I'm in Iceland. OK, don't ask. I know it sounds crazy but it was on the way home from Oslo and someone said it's magical in the wintertime, just pack a lot of sweaters. Oh, and I could see a glacier! So I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
The ride from the airport to Reykjavik was a little scary, what with the rain pouring down and the wind blowing and the huge-wheeled Land Rover (you know, for driving around glaciers!) swaying to and fro.
"It's a little storm, our second in a few days," proclaims Gummiey, my sweet Icelandic driver. I was told in advance he'd been on rescue crews and was very experienced with foul weather. "Tomorrow, no problem, we go to glacier," he says.
Well, of course the next day was worse. This storm appeared from no where as we were half way to the glacier, so we turned back towards the cozy comfort of the Hotel Borg. Time to call it a day.
At least until 3:30am when I could no longer ignore the howling winds that were rattling the windows of the bell tower I was sleeping in. (They tell me it's the same one Yoko Ono stays in!) So I call the front desk to ask, "Is the world coming to an end or is this normal?"
Now I've felt crazy winds before. Just a few weeks ago in Malibu the night before one of the worst wildfires in California history, now that was serious wind. Believe me, that freaked me out. But honestly this wind was worse.
So now I start wondering about my flight tomorrow and ask the front desk guy, 'Do you think the weather will affect that?' He tries to muffle his disdain at my suggestion. "This is Iceland. This is nothing. Our pilots are the best in the world, they fly in everything. They are all rescue trained." (What?! Well then who the heck is always being rescued and why?) He continues in an oh-so-convincingly Icelandic manner, "The airport never closes. Go back to sleep. Sunrise is at eleven."
Normally if somebody told me that at home I'd know better than to believe it, but you know what, he really calmed me down with that uber-confidence, he was so sure that I felt relieved and slept like a baby for ten hours! Feeling refreshed and care-free, I went for a great breakfast down the street and watched out the window. Out of nowhere again, the wind and rain picked up, so uh oh, I'd better get back to the hotel to pack. Walk out the door and who is there beside me on the street but Gummiey. What are the odds? Hey, someone I know in Iceland! I can't believe it. What?! Oh, you're looking for me? Oh, the airport is closed?
"Not just that Laurie," he says, "but even the road to the airport is closed." Because cars were being blown over!!!!!
Ok, that's it, I'm thinking. I need to find someone to tell me what's really happening here because being stranded in Iceland in December is not really my idea of a good time. So I cornered the new guy at the front desk, who's not as sure of his inner weathervane. He says in all his years growing up here there have never been three storms in a row in Iceland, but lately everything is coming earlier. He says, "This is our ninth storm since October! The weather is screwed up and there is no other explanation except global warming." I swear I didn't prompt that!
Everyone I've talked to here said that it was strangely warm, that it should be snowing, it should be ten below. (Hey I'm lugging an extra suit case just for all those heavy sweaters!)
"My birthday is December 23rd," the desk clerk continues. "There is always snow. Now it is a week away. No snow."
Okay, I've got about 18 hours to kill before I can attempt to go back to the airport again. So I go back to my room and turn on the TV and watch the BBC's extensive coverage of the climate summit in Bali and listen to the exasperation of the British reporter talking about how it's not the American people but the administration that is obstructing progress there. Meanwhile the rain pounds my window. My friend the desk clerk calls up and says that the airlines won't even answer the phone anymore. 5000 people are stranded here in Iceland, which could take two or three days to unravel.
Oy vey!
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so laurie i would recomend that you come back here , in the summer time and then i promise that the wether is better
With best holliday wishes
the new guy at hotel borg
I am intrigued by the comment regarding the British reporter. "Its not the American people holding up progress, its the administration...." (approximately)
That sounds a lot like the things we used to say about the Nazis and the Communists. Its not the people, its their government.
What a terrible shame that so many turns of phrase that we used to describe the bad guys in days past are now so often used to describe the situation in the U.S. How in the world did we ever come to this horrible, shameful place in our history.
On the other hand, the existence of man made global warming is pretty well established by now. It is probably cheaper to do something about it than to live with the effects of sea level rise, etc. Especially if the worst case materializes and the effects make the Earth of the future as habitable as Mercury is now.
As for the Financial Times report that some environmentalists are leftists who want wealth redistribution, hello? We're pretty much at the point of global agreement on the need to limit the damage caused by carbon, methane, and other "greenhouse gas" emissions. Obviously, almost everybody will include some leftists who want to promote wealth redistribution among them. I thought the FT reported news, but maybe their reporter had an off day.
read: http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=282528766258350
Tax And Wane
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, December 14, 2007 4:20 PM PT
Environment: Big news from the United Nations global warming conference was the last-second agreement on a pact for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But a more ominous development went largely unnoticed.
....
Eco-activists have been so successful in distracting the public from their real intentions that they're becoming less guarded in discussing their ultimate goal.
"A climate change response must have at its heart a REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH and resources," Emma Brindal, a "climate justice campaign coordinator" for Friends of the Earth Australia, wrote Wednesday on the Climate Action Network's blog.
In this case, redistribution would be handled by the Multilateral Adaptation Fund, an agency that would use the carbon tax receipts to help countries that are having to deal with climate change.
Since the "complete list of things caused by global warming" now exceeds 600 (see our "Chilled By The Heat" editorial, Dec. 13), there would be few if any limits on the U.N.'s ability to move riches from countries that have created and earned them to those that have done neither.
Still think this is all about halting climate change? We would go as far as to say that anyone who does is either naive or a dupe. Both the rhetoric and the behavior of the eco-activists back us up.
Iceland’s President Olafur Grimmson was recently in the U.S. to preach the geothermal gospel, because we have the world's second-largest geothermal reserves. He's talked to key Senators at least twice about it in the past two years, so wouldn't you think they'd find better things to do than try to force nuclear power on us again and starve the poor with agrofuels?
There's more about this in my blog at http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/dispatches-from-the-other-side-of-despair-by-the-other-katherine-harris/
BTW, some of their missing snow keeps falling here, screwing up formerly sunny Albuquerque. Snow this early used to be unthinkable, except on the ski slopes where it belongs.
And you're coming back HERE?!?!?
Uff da!