop</a>, conceptual opposite of the metaverse: “A workshop filled with expert craftspeople … A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.” </p>
<p>It’s therefore easy to query the idea of a seamless theme park future where your life is a video game. Attractive products coming down the pipes will tempt some people – Apple reportedly has cool VR/AR <a href="https://www.t3.com/news/if-this-is-apples-ar-headset-they-can-have-my-money-right-now">ski-style goggles</a>, and Bond-style <a href="https://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/17590/ces-2022-unlocking-the-metaverse-with-contact-lenses">intelligent contact lenses</a> have already been made. But will we really embrace office life VR-style (possible now on Oculus) where your accounts team are avatars with hipster beards, and your Monday sales catch-up is in a virtual ski lodge?</p>
<h2>Meet your AI avatars</h2>
<p>Appropriately enough, there is an alternative paradigm for the alternative paradigm that is the metaverse. Instead of us accessing the metaverse, we could leave it to someone else - delegating it to synthetic versions of ourselves created via machine learning. </p>
<p>Trained on our needs and likes, our synthetic selves would navigate digital spaces with ease. Combine everything Amazon and Facebook know already about your purchase intent, add your dinner conversation, a quick morning meeting to set priorities – and your digital avatar could be a functioning replica.</p>
<p>It would need no physical existence, but could synthesise your speech and your physical features and go forth into metaland. It will negotiate your new electricity contract, pick some clothes out, book a plumber – you name it. </p>
<p>This is the metaverse where the work gets done: our avatars execute the boring jobs in the virtual world - buying a new fridge, negotiating a deal - while we focus on what really matters in the real one. </p>
<p>It could function like the invisible place below the stairs where the actual work gets done in Downton Abbey. Or as your own private call centre, with banks of agent versions of you handling tedious customers, while the real you can go to the real beach. (The New Yorker once called the author Clive James “a great bunch of guys”. In the metaverse that could actually be true.)</p>
<p>Strip back the metaverse to this functional space and it’s even more interesting than the current, predominantly entertainment-driven conceits - and possibly an even bigger opportunity. Sure, we’ve all heard about dystopian AIs or alarming reports on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/deepfakes-dangerous-crime-artificial-intelligence-a9655821.html">deep fakes</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots?t=1640209459265">bot armies</a>, but there will be blockchain ways of proving our avatar identities in the metaverse so the worst dangers can be avoided. </p>
<p>And as AI guru Andrew Ng at Stanford <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/andrew-ng-why-ai-new-electricity#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CWorrying%20about%20evil%20AI%20killer,issue%2C%20which%20is%20job%20displacement.">put it anyway</a>: “Worrying about evil AI killer robots today is a little bit like worrying about overpopulation on the planet Mars.”</p>
<p>The space is still forming. But maybe AI replicas will be the killer application that brings us the best of virtual worlds, without giving up the best of the real world we have already. </p>
<p>As they put it in Steven Spielberg’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">Ready Player One</a>: “Reality is the only thing that’s real.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Connock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people are talking about this coming virtual world, but many others would rather stay where they are.Alex Connock, Fellow at Said Business School, University of Oxford, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640832021-07-13T20:10:54Z2021-07-13T20:10:54ZThe success of Iceland’s ‘four-day week’ trial has been greatly overstated<p>It almost seems too good to be true: a major trial in Iceland shows that cutting the standard five-day week to four days for the same pay needn’t cost employers a cent (or, to be accurate, a krona).</p>
<p>Unfortunately it is too good to be true. </p>
<p>While even highly reputable media outlets such as the BBC have reported on the “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57724779">overwhelming success</a>” of large-scale trials of a four-day week in Iceland from 2015 to 2019, that’s not actually the case.</p>
<p>The truth is less spectacular — interesting and important enough in its own right, but not quite living up to the media spin, including that these trials have led to the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/12/a-4-day-workweek-is-the-norm-in-iceland-could-the-us-follow-.html">widespread adoption</a> of a four-day work week in Iceland.</p>
<h2>Four hours at best</h2>
<p>The media reports are based on a report co-published by Iceland’s <a href="https://en.alda.is/">Alda</a> (Association for Democracy and Sustainability) and Britain’s <a href="https://autonomy.work/">Autonomy</a> think tank about two trials involving Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic government. The trials covered 66 workplaces and about 2,500 workers.</p>
<p>They did not involve a four-day work week. This is indicated by the report’s title – <a href="https://autonomy.work/portfolio/icelandsww/">Going Public: Iceland’s journey to a shorter working week</a>. In fact the document of more 80 pages refers to a four-day week just twice, in its first two paragraphs, and only then as a reference point for what the trials were actually about:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In recent years, calls for shorter working hours without a reduction in pay — often framed in terms of a ‘four-day week’ — have become increasingly prominent across Europe.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Going Public: Iceland's Journey to a Shorter Working Week, June 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410978/original/file-20210713-19-b4oj8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Going Public: Iceland’s Journey to a Shorter Working Week, June 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">https://autonomy.work/portfolio/icelandsww/</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Read on to the third paragraph and you’ll learn the study “involved two large-scale trials of shorter working hours — in which workers moved from a 40-hour to a 35- or 36-hour week, without reduced pay”. </p>
<p>A four-day week trial would have involved reducing the working week by seven to eight hours. Instead the maximum reduction in these trials was just four hours. In 61 of the 66 workplaces it was one to three hours. </p>
<p>Which is not to say the results – no adverse effect on output or services delivered – is unimpressive. Nor is the upshot. As a result of the trials, unions and employers have formalised country-wide agreements to make reduced working hours permanent. </p>
<p>But these have provided for a reduction of just 35 minutes a week in the private sector and 65 minutes in the public sector (though larger reductions are available for shift workers). That’s a long way from making a four-day week the norm. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-life-of-long-weekends-is-alluring-but-the-shorter-working-day-may-be-more-practical-127817">A life of long weekends is alluring, but the shorter working day may be more practical</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The ‘Hawthorne effect’</h2>
<p>In interpreting the results of such studies, we always need to be cautious.</p>
<p>In regard to this and similar experiments, it is always possible the “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hawthorne-effect.asp">Hawthorne effect</a>” might have been at work. This effect refers to 1930s experiments with factory workers in the US that showed how their awareness of being the subject of experiments affected their behaviour, and hence productivity levels. </p>
<p>Could this have been at work in the Iceland trials? The work units involved volunteers to take part in the experiments and so might well have been motivated to make them work as intended. This may not be replicated in more widespread changed working arrangements. </p>
<p>Workers could, of course, be expected to enjoy reduced working hours, but would they replicate the working practices required to maintain productivity levels? </p>
<p>This depends on the nature of these changed working practices and their sustainability. This in turn may depend on whether enhancements in productivity are achieved by harder or more intensive working or by “smarter” working and/or improved equipment. This all calls for further research.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in service-industry settings such as the Iceland examples, a control sample of similar workplaces should ideally be monitored to be sure of the reliability of the conclusions drawn.</p>
<h2>A four-day week won’t come easy</h2>
<p>Despite these words of caution, there is still a strong case to be made for a four-day week. It’s a case I’ve argued previously in my book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Whatever-Happened-to-the-Leisure-Society/Veal/p/book/9780367519933">Whatever Happened to the Leisure Society?</a> (Routledge, 2019). </p>
<p>There is no reason why the long-term march towards reduced working hours should stop at the arbitrary “standard” figure of five days and 40 hours established in the post-World War II period.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-put-the-15-hour-work-week-back-on-the-agenda-106754">It's time to put the 15-hour work week back on the agenda</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Experiments will continue. I’ve written previously in <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-life-of-long-weekends-is-alluring-but-the-shorter-working-day-may-be-more-practical-127817">The Conversation</a> about some of these in Japan and New Zealand. The Autonomy think tank has <a href="http://autonomy.work/portfolio/the-shorter-working-week-a-report-from-autonomy-in-collaboration-with-members-of-the-4-day-week-campaign/">counted a dozen</a>, most of them by smallish “creative” agencies but also by consulting heavyweight KPMG. </p>
<p>But I don’t think widespread adoption of the four-day week will come easily or necessarily all in one go. Instead it’s going to have to come incrementally.</p>
<p>It took half of the 20th century and a great deal of campaigning against concerted employer opposition for workers in Western industrial societies to reduce their standard working week from 60 hours over six days to 40 hours over five days. </p>
<p>It’s just not likely to come as effortlessly as these misleading reports suggest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Veal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Iceland has trialled shorter working hours, but not a four-day week.Anthony Veal, Adjunct Professor, Business School, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565102021-03-04T13:39:17Z2021-03-04T13:39:17ZSouth-west Iceland is shaking – and may be about to erupt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387753/original/file-20210304-21-tqout3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5293%2C3499&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Reykjanes Peninsula.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunset-over-reykjanes-peninsula-close-reykjavik-311967737">Johann Helgason/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 17,000 earthquakes have been recorded in the south-west of Iceland, in the <a href="https://www.visitreykjanes.is/en">Reykjanes Peninsula</a>, during the past week. People living in the area have been advised to be extra careful due to <a href="https://en.vedur.is/">dangers of landslides and rockfall</a>. Many of the larger earthquakes have even been felt in Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik (where over half of the population lives), which lies only 27km away. </p>
<p>This has led to heightened concerns about the effects of even larger earthquakes and also of a possible eruption from the <a href="http://icelandicvolcanoes.is/?volcano=KRI">Krýsuvík volcanic system</a> in the area.</p>
<p>South-west Iceland has a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/10/awakening-volcanic-region-reykjanes-peninsula-iceland-disruption-centuries">track record of centuries of calm</a>, which we know can be broken by turbulent periods of intense earthquake activity accompanied by volcanic eruptions. It looks like we are entering the next turbulent period.</p>
<p>The most recent earthquake swarm is in fact the latest in a period of significantly heightened seismic activity that started over a year ago. The shaking of the Earth is the most obvious manifestation of the release of huge amounts of energy. But magma has also been quietly accumulating nearer to the surface – and when this happens there is <a href="https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/04/more-stable-though-eruption-risk-remains">increased likelihood</a> of the surface breaking and the volcanoes erupting.</p>
<p>On March 3, concern rose sharply as <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/earthquake-swarm-in-reykjanes-peninsula">a type of earthquake activity</a> characteristic of the movement of magma was detected, indicating that an eruption might be imminent. The Civil Defence and other authorities have held press conferences, closed roads and heightened visual surveillance of the area above the potential eruption site. Of course, magma may move in the crust and then stop, but it is always wisest to plan for an eruption and then to scale back if nothing happens.</p>
<h2>Huge uncertainties</h2>
<p>The problem is that the last time south-west of Iceland experienced such a turbulent period of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions <a href="https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=371030">was in the 1300s</a> – when there was no equipment to monitor seismic activity. There were also far fewer people around, which means that we don’t really know what signals there were before eruptions occurred. So there are huge uncertainties.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of Reykjavik." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387739/original/file-20210304-21-n2lv6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scenic view of Reykjavik.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/scenery-view-reykjavik-capital-city-iceland-398496772">Boyloso/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Iceland has a world-leading network for monitoring seismic and volcanic unrest, and an excellent track record of anticipating eruptions and of maintaining the safety of its population. So if an eruption did happen, chances are all will be well.</p>
<p>An eruption in this area will be nothing like the highly disruptive explosive eruption of <a href="https://ncas.ac.uk/eyjafjallajokull-2010-how-an-icelandic-volcano-eruption-closed-european-skies/">Eyjafjallajökull in 2010</a>, or the much larger explosive but much less disruptive explosive eruption of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13487858">Grímsvötn in 2011</a>. Eruptions in south-west Iceland are of a fluid rock type called basalt. This results in slow-moving streams of lava fed from gently exploding craters and cones. </p>
<p>In Iceland these are warmly called “tourist eruptions” as they are relatively safe and predictable, and offer the opportunity for many hundreds of people to witness a magical natural spectacle – the creation of new land. In the past, tourists have flocked to Iceland to witness such eruptions, but at present there is a five-day quarantine period for tourists entering Iceland due to the pandemic. </p>
<p>At the current area of unrest, there are no nearby habitations – it is reassuringly remote. Lava streams flowing away from the area are very unlikely to damage any property on predicted pathways, but if the lava makes its way to the sea, it will cut off a few roads.</p>
<h2>International impact?</h2>
<p>The biggest concern internationally about a volcanic eruption in Iceland is disruption to air travel. Not only can winds carry ash clouds swiftly towards western Europe (as we saw with the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010), but ash clouds can get high into the atmosphere and into the stratosphere where commercial airlines travel across the busy Atlantic flight corridors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of the volcanic system." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387759/original/file-20210304-19-n5dy3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volcanic landscape of south-west Iceland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave McGarvie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the volcanoes in south-west Iceland tend not to produce much ash, and so the risk to disruption of international air travel is considered very small. Should an eruption start, flights would be halted automatically at the <a href="https://www.isavia.is/en/keflavik-airport">Keflavík international airport</a>, which is only 22km away, until a fuller evaluation has been carried out.</p>
<p>The wind direction has a major effect here, and given that the prevailing wind is from a westerly direction and Keflavík sits on the western side of this south-west peninsular, winds would be expected to carry any ash away from Keflavík. The crucial effect of wind direction was highlighted beautifully in 2010 when Keflavík airport remained open while airports across Western Europe <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2010/apr/21/iceland-volcano-uk-flights-resume">were closed for weeks</a>.</p>
<p>While current COVID-19 restrictions on entering Iceland will prevent hordes of tourists from travelling to see a potential eruption, there will be plenty of Icelanders travelling to observe it. They have a quirky saying in Iceland “whilst in most countries people usually run away from volcanic eruptions, in Iceland we usually run towards them”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156510/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave McGarvie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The last time south-west Iceland experienced a turbulent period of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions was in the 1300s.Dave McGarvie, Volcanologist, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425362020-12-06T13:17:39Z2020-12-06T13:17:39ZWill Ferrell’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ movie is the laugh we need this holiday<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366472/original/file-20201029-15-1ezyy7l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C13%2C1258%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell in 'Eurovision Song Contest' will inspire viewers with more than keeping up fashionable appearances through December holidays in lockdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you missed the Netflix debut of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8580274/"><em>Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</em></a>, there are reasons to watch it now that go beyond being inspired to keep up fashionable appearances through a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-november-23-1.5812272">winter in COVID-19 lockdown</a> or dreaming about travelling to beautiful Icelandic landscapes. </p>
<p>The movie <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/06/eurovision-netflix-will-ferrell-review">starring, co-written and produced by the hilarious Will Ferrell</a>, is about the most popular song contest in the world that is watched across <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-worlds-most-popular-s_b_9252196">Europe and beyond</a>. Although many in North America only learned recently of Eurovision, it has been an all-consuming obsession for many Europeans since 1956.</p>
<p>The film is a popular exploration of what I have examined as an education researcher: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/street-art-personal-creations-get-political-with-public-messaging-115945">pop-up pedagogy</a>” — when a person doesn’t plan to take part in educational activities but ends up gaining knowledge unexpectedly anyway. This type of learning through <a href="http://journaldialogue.org/issues/learning-about-people-places-and-spaces-of-the-world-through-informal-pedagogy-socio-intercultural-constructions-and-connections-to-popular-culture/">popular art forms and media isn’t any less meaningful to people than what’s gained through formal education</a>. </p>
<p>As I learned as a young person who immigrated to Portugal in my early youth, the televised song contest suggests the ways that sharing song and media in popular culture can be accessible ways of inviting people <a href="https://theconversation.com/schlager-scandi-pop-and-sparkles-your-guide-to-the-musical-styles-of-eurovision-96268">into new artistic, musical</a> and cultural forms across borders and might even prompt changes in how we relate. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DPT1AiXH5Xk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Origins of the contest</h2>
<p>In 1956, the European Broadcasting Union, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/eurovision-2019-song-contest-what-is-the-point-purpose-pop-history-a8916801.html">an alliance of public broadcasters from different countries, first ran Eurovision Song Contest as a way to promote co-operation among countries</a>. </p>
<p>Since that time, 52 countries, not all from Europe, have entered original songs that <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/182-million-viewers-2019-eurovision-song-contest">end up being heard by millions of people around the world during the yearly live show</a>.</p>
<p>Despite much of the media coverage of the contest falling on its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/may/08/eurovision-song-contest-eye-catching-outfits-in-pictures">over-the-top fashion</a>, its <a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1141-10-wonderfully-weird-eurovision-performances/">unusual performances</a> and <a href="https://eurovision.tv/gallery/the-memorable-props-of-the-eurovision-song-contest">stage props</a>, Eurovision’s enthusiastic showcase of diversity is a great way to learn about cultural traditions and languages from different countries. </p>
<p>At Eurovision, every year, there are entries sung entirely or partially in languages other than English. Of course, a person isn’t going to learn a new language just by watching Eurovision (although they might be inspired to), but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104644">research shows that when a person is exposed to multiple languages they are able to learn a new one more easily</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers have linked <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/108648220000500505">learning about diverse perspectives</a>
with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221546.2012.11777232">improved critical thinking</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110361707">creativity</a>. More importantly, exposure to different cultures can lead <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-010-0401-5">to interacting with people from different backgrounds in more positive ways and increased openness to differences</a>.</p>
<h2>Language and community preservation</h2>
<p>Some of the songs showcased through Eurovision have presented opportunities to learn about history and language preservation. For example, <a href="https://elalliance.org/languages/celtic/breton/">Breton, a Celtic language spoken in northwestern France</a>, was heard at the 1996 Eurovision contest, when guitarist <a href="http://www.danarbraz.com/">Dan Ar Braz</a> of Brittany with L'Héritage du Celtes performed <a href="https://youtu.be/DqIRYrzHoJo">a song called Diwanit Bugale</a>. </p>
<p>Breton is a language that has <a href="https://globaljournalist.org/2015/01/disappearing-languages-get-lifeline-technology">seen a decrease in speakers over the years</a>. When Dan Ar Braz performed on a world stage, it was an opportunity for people to not only hear Breton but to learn about the struggle to keep the language alive. </p>
<p>More recently, Norway’s 2019 entry <a href="https://youtu.be/3EmUmbhDRiY">by the band KEiiNO</a> showcased <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/keiino-sing-and-joik-in-the-first-rehearsal-of-norway">the Sámi language</a> spoken by the <a href="https://www.iwgia.org/en/sapmi.html">Sámi, an Indigenous people of the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Kola Peninsula in the far north west of Russia</a>. KEiinO is a trio that includes <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/keiino">Sámi rapper Fred Buljo</a>. Their song also featured joik, a traditional form of Sámi music that is part of the <a href="http://vejournal.org/index.php/vejournal/article/view/1">traditional culture that earlier generations were prohibited from practising</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/182-million-viewers-2019-eurovision-song-contest">With an audience of 182 million tuning in in 2019</a>, many people had an opportunity to learn about an Indigenous language through a song presented at Eurovision. </p>
<h2>Bringing people together</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Ferrell with wife Viveca Paulin arrive at the 2019 LACMA Art + Film Gala Presented By Gucci.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the surface, this comedy is not about the political transformation that can happen through exposure to new cultural exchange; it’s rather about the small personal changes that can shift through being open to new dimensions of relationships and seeing ourselves in new ways. </p>
<p>But let’s not forget the movie also offers a kind of meta-commentary on the Donald Trump years in the United States. </p>
<p>This comes in hilarious doses such as when we see (the American) Ferrell in <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a32980239/eurovision-song-contest-review/">role as an Icelander screaming at American tourists: “Go home and build your wall!”</a> Ferrell learned <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6569694/will-ferrell-wife-viveca-paulin-eurovision/">about Eurovision through his wife, Viveca Paulin, who is Swedish</a>.</p>
<p>Traditional education has begun to recognize how learning opportunities provided by the Eurovision Song Contest are vast. The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/eurovision/euphoria-eurovision-is-now-a-degree-course-at-the-university-of-melbourne-10307565.html">University of Melbourne has offered a course where students learn about the history of Europe through Eurovision</a> and the <a href="https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/uncommon-blog/uncommon-class-eurovision-song-contest">University of Chicago has also offered a course on the famous song contest</a>.</p>
<p>For those who prefer a more informal approach to learning, the Eurovision Song Contest returns in May 2021, but don’t worry if that’s too long to wait. </p>
<p>The movie is on Netflix along with all of its wackiness, like <a href="https://youtu.be/mr0n-pr_m4Q?t=24">Ferrell running in a gigantic hamster wheel while singing Euro-pop in a flashy, silver outfit</a>. Frankly, if you’re in Canada, facing three more months of dark, <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/home-for-the-holidays-how-new-travel-restrictions-could-impact-christmas-1.5195271">cold days along with COVID-19 restrictions</a>, this sort of humour may be just what the doctor ordered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Augusto Rodrigues does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The movie is indeed a silly look at how sharing song and media in popular culture can affect how we relate as individuals and nations but it also carries deeper insights.Anna Augusto Rodrigues, Faculty Development Officer, Teaching and Learning Centre, Ontario Tech UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473742020-10-07T11:15:27Z2020-10-07T11:15:27ZGrímsvötn: Iceland’s most active volcano may be about to erupt<p>The ice-covered Grímsvötn volcano on Iceland produced an unusually large and <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/50684/eruption-of-grimsvotn-volcano-iceland">powerful eruption in 2011</a>, sending ash 20km into the atmosphere, causing the cancellation of about 900 passenger flights. In comparison, the much smaller 2010 eruption of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8634944.stm">Eyjafjallajökull</a> led to the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEMO_11_346">cancellation of about 100,000 flights</a>.</p>
<p>Understandably, any mention of another explosive eruption from an Icelandic volcano will raise concerns in the air travel industry, which is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-airlines-that-can-pivot-to-ultra-long-haul-flights-will-succeed-in-the-post-coronavirus-era-140466">currently reeling</a> from the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are clear signs that the Grímsvötn volcano is getting ready to erupt again. As a result, the authorities have recently <a href="https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/the-aviation-color-code-for-grimsvotn-changed-from-green-to-yellow">raised the threat level</a> for this volcano.</p>
<p>Grímsvötn is a peculiar volcano, as it lies almost wholly beneath ice, and the only permanently visible part is an old ridge on its south side which forms the edge of a large crater (a caldera). And it is along the base of this ridge, under the ice, that most recent eruptions have occurred.</p>
<p>Another peculiarity is that the heat output from the volcano is extraordinarily high (2000-4000MW), and this melts the overlying ice and produces a hidden subglacial lake of meltwater. This is up to 100 metres deep and has ice up to about 260 metres thick floating on it. Fresh ice is continually flowing into the caldera, where it melts, and so the water level just keeps rising and rising.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Picture of the lake at Grímsvötn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362147/original/file-20201007-14-1ecfns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The roughly 1.5km wide hole melted in the ice by the 2011 eruption.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave McGarvie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This meltwater can escape suddenly, and after travelling southwards beneath the ice for about 45km it emerges at the ice margin as a flood, which in the past has <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/bridges-destroyed-as-icelandic-flood-triggered-by-volcano-peaks-1.103502">washed away roads and bridges</a>. Fortunately, the passage of meltwater beneath the ice to its outlet can be tracked, and so roads are closed in good time to avoid travellers getting caught in the flood and killed.</p>
<p>Yet another important peculiarity of Grímsvötn is that it can have a hair-trigger response to pressure. This happens when the meltwater lake drains – removal of the water from across the top of the volcano rapidly reduces the pressure. This can trigger an eruption – it’s like lifting the lid off a pressure cooker. This has happened many times at Grímsvötn.</p>
<p>Grímsvötn is Iceland’s most frequently erupting volcano, and over the past 800 years some 65 eruptions <a href="https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=373010">are known</a> with some certainty. The time gaps between eruptions are variable – and, for example, prior to the larger 2011 eruption there were smaller eruptions in 2004, 1998 and 1983 with gaps of between four and 15 years. Crucially, and with the next eruption in mind, Grímsvötn appears to have a pattern of infrequent larger eruptions that occur every 150-200 years (for example 2011, 1873, 1619), with smaller and more frequent eruptions occurring roughly once a decade in between. </p>
<h2>Signs of activity</h2>
<p>A high frequency of eruptions at a volcano allows scientists to detect patterns that lead to eruptions (precursors). And if these are repeated each time a volcano erupts then it becomes possible for scientists to be more confident that an eruption is likely to happen in the near future. It is, however, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-cant-we-predict-when-a-volcano-will-erupt-53898">seldom possible to be precise</a> about the exact day.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362150/original/file-20201007-22-ywpmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old ridge of Grímsvötn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave McGarvie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Icelandic scientists have been carefully monitoring Grímsvötn since its 2011 eruption, and have seen <a href="http://icelandicvolcanoes.is/?volcano=GRV#">various signals</a> that suggest the volcano is getting ready to erupt. For example, the volcano has been inflating as new magma moves into the plumbing system beneath it (think of burying a balloon in the sand and then inflating it). Increasing thermal activity has been melting more ice and there has also been a recent increase in earthquake activity.</p>
<p>So what happens next? Again, based on the pattern observed at past eruptions, an intense swarm of earthquakes lasting a few hours (one to ten hours) will signal that magma is moving towards the surface and that an eruption is imminent. In cases where the hidden subglacial lake drains and triggers the eruption, the earthquakes occur after the lake has drained and just before the eruption.</p>
<p>The smaller Grímsvötn eruptions expend a lot of energy when they interact with water and ice at the surface. That means the resulting ash gets wet and sticky and so falls from the sky relatively quickly. Ash clouds therefore only travel a few tens of kilometres from the eruption site. This is a good scenario for Icelanders and also for air travel, as it prevents the formation of substantial ash clouds that could drift around and close off airspace.</p>
<p>But will it be a small eruption? If Grímsvötn’s past pattern of occasional large eruptions with more numerous smaller eruptions occurring in between continues into the future, then the next eruption should be a small one (given there was a large one in 2011). And the word “should” is important here – Iceland’s volcanoes are complex natural systems and patterns are not always followed faithfully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave McGarvie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Icelandic authorities have recently raised the threat level of the Grímsvötn volcano.Dave McGarvie, Volcanologist, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1453032020-09-23T03:24:49Z2020-09-23T03:24:49ZCOVID-19 and small island nations: what we can learn from New Zealand and Iceland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358558/original/file-20200917-14-1yyjv3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C5425%2C3341&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/motioncenter</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite being at opposite ends of the Earth, Iceland and New Zealand have many similarities. Both are small island nations, heavily reliant on tourism and currently led by young female prime ministers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eiu.com/n/quality-of-oecd-countries-response-to-the-pandemic/">Both countries</a> have also been <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2246858-why-new-zealand-decided-to-go-for-full-elimination-of-the-coronavirus/">commended</a> for their <a href="https://grapevine.is/news/2020/04/16/foreign-media-spotlight-on-icelands-covid-19-response/">responses</a> to the COVID-19 pandemic, characterised by science-informed policy and a high degree of public trust. </p>
<p>At the moment, Iceland and New Zealand have some of the lowest <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">COVID-19 deaths per capita</a> among OECD countries (2.83 and 0.51 per 100,000 population, respectively, compared with an OECD average of 24.01 per 100,000).</p>
<p>Both have been rated in the top 14 <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/03/the-100-safest-countries-for-covid-19-updated/">safest countries in the world for COVID-19</a>.</p>
<p>But since the first cases were identified in each country in late February 2020, the two nations have taken different pathways in their COVID-19 responses. What lessons can we learn from their journeys so far?</p>
<h2>New Zealand‘s strategy</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A silhouette of New Zealand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358553/original/file-20200917-24-1ptykpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Filip Bjorkman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New Zealand is one of the few countries to openly declare a COVID-19 <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-situation/covid-19-elimination-strategy-aotearoa-new-zealand">elimination strategy</a>. This involved a progressively strengthened contact-tracing and isolation system, with early and stringent use of shutdowns and border controls. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/26-03-2020/covid-19-live-updates-march-26-nz-commences-life-under-lockdown/">nationwide shutdown</a> was instigated on March 26 soon after community transmission was first demonstrated in the country and before any deaths had occurred. Alongside the shutdown, the <a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/border-closures-and-exceptions">border was closed</a> to all but New Zealand citizens and residents.</p>
<p>A 14-day quarantine in managed facilities was implemented for all new arrivals. These border controls have continued to today despite the huge impact on the tourism industry.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/research-shows-maori-are-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19-than-other-new-zealanders-145453">Research shows Māori are more likely to die from COVID-19 than other New Zealanders</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>New Zealand‘s “go hard and go early” strategy proved to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-days-without-covid-19-how-new-zealand-got-rid-of-a-virus-that-keeps-spreading-across-the-world-143672">more effective than most had anticipated</a>. The country moved back to its lowest alert level on June 8, after only seven weeks of shutdown. </p>
<h2>A new cluster emerged</h2>
<p>On August 11, after more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-days-without-covid-19-how-new-zealand-got-rid-of-a-virus-that-keeps-spreading-across-the-world-143672">100 days with no community transmission</a> of COVID-19, a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300079921/coronavirus-everything-we-know-about-the-auckland-cases-of-community-transmission">cluster of cases</a> not linked to other known case was detected in Auckland. This outbreak is still being contained and no source has yet been identified. </p>
<p>The response from the government was immediately to reinstate <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423569/auckland-lockdown-to-continue-for-12-more-days">stay-at-home orders in Auckland</a>, raise the alert level for the rest of the country, and further tighten systems at the border and in quarantine and isolation facilities. </p>
<p>Key to management of this resurgence was the use of rapid <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-new-zealand-needs-to-focus-on-genome-sequencing-to-trace-the-source-of-its-new-covid-19-outbreak-144402">genome sequencing</a> and a new requirement for <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122585676/coronavirus-masks-for-commuters-while-aucklanders-face-a-slow-trip-to-work">mask use when travelling on public transport</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/genome-sequencing-tells-us-the-auckland-outbreak-is-a-single-cluster-except-for-one-case-144721">Genome sequencing tells us the Auckland outbreak is a single cluster — except for one case</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Iceland’s strategy</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A silhouette of Iceland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358554/original/file-20200917-22-1w2d9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Filip Bjorkman</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In contrast to New Zealand, Iceland’s <a href="https://www.covid.is/english">strategy</a> involved no shutdown period, no official border closure to non-residents, and negligible use of managed quarantine facilities. </p>
<p>The aim instead is to mitigate infection so it does not overwhelm the health-care system, and to keep the numbers as low as possible. As in New Zealand, there is a new requirement for <a href="https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2020/07/31/when_to_use_face_masks_in_iceland/">wearing face masks</a> when travelling on public transport and where physical distancing is difficult. </p>
<p>The cornerstone of Iceland‘s response has been easy access to COVID-19 testing and mass screening, alongside quarantine and contact tracing. This was enabled by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-coronavirus-success-of-taiwan-and-iceland-has-in-common-140455">public-private partnership</a> between the Icelandic health authorities, the National University Hospital of Iceland and local biopharmaceutical company deCODE Genetics.</p>
<p>At one stage, Iceland was performing <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/these-are-the-oecd-countries-testing-most-for-covid-19/">more tests</a> per head of population than any other country.</p>
<h2>Testing for new arrivals</h2>
<p>As Iceland became free of community transmission of COVID-19 in mid-May, pressure grew from the tourism industry and other stakeholders to <a href="https://grapevine.is/news/2020/05/12/breaking-iceland-to-open-to-tourists-again-on-june-15th-with-conditions/">reduce the 14-day quarantine</a> policy for new arrivals into the country.</p>
<p>In response, a controversial <a href="https://www.government.is/diplomatic-missions/embassy-article/2020/06/15/Travellers-to-be-tested-at-border-Science-to-guide-path-to-the-easing-of-travel-restrictions/">new border screening program</a> was implemented on June 15. This required all incoming travellers to be tested once for COVID-19 on arrival and then urged to self-quarantine until results came back, usually within 24 hours. </p>
<p>As a consequence, tourism in June and July exceeded all expectations in Iceland. </p>
<p>But increasing community transmission, with several clusters arising from travellers who had <a href="https://www.visir.is/g/20202002261d">tested negative on arrival</a> prompted a stepwise tightening of the border system.</p>
<p><a href="https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2020/08/14/travelers_to_iceland_to_be_tested_twice_starting_au/">Since August 19</a>, all incoming travellers have had to undergo mandatory self-quarantine, during which they need to return two negative COVID-19 tests at least five days apart.</p>
<p>The change to this two-test strategy proved to be a wise move, as 25 (<a href="https://www.covid.is/data">20%</a>) of the 126 active infections in inbound travellers were detected only by the second test.</p>
<h2>Science, trust and adaptability</h2>
<p>Although they adopted different strategies, both Iceland and New Zealand demonstrate the importance of decisive, science-informed decision-making and clear communication involving regular public briefings by senior officials.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-is-not-the-only-infectious-disease-new-zealand-wants-to-eliminate-and-genome-sequencing-is-a-crucial-tool-145695">COVID-19 is not the only infectious disease New Zealand wants to eliminate, and genome sequencing is a crucial tool</a>
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<p>As a consequence, high levels of public trust have been recorded in both <a href="https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=80004">Iceland</a> and <a href="http://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/592/second-covi">New Zealand</a> although this has varied through the pandemic.</p>
<p>The prominent role of scientists, the use of multi-institutional collaborations as part of COVID-19 response strategies, and the willingness to adapt to new knowledge have also been key features for both countries. </p>
<p>Only time will enable a full assessment of each country‘s COVID-19 strategy. More than ever, the global community needs to learn from each other’s experiences, avoid dogmatism and be adaptable in our national responses as we navigate a path out of this pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magnús Gottfreðsson collaborates with deCODE Genetics on academic research related to infectious diseases, including Covid-19. He has also provided consultations to Gilead Sciences. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Murdoch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite taking different approaches, both countries have won praise for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak. So what can we learn from that?David Murdoch, Dean and Head of Campus, University of Otago, Christchurch, University of OtagoMagnús Gottfreðsson, Professor, infectious diseases, University of IcelandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1404552020-06-29T12:57:57Z2020-06-29T12:57:57ZWhat coronavirus success of Taiwan and Iceland has in common<p><a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Taipei,-a-success-story:-zero-local-coronavirus-infections-for-a-month-50075.html">Taiwan</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/08/how-iceland-beat-the-coronavirus">Iceland</a> have won praise for their effective responses to the coronavirus pandemic. They are among a group of countries which adopted a cooperative strategy early on in the pandemic, bringing together multiple organisations to tackle the challenges in containing COVID-19. </p>
<p>A cooperative strategy is when organisations try to achieve their goals through cooperation with other organisations. Our own <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/cooperative-strategy-9780198814641?lang=en&cc=us">recent synthesis of research</a> explains the attraction of this approach. It can allow public authorities or companies to speed up their response to new challenges by partnering with other organisations which have complementary resources and expertise. </p>
<p>While other countries, including <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-masks-shortage-south-korea-germany-fatality-rates-trump-20200407.html">South Korea and Germany</a>, have deployed a cooperative approach, it’s been a key part of both Taiwan and Iceland’s response to the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Taiwan’s model</h2>
<p><a href="https://covid19.mohw.gov.tw/en/mp-206.html">Taiwan’s handling of COVID-19</a> has been exemplary. As of June 29, Taiwan, with a population of 23.8 million, has recorded <a href="https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En">only seven deaths</a> linked to the virus, with 447 confirmed cases – 435 of which had fully recovered.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese government acted quickly to control its borders. It activated a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En/Category/List/eYO2Szp2itC-QdXOhrVMEQ">Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC)</a> on January 20 to <a href="https://www.asiapacific.ca/publication/secret-taiwans-successful-covid-response">coordinate cooperation</a> across different government ministries and agencies, and between government and businesses. The CECC also coordinates <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2047-2501-2-3">big data analytics</a>, testing, quarantine and contact tracing.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration and National Immigration Agency <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689">worked together</a> to identify suspected cases for COVID-19 testing, integrating their databases of citizens’ medical and travel history. Since late March, all new arrivals must quarantine for 14 days. </p>
<p>CECC also <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0574_article">partnered with police agencies, local officials</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-taiwan-update-phone-tracking-lockdown-quarantine-a9413091.html">telecom companies</a> to enforce quarantine with the support of mobile phone tracking. Local officials would call quarantined citizens to ask about their health and bring them <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/taiwan-coronavirus/a-52724523">basic daily supplies if required</a>. Along with a 24-hour helpline, Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control <a href="https://nspp.mofa.gov.tw/nsppe/content_tt.php?unit=2&post=173912&unitname=Taiwan-Today&postname=CDC-announces-tech-partnerships-for-overseeing-home-quarantine">collaborated with two tech companies</a> – <a href="https://www.htc.com/tw/">HTC</a> and <a href="https://linecorp.com/en/">LINE</a>) – to create a <a href="https://www.oracle.com/uk/solutions/chatbots/what-is-a-chatbot/">chatbot</a> which allowed people to report their health status and get advice about the virus. </p>
<p>Taiwan can now test about <a href="https://covid19.mohw.gov.tw/en/cp-4788-53906-206.html">5,800 samples a day</a> through a cooperative network of public and private testing centres and certified laboratories.</p>
<p>To avoid the panic buying of face masks, the government rationed their distribution and <a href="https://time.com/collection/finding-hope-coronavirus-pandemic/5820596/taiwan-coronavirus-lessons/">ramped up production</a>. In February, the government <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2389c79e-315c-405a-b039-36422954b91a">partnered</a> with the Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association and manufacturers, investing in new machinery to produce surgical face masks. In return, manufacturers have to sell the masks back to the government at an agreed price. </p>
<p>This effective government-led cooperative strategy resulted in the establishment of <a href="https://www.trade.gov.tw/English/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=855&pid=692054">60 production lines in 25 days</a>, something which would normally have taken several months. More production lines have been added, and Taiwan now can produce about <a href="https://www.trade.gov.tw/English/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=855&pid=696005">20 million masks a day</a>. </p>
<p>The public can interact with the government on <a href="https://info.vtaiwan.tw">vTaiwan</a>, a virtual democracy platform for open discussion to build consensus on policy solutions. A <a href="https://www.scmp.com/video/china/3074960/taiwans-app-track-local-mask-supplies-amid-coronavirus-pandemic">face mask map</a> app grew out of a suggestion on vTaiwan and now provides <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-22/taiwan-offers-the-best-model-for-coronavirus-data-tracking">real-time information on stock availiability</a>. The app was developed through collaboration between the Digital Ministry and <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-03-20/how-civic-technology-can-help-stop-pandemic">a group of entrepreneurs and hacktivists</a>. </p>
<h2>Iceland’s strategy</h2>
<p>Iceland provides another example of a country which used a cooperative strategy to manage the pandemic. As of June 29, Iceland had <a href="https://www.covid.is/data">recorded 10 deaths</a> and 1,838 confirmed COVID-19 infections, of which 1,816 have fully recovered. Its success can be explained by the government’s quick action in activating the <a href="https://www.almannavarnir.is/english/pandemic-influenza/influenza-a-h1n1/">National Crisis Coordination Center</a> on January 31 to coordinate the country’s response to COVID-19 through mass testing, quarantine and tracing close contacts of infected citizens.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/these-are-the-oecd-countries-testing-most-for-covid-19/">public-private partnership</a> between the <a href="https://www.landspitali.is/um-landspitala/languages/landspitali-the-national-university-hospital-of-iceland/">National University Hospital of Iceland</a> and <a href="https://www.decode.com">deCODE Genetics</a> enabled Iceland to carry out aggressive testing from February.</p>
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<span class="caption">Testing in Iceland recorded by NUHI (National University Hospital of Iceland, The Department of Microbiology) and private firm deCODE Genetics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.covid.is/data-old">Government of Iceland</a></span>
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<p>Similar to Taiwan, cooperation and coordination between Iceland’s government ministries and agencies have played a key role in quarantine and contact tracing.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.landlaeknir.is/english/">Directorate of Health</a> worked with the <a href="https://www.almannavarnir.is/english/">Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management</a> to create <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/04/iceland-turned-worlds-biggest-study-covid-19-teaching-us/">a team of 60 contact tracers</a> in February, drawn from police investigators and healthcare workers. In this collaboration, the police contributed their expertise in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-cop-skilled-in-tracking-mobsters-is-now-focused-on-the-coronavirus-11586424602">traditional detective methods</a> and enforced quarantine rules. </p>
<p>These two departments also partnered with a group of companies to <a href="https://www.landlaeknir.is/um-embaettid/frettir/frett/item40650/covid-19-smitrakning-med-adstod-apps">create the Rakning C-19 tracing app</a> in consultation with Iceland’s Data Protection Authority. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/contact-tracing-is-working-around-the-world-heres-what-the-uk-needs-to-do-to-succeed-too-140293">Contact tracing is working around the world – here's what the UK needs to do to succeed too</a>
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<h2>Public trust</h2>
<p>The governments of both Taiwan and Iceland have secured high levels of public trust for their responses to coronavirus. In Taiwan, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2020/05/18/international-covid-19-tracker-update-18-may">YouGov polls</a> in May showed that public trust in the government and healthcare professionals on COVID-19 was very high – at over 80%. A combination of transparency and effectiveness may explain <a href="https://www.gallup.is/frettir/covid-19-rannsokn-samanburdur-milli-landa/">polling</a> in April which suggested that 84% of Icelanders were willing to sacrifice some human rights if it helps to prevent the spread of the virus. </p>
<p>The example of these two countries shows how trust can be promoted by speedy government action to activate a crisis management and command centre which is headed by medical experts rather than politicians. Its purpose should be to coordinate cooperation between government and business and to communicate transparently with the public. This fits with a general lesson from cooperative strategies: openness between all parties is crucial and is a foundation for collaborative trust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Taiwan and Iceland both deployed a cooperative strategy early on in the COVID-19 pandemic – and it’s helped win public trust.Linda Hsieh, Reader in Strategy and International Business, University of BirminghamJohn Child, Professor of Commerce, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1415042020-06-26T15:50:11Z2020-06-26T15:50:11ZEurovision 2020 may be cancelled, but Will Ferrell’s affectionate spoof will keep diehard fans happy<p>It’s been a long lockdown. Domestic sport and music events ground to a halt early on, and on March 17, UEFA <a href="https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/025b-0ef35fa07210-adb80b5eb2e7-1000--uefa-postpones-euro-2020/">announced</a> its 2020 European Football Championships would now be played in 2021. But much worse for some, the following day <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2020-in-rotterdam-is-cancelled">Eurovision 2020 was cancelled</a> too.</p>
<p>While football has since restarted (albeit in an eerie, spectatorless fashion), for Eurovision fans there’s nothing but a discoball-shaped hole and a wait of a whole year to see who can dethrone the Netherlands in the world’s premier Europop battle of the bands. </p>
<p>But fear not Eurovision fans, for Netflix – pretty much an essential service in an age of mandatory isolation – is here to fill the spangled void. Its new film, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, is now streaming and is a welcome addition to the Hollywood musical genre (though if anything, it’s not actually musical enough). </p>
<p>Starring genuine Eurovision fanatic Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as fictional Icelandic entry Fire Saga, the film follows Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir as they seek to rise from frustrated but dreadful pub duo to unlikely pop sensations.</p>
<p>For those familiar with Ferrell’s work, you might be expecting (as I did) something like his German accent from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395251/">The Producers</a>, combined with the wardrobe glamour of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blades_of_glory">Blades of Glory</a> and the arch silliness of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zoolander">Zoolander</a>. The film ticks all of these boxes, but eschews Scandi-pop stereotypes in favour of, well, different Nordic stereotypes.</p>
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<p>Ferrell had a head start on his Nordic research for the film thanks to his Swedish wife, but he took things very seriously by joining the Swedish delegation at Eurovision in 2018. Leaning heavily on generic comedy Nordic accents, Lars and Sigrit are immediately likeable and the audience is rooting for the pair from the outset.</p>
<p>Inspired by Swedish group <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj_9CiNkkn4">Abba’s legendary 1974 winning entry Waterloo</a>, Lars and Sigrit come from a small fishing town, pray to magic elves and dream of stardom. Visions of autotuned pop sung atop snowy mountains in Viking cloaks and metallic lipstick, emanate from rehearsals in Lars’s bedroom. Father Ted fans might be reminded of the classic A Song for Europe episode and the hapless priests’ My Lovely Horse entry, but then that’s unavoidable from an underdog comedy about Eurovision.</p>
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<p>The Father Ted parallels deepen (even before the inevitable cameo of BBC Eurovision host Graham Norton, who once played a Riverdancing priest in the sitcom) as Fire Saga are given their big break – spoiler alert – in tragic circumstances. </p>
<p>Suddenly Icelandic favourite, pop starlet Katiana (played by US pop starlet Demi Lovato) is out of the picture. So, despite a disastrous qualifying round, Fire Saga become the default Iceland entry for Eurovision, much to the country’s dismay.</p>
<p>With the odds stacked against them, Fire Saga travel to host city Edinburgh (which of course means that the UK must have won the contest the previous year!) to navigate backstage politics and the destructive forces of their own camp, to affirm their endearingly awkward (and definitely <em>not</em> incestuous, as the protagonists repeatedly assert) romance. </p>
<p>But Fire Saga are up against more polished rivals that include suave Russian star Alexander Lemtov (played by Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens). Can they win the hearts of Eurovision fans and Lars’s disapproving father (Pierce Brosnan)?</p>
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<p>As their musical journey progresses, the audience is treated to Cher-Abba medleys, original music (some ably sung by Ferrell himself), a nod to 2006 heavy-metal Finnish winners Lordi in the form of Belarusian entry Moon Fang, and enough real-world references to keep the diehards happy (“She is good, but everyone hates UK so zero points!”). </p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine how the film might come across to those unfamiliar with Eurovision culture, but any US audience with a fondness for Will Ferrell’s particular brand of silliness will find much to enjoy. </p>
<p>The contest provides fertile soil for the settling of political scores, which is half the fun – the other half being the carnival of camp kitsch that ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. And although the film doesn’t hide from the political point-scoring, it’s best understood by experiencing the contest for yourself. As The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/live/2019/may/18/eurovision-2019-live-song-contest?page=with:block-5ce086b38f08d2b474ebe8a6#liveblog-navigation">live-blogged </a> in 2019: “No jury points for the UK from Ireland, but we got five from Belarus. To be fair, we’re not screwing Belarus over <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4eeeb5ca-ea1f-11e6-893c-082c54a7f539">border issues</a>.” </p>
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<p>According to the film’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8580274/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv">IMDB page</a>, The Story of Fire Saga was originally supposed to coincide with the real 2020 contest in Rotterdam in May, but who could have possibly predicted the circumstances of its postponement? </p>
<p>Instead we have a fun film packed with enough glamour, melodrama, sequins, fireworks and knowing cliché to give Eurovision fans something to tide them over till next year. Essentially a two-hour advert for the contest, it barely qualifies as a spoof, but is enjoyable nonetheless. Dix points? Maybe not, but it’s a long way from nul.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rio Goldhammer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bursting with bubblegum Scandi-pop, this glitzy, sequinned melodrama might just be the thing to fill that discoball-shaped hole left by this year’s cancelled Eurovision.Rio Goldhammer, Lecturer, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275042020-01-21T13:49:32Z2020-01-21T13:49:32ZIceland didn’t hunt any whales in 2019 – and public appetite for whale meat is fading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306486/original/file-20191212-85422-8m3gon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C2176%2C1426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Whale watching (here, off Húsavík, Iceland) may be better for the local economy than whale hunting. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Sailing_-_H%C3%BAsav%C3%ADk_Whale_Watching,_H%C3%BAsav%C3%ADk,_Iceland_(Unsplash).jpg">Davide Cantelli/Wikimedia </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most important global conservation events of the past year was something that didn’t happen. For the first time since 2002, Iceland – one of just three countries that still allow commercial whaling – didn’t hunt any whales, even though its government had approved whaling permits in early 2019.</p>
<p>Many people may think of whaling as a 19th-century industry in which men threw harpoons at their quarry by hand. But humans are still killing whales today in other ways. Thousands of whales are struck by ships, <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-tech-fishing-gear-could-help-save-critically-endangered-right-whales-115974">entangled in fishing lines</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/science/oceans-whales-noise-offshore-drilling.html">harmed by ocean noise</a> every year.</p>
<p>However, most nations support a commercial whaling ban that the <a href="https://iwc.int/home">International Whaling Commission</a>, a global body charged with whale management, imposed in 1986 to prevent these creatures from being hunted to extinction. Iceland, Norway and Japan have long been exceptions to this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/07/norway-boosts-whaling-quota-international-opposition">international consensus</a>.</p>
<p>I study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yFzb2EUAAAAJ&hl=en%20%22%22">marine ecology and conservation</a> and spent the 2018-19 academic year on a Fulbright fellowship in Iceland. It is encouraging to see countries come to realize that whales are worth more alive than dead – for their spiritual value, their role in tourism, and the ecological services that they provide. As more Icelanders adopt this view, it will be good news for ocean conservation.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">As recently as 2018, Iceland was hunting whales in defiance of international criticism.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The ecological value of large marine mammals</h2>
<p>For years, ecological studies of whales focused on how much fish they ate or krill they consumed, which represented costs to fisheries. Starting around 10 years ago, my colleagues and I took a fresh look at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/130220">whales’ ecological role in the ocean</a>.</p>
<p>Whales often dive deep to feed, coming to the surface to breathe, rest, digest – and poop. Their nutrient-rich fecal plumes provide nitrogen, iron and phosphorous to algae at the surface, which increases productivity in areas where whales feed. More whales mean more plankton and more fish.</p>
<p>Whales also play a role in the carbon cycle. They are the largest creatures on Earth, and when they die their carcasses often sink to the deep sea. These events, known as whale falls, provide habitat for at least a hundred species that depend on the bones and nutrients. They also transfer carbon to the deep ocean, where it remains sequestered for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012444">hundreds of years</a>.</p>
<p>Whales are economically valuable, but watching them brings in more money than killing them. “Humpbacks are one of the most commercially important marine species in Iceland,” a whale-watching guide told me one morning off the coast of Akureyri. Whale-watching income <a href="http://www.joeroman.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Malinauskaite-2020-Willingness-to-pay-for-expansion-of.pdf">far outweighs the income from hunting</a> fin and minke whales. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Octopus, fish and other underwater scavengers feeding on the carcass of a dead whale in California’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The end of Icelandic whaling?</h2>
<p>For years after the international moratorium on whaling was adopted in 1986, only Norway allowed commercial whaling. Japan continued hunting in the Antarctic under the guise of “scientific whaling,” which many whale biologists considered <a href="https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053%5B0210:WAS%5D2.0.CO;2">unnecessary and egregious</a>.</p>
<p>Iceland also allowed a research hunt in the 1980s, with much of the meat sold to Japan, but stopped whaling under international pressure in the 1990s. It resumed commercial hunting in 2002, with strong domestic support. Iceland was ruled by Norway and then Denmark until 1944. As a result, Icelanders often chafe under external pressure. Many saw foreign protests against whaling as a threat to their national identity, and local media coverage was distinctly pro-whaling.</p>
<p>This view started to shift around 2014, when European governments refused to allow the transport of whale meat harvested by Icelandic whalers through their ports, en route to <a href="https://phys.org/news/2014-05-japan-imports-tonnes-whale-meat.html">commercial buyers in Japan</a>. Many European countries <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEMO_14_529">opposed Icelandic whaling</a> and were unwilling to facilitate this trade. Whalers no longer looked so invincible, and Icelandic media started covering both sides of the debate.</p>
<p>In May 2019, Hvalur – the whaling business owned by Kristján Loftsson, Iceland’s most vocal and controversial whaler – announced that it wouldn’t hunt fin whales, which are <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/2478/50349982">internationally classified as vulnerable</a>, this year, citing a need for ship repairs and declining demand in Japan. In June, Gunnar Bergmann Jónsson, owner of a smaller outfit, announced that he <a href="https://www.icelandreview.com/news/no-whaling-this-summer/">wouldn’t go whaling</a> either. These decisions meant that the hunt was off.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306483/original/file-20191212-85412-1cb05yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Whalers haul a dead whale onto their boat off the west coast of Iceland in 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-PL-XSE-ISL-ISLAND-WALFANG/c2431191d1e0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/39/0">AP Photo Adam Butler</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>During my year in Iceland, I met for coffee every couple of weeks with Sigursteinn Másson, program leader for the local whale-watching association <a href="https://icewhale.is/">IceWhale</a> and representative of the <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/">International Fund for Animal Welfare</a>. At times he seemed animated about the prospect that no whaling permits would be allotted. At others, he looked gloomy because whalers and their allies in the Icelandic government had co-opted the conversation. </p>
<p>“I worked on gay rights in Iceland, which was opposed by the church, and mental health for ten years,” he told me. “They were peanuts compared to the whaling issue.”</p>
<p>At first, both companies insisted that they would start whaling again in 2020. But Jónsson’s outfit no longer plans to hunt minkes, and Másson doubts that whaling will continue. “Nobody is encouraging them anymore – or interested,” he told me last summer.</p>
<p>Now trade is getting even tougher. In 2018 Japan announced that it would leave the International Whaling Commission, stop its controversial Antarctic whaling program and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/business/japan-commercial-whaling.html">focus on hunting whales in its coastal waters</a>, reducing the demand for Icelandic whale meat.</p>
<p>Tourist behavior in Iceland is also changing. For years, tourists would go out whale watching, then order grilled minke in restaurants. After the International Fund for Animal Welfare started targeting whale watchers in 2011 with its “<a href="https://ifaw.is/">Meet Us Don’t Eat Us</a>” campaign, the number of tourists who ate whale meat <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/people-and-ideas/opinions/we-asked-whale-expert-sigursteinn-masson-about-the-iceland-whaling-industry-heres-what-he-revealed">declined from 40% to 11%</a>. </p>
<h2>A generational shift</h2>
<p>For many Icelanders, whale meat is an occasional delicacy. Over dinner a few months ago, I met an Icelandic woman who told me she thought whale was delicious, and she didn’t see why whaling was such a big deal. How many times had she eaten whale? Once a month, once a year? “I’ve had it twice in my life.”</p>
<p>About a third of Icelanders now <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/eu/news/no-fin-whaling-in-iceland-in-2019">oppose whaling</a>. They tend to be younger urban residents. A third are neutral, and a third support whaling. Many in this last group may feel stronger about critiques of whaling than about hvalakjöt, or whale meat. Demand for hvalakjöt in grocery stores and restaurants has started to dry up.</p>
<p>Although few observers would have predicted it, whaling may end in Iceland not through denial of a permit but from lack of interest. How long until the world’s remaining commercial whalers in Japan and Norway, who face similar shifts in taste and demographics, follow a similar course?</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Roman received funding from the Fulbright-National Science Foundation Arctic Research Scholar program.</span></em></p>Icelandic whalers have killed more than 1,700 whales since a global ban was adopted in 1986 – up to 2019, when no hunts took place. Is Iceland quietly getting out of the business?Joe Roman, Fellow, Gund Institute for Environment, University of VermontLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1285992019-12-16T14:12:48Z2019-12-16T14:12:48ZThe long history of books as Christmas gifts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306591/original/file-20191212-85391-1sgr663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C22%2C4985%2C3285&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A long history of gifting of printed books at Christmas remains strong despite increases in e-book sales.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/reading-book-his-daughter-while-lying-526376431">B Bernard/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christmas is coming, and gifting is at the forefront of many minds. The latest tech changes from year to year, as do the latest fashions. But the gift that never seems to go out of style? A book.</p>
<p>The publishing world is at its busiest in the months leading up to Christmas. In Iceland, there is even a name for this: <em>jólabókaflóð</em> (pronounced yo-la-bok-a-flot) or “Christmas book flood”. The term has also come to refer to the Icelandic custom of exchanging books on Christmas Eve. As a result, a substantial portion of <a href="https://www.readitforward.com/essay/article/what-jolabokaflod-means-to-me">annual hardcover sales</a> are during this period and <a href="https://jolabokaflod.org">nearly 850 new titles</a> were released in 2019’s Icelandic book flood alone. </p>
<p>The UK’s annual Christmas book flood begins on <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/tags-bookseller/super-thursday">Super Thursday</a>: when publishers release a barrage of new titles just in time for the Christmas shopping rush. Some of the heavy hitters among the 426 hardcovers released <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/news/booksellers-gear-super-thursday-ahead-bookshop-day-2019-1092721">on October 3</a> included Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth, Jojo Moye’s The Giver of Stars, and MP Jess Phillips’ Truth to Power.</p>
<h2>A long history of books as Christmas gifts</h2>
<p>People were giving books as gifts even before words were ever put to paper. In <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_epigrams_book14.htm">one of his books of epigrams</a>, the ancient Roman poet Martial recommended the works of famous Roman writers like “Ovid’s Metamorphoses on parchment” (animal skin) and “Livy (the Roman historian) in a single volume” (appearing in a scroll, on papyrus, or on parchment) as presents for the December festival of Saturnalia. Martial’s recommendations also included book-related items like “a book-case” and “a wooden book-covering”.</p>
<p>As Christmas grew more commercialised, the holiday became increasingly important for the book trade. In his <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/122132/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum">Battle for Christmas</a>, American history professor, Stephen Nissenbaum, argued that books were “on the cutting edge of a commercial Christmas, making up more than half of the earliest items advertised as Christmas gifts”, citing examples from the 18th century. <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/471376">By the Victorian era</a>, periodicals were regularly featuring Christmas book reviews to promote book sales during the holidays.</p>
<p><a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/97581549/882DFF9D683A4A83PQ/1?accountid=12152">One such article from a 1914 issue of the New York Times</a> begins with the declaration that “the war is not the greatest thing in the world. It cannot destroy Christmas … The publishers are ready to help”. This article touts various “gift books” suitable for Christmas exchanges: “Sumptuous books, books in the making of which illustrator and printer and binder have exercise their art at its best.”</p>
<p>These 20th-century gift books follow from a tradition of sumptuous books given as holiday gifts. <a href="http://www.textmanuscripts.com/blog/entry/12_16_gifts_of_the_past">Medieval manuscripts</a>, for example, were gifted for a range of religious, romantic, diplomatic, and festive reasons. A 2015 exhibition about medieval gift gifting at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, <a href="https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/gift_giving">now archived online</a>, further supports the understanding of manuscripts as gifts with personal and social value.</p>
<h2>Books in today’s world</h2>
<p>Writing about medieval manuscripts, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Z9TTc8YCUjAC&pg=PA101">Geert Claassens</a> noted that a book – whether a medieval manuscript or a modern mass market paperback – always functions as both an object and a text. This observation is especially relevant in a world with e-books, which largely remove the “object” aspect of the book. However, a recent series of focus groups conducted by <a href="https://aru.ac.uk/people/laura-dietz">Laura Dietz</a> at Anglia Ruskin University as part of a wider study about social perceptions of e-books has indicated that readers still prefer gifting and receiving print books over e-books. Maybe this is because it’s remarkably difficult to wrap an e-book and place it underneath the Christmas tree.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02106399/document">a recent article</a> for the international <a href="https://readit-project.eu/">READ-IT project</a> (Reading Europe Advanced Data Investigation Tool), media professor, Brigitte Ouvry-Vial, describes reading as “a social imaginary” that contributes to both personal and collective development. That is, reading has perceived benefits for both individuals and communities. However, she wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The very motivation for non-prescribed reading has clearly shifted across time from an essentially knowledge-driven cognitive activity, to a broad information-driven cultural experience as well as a leisure activity. </p>
<p>This shift has also led to an association being made between being well-read or reading a lot with well-being, as books are more regularly valued according to the level of psychological uplift and self-healing they provide. </p>
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<p>Books represent more than just knowledge; they’ve also taken on the role of <a href="https://minorliteratures.com/2019/03/19/the-shelf-space-quandary-stocked-or-scarce-leah-henrickson">highly personalised home decor</a>. This is because books can say things about their owners. Likewise, the book you choose to give someone for Christmas can speak volumes about your relationship with that person. It’s not enough to just give someone a book and call it a day – it has to be the perfect choice.</p>
<h2>Keeping the tradition alive</h2>
<p>Books have a long history of being given as Christmas gifts, and there seems little chance of the trend going away. So why not take <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_epigrams_book14.htm">Martial’s recommendations</a> and bestow upon your loved one “Ovid’s Metamorphoses on parchment”? Alternatively, and more realistically, consider a nice hardcover edition found through consulting members of the <a href="http://www.aba.org.uk/ABA-Members">Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association</a> or the <a href="https://www.pbfa.org/members">Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association</a>. </p>
<p>For more modern options, YouTube is teeming with video reviews of the latest releases, as well as of “bookish” gifts to give in lieu of or alongside a book. There are also a variety of monthly book subscription boxes. By giving a book or book-related item in 2019, you’ll be contributing to a long and lovely tradition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Henrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Books have always made great Christmas gifts. But what makes them so special, aside from their being so easy to wrap?Leah Henrickson, Doctoral Graduate, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067352018-11-09T19:02:27Z2018-11-09T19:02:27ZIceland Christmas ad: barred, but it will help 2018 go down as the year of ‘corporate caring’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244832/original/file-20181109-37973-j38m02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C1261%2C709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o">Iceland/YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Christmas advertisement for the UK supermarket chain Iceland, which tells the story of a young girl who tries to help a baby orangutan whose home has been destroyed to create palm oil, will not be broadcast on television. The short animation, voiced by actress Emma Thompson, highlights <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">the devastating impact</a> that deforestation for palm oil plantations has on orangutans. </p>
<p>But because the film was originally <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g">made by Greenpeace</a>, Clearcast – the body responsible for clearing ads on behalf of the UK’s major broadcasters – <a href="https://www.clearcast.co.uk/press/iceland-advert/">decided that</a> it breaches <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/contents">rules against political advertising</a>. Richard Walker, the son of the supermarket chain’s founder, who had led a move towards environmental campaigning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/09/iceland-christmas-tv-ad-banned-political-greenpeace-orangutan">admitted</a>: “We always knew there was a risk [the clip would not be cleared for TV] but we gave it our best shot.” </p>
<p>Yet from a marketing point of view, taking this risk makes perfect sense as it’s effectively a win–win. If the advert had been permitted to air on television, the company would have got the airing it wanted. But since it has been barred, Iceland tweeted to <a href="https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737">ask if the public</a> will help share the advert – and people are doing just that. </p>
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<p>This all amounts to a lot of free publicity. </p>
<h2>Following their footsteps</h2>
<p>Throughout 2018, a number of brands have been embracing causes. In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/nike-colin-kaepernick-and-the-pitfalls-of-woke-corporate-branding-102922">recent Nike advert</a> featuring former National Football League (NFL) star, Colin Kaepernick, the sportswear company featured called on consumers to “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nike-colin-kaepernick-and-the-pitfalls-of-woke-corporate-branding-102922">Nike, Colin Kaepernick and the pitfalls of 'woke' corporate branding</a>
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<p>Nike initially saw a decrease in share prices, while the media debated the brand’s decision to reference to Kaepernick’s silent protest against police shootings of unarmed African Americans, and its capacity to effectively fight for social justice. But consumers seemed to view the campaign favourably – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/08/colin-kaepernick-nike-ad-sales-up">analysts reported</a> a sales increase of more than 31% during the Labour Day weekend, up from a 17% increase the previous year. </p>
<p>Taking a stand is important, as market <a href="https://www.edelman.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018-Earned-Brand-UK.pdf">surveys have recently</a> revealed that consumers are more likely to purchase products and brands that back causes their consumers believe in. Over the past decade there has been a shift, as many more people are prepared to engage with campaigns that represent a belief in a just world, such as the the <a href="https://metoomvmt.org/">#MeToo</a> movement against sexual harassment. </p>
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<p>Companies have been quick to pick up on the wider public’s interest in social justice, and have subsequently engaged with a diverse range of issues in their marketing and business practices, including <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/t-mobile-goes-for-message-of-equality-with-super-bowl-spot-narrated-by-kerry-washington/">equality for women</a>, the <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/01/21/coca-cola-joins-crusade-against-plastic-world-without-waste-recycling-campaign">impact of single-use plastics</a> on the world’s oceans and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17476850/pride-month-lgbtq-corporate-explained">LGBTQI rights</a>. </p>
<p>If it is close to consumers’ hearts, it tends to be of keen interest to brands looking to entice people to purchase their products and services. For brands to survive and thrive, it is essential to follow consumer trends – and the current trend is to show that you care. Over the years, the interests of the consumers have been wide ranging: in response, some corporate marketing has shifted its focus from individuals and physical appearance, toward groups and their desires to change the world.</p>
<h2>Caring or co-opting?</h2>
<p>The simplest way to ensure a strong clear association between a brand (in this case Iceland) and the cause it is hoping to be associated with is by repeatedly pairing the two together. This is usually done through advertising – but the fact that many mainstream media outlets are now drawing attention to the ban ensures that this pairing will happen without the help of a prime-time television slot. </p>
<p>From the consumer’s perspective there will now be a clear association between the supermarket chain and the fight to protect endangered species and the environment. <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/16/iceland-pledges-go-plastic-free/">This is not the first time</a> Iceland has set out to tackle environmental issues – earlier in the year, the supermarket pledged to remove plastic packaging from its own-brand products by 2023. But the Christmas ad is one of its most successful attempts at capturing interest from a wider audience.</p>
<p>A cynical person might say that Iceland is simply trying to increase its sales. But if the outcome is good – in this case, generating environmental awareness around the impacts of deforestation – consumers may not care. Just imagine how much good could be done if all big brands and manufacturers would jump on the justice bandwagon – at least until consumer trends change again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathrine Jansson-Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From LGBTQI rights to racial justice, companies are embracing the social issues that matter to their consumers. And, of course, that makes sense.Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, Reader in Consumer Psychology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.