Yes, truth is inconvenient

---

Last Spring I saw an IMAX movie called 'Mission to Mars'. It told of how the module used to rove over Mars surface was given a trial run in Iceland. Yesterday and today I saw the lava fields that were in that movie. I am seldom at a loss for words but the landscapes here leave me speechless. I doubt I can do them justice but I will give it my best shot. When you drive for 10 hours straight and see only varying forms of lava interspersed occasionally by a few stray sheep or giant round hay bales wrapped in white, black, or mint green plastic, then you get to wondering how people ever survived here.

The lava is left over from all the volcanic activity that has taken place here for millions of years and up to the present day. Some fields, stretching as far as the eye can see in either direction, have a sandy coat of thick black ash. Others have rough lava pebble size stones strewn about for miles and miles. Some of the hundred year old fields are covered with a sandy colored moss where every now and then a small bright patch of tiny fushia colored flowers will dare to push through. The moss is more brown than green and soft and squishy. It is so soft that it pulverizes into dust when it is touched. Older fields have gnarly lumps that look like a thousand giant brains piled one upon the other. They are deep black with some moss curled in and out of their crevices. It is more than spooky and not a place where you would want to get lost. The oldest fields have been battered by harsh winds and snows and resemble lounging ladies on a nude beach. The lava formations are rounded with some pointed peaks that look, well, rather Dolly Partonish. It is a continually amazing sight.

Tucked in near the foot of the mountains are a house or two often with a barn. Sheep here rule and they are left to roam free. The only time a fence is put up is to keep them OUT of a field. The same goes for the cows and handsome Icelandic horses. They are the only animals you see. The only other animals ( besides an occasional dog) on the island are artic foxes and birds. And looming over the tops of the mountains are the glaciers and waterfalls. The biggest waterfall I saw yesterday was 'skogarfoss'. It was wide, tall and free. Once again I am so impressed by how this country shows reverence for its natural beauty. There are no guards, no fences, no barricades, no souvenir stands, no trash barrels ( people are expected to take their trash with them), no litter, nothing but a few small tents pitched in a nearby field, one picnic table, and rest rooms. It was spectacular because the sun was shining and little rainbows were forming in the splashing spray.

Later I went to a museum that has been the life work of one man. It highlights all aspects of daily Icelandic life through the years. There were several outbuildings that showed how a family lived with an old kitchen, a unit with beds for sleeping and a church from 1789. My favorite was the tiny one room school house complete with the ruler on the teacher's desk and a student's workbook.

This morning when I left my hotel I realized that I had slept surrounded by glaciers. Every mountain pass and crevice was filled with the flow of a glacier. They were wide and flat or narrower and piled like drifts of snow depending on the width of the opening. Some were gleaming white as a starlet's capped teeth and others were as sooty as a chimney sweep from volcanic ash blown across them by harsh winds.

I've often heard the sarcastic phrase " he ( or she) moves with glacial speed". Today I witnessed huge chunks of ice that had broken off of a glacier into the JÖkulsarlon lagoon flowing on their way to the sea at glacial speed. You could barely see the movement of these huge pieces of ice as they broke away from the glacier. It was riveting to watch as the artic ice cap melted in front of my eyes. Sigrun said she had never seen the lagoon so open or so full of ice. She was shocked.

Yes, folks it is happening and happening rapidly. So get rid of that huge SUV or oversize truck that usually only one person rides in. Walk instead of drive the 1/2 mile to the store. Bring reusuable bags to the grocery store and stop filling the landfills up with plastic. Replace every light bulb with the new energy saving ones. Get a bio/ diesel car ( yeah! PJ). If we each think of a few little things we can do to help save the planet we can maybe, possibly slow down the melting. Enough said.
Carolyn ( Gunga)

---