Free Republic

Have the greenies ever heard of these crazy things called trees? First, the story, from a report out at The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: In May this year, on the flat plains of an Icelandic geothermal reserve, a gigantic vacuum cleaner designed to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the sky was switched on. The machine, called Mammoth, would not be entirely out of place on a Mad Max set. It will soon start extracting up to 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere a year to be fossilised, locking it safely and permanently underground. And, here’s some context, from...

1. Finland - 2. Denmark - 3. Iceland - 4. Netherlands - 5. Sweden - 6. Israel - 7. Norway - 8. Costa Rica - 9. Belgium - 10. Australia [USA? - You need to submit your email address to read the article - I passed on that opportunity]

LONDON (AP) – Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland’s presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country’s national broadcast service reported. Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday.

In a matter of minutes, Shane Gillis deftly put to bed one of the most nefarious lies of the pro-abortion left: that killing preborn babies with Down syndrome is the merciful thing to do.Shane Gillis, the stand-up comedian who’s partly famous for being fired as a cast member from “Saturday Night Live” before he even debuted, was somehow invited back to host the show over the weekend. Of course, that honor allowed him to deliver the iconic monologue. For Gillis — surrounded by the unfunny scolds who fired him in 2019 in part for making the type of joke that’s...

A volcano began erupting in southwestern Iceland early Thursday, sending lava jets as high as 80 meters, the country’s weather office said. "At 5:30 this morning an intense seismic activity started north-east of mt. Sýlingarfell. Around 30 minutes later, a volcanic eruption started at the site,” the Icelandic Met Office said. Images taken by an Icelandic Coast Guard's surveillance flight appeared to show the eruption taking place at a location near the Dec. 18 eruption, official said. Fullscreen button A volcano spews lava and smoke as it erupts on Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, February 8, 2024. A volcano spews lava and...

Lava moving towards Grindavík, Iceland after new fissure opens

“We are looking at a worst-case scenario,” said Thorvaldur Thordarson, an Icelandic volcanologist. The last time I checked on the volcano in Iceland, one of the nation’s geologists noted that the threat of an eruption had decreased by 90% due to the solidification of magma around the active center of seismic activity near the town of Grindavík. Like many “expert” scientific projections in recent history, this one was less than entirely predictive. Today, about an hour after an earthquake swarm, the fissure volcano erupted about two miles from Grindavik. A volcano in southwestern Iceland began erupting Monday with lava fountains...

Update 22:46 A volcanic eruption has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula and Þorvald Þórðarson, a volcanologist, tells us that at first glance it is the worst-case scenario. The eruption appears to be at Hagafell, above Grindavík.

Lava has reached the surface in Iceland

The IMO said that magma - molten rock - was accumulating at a depth of around 5km (3m) northwest of Thorbjorn mountain. The Blue Lagoon is easily visible from the mountain. The owners of the famed turquoise hot springs said they would close the site until 16 November out of concern for employees' welfare. The Met Office said an earthquake of 5.0 magnitude, the largest since the increased activity began, was detected shortly past midnight on Thursday in the Fagradalsfjall volcanic area, around 30km from the capital Reykjavik. Ingibjorg Lilja Omarsdottir of the Icelandic Civil Protection Agency has been posted...

The whole of Iceland 'is on edge' as experts say earthquakes which have been rumbling beneath the surface for days and have torn through a town are a precursor to a volcanic eruption. More than 700 quakes have been recorded in the southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula since yesterday, and despite them being slightly weaker than in previous days the Fagradalsfjall volcano is still expected to erupt. Iceland has been shaken by thousands of tremors over the past few days, with a state of emergency declared on Friday and around 4,000 people ordered to leave the fishing community of Grindavik. Evacuated residents...

A volcano could erupt within days in Iceland, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and evacuate thousands of people from the seaside town of Grindavík.

Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has said that she will join tens of thousands of women walking off the job on Tuesday to protest the widely disputed gender wage gap. For the seventh time in the history of the country, female Icelanders will take part in the “Kvennafri,” translated into English as “Women’s Day Off”. The strike is intended to protest the supposed inequality faced by women in one of the most egalitarian societies in the world, as well as to protest against the supposed wage gap between men and women. Joining the tens of thousands of women, Prime Minister...

For many years, progressives and self-avowed socialists have touted a small group of countries as models for the cushy welfare state they hope to create in the US: the Nordic states. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland offer extensive welfare benefits to their citizens, and many on the American left have taken this as evidence that socialism works... However, there is a reality that has received less attention in this debate: despite being modern in many ways, the Nordic countries have retained much of their traditional cultures, elements of which are repugnant to the worldview of American progressives. These nations...

HELSINKI, Finland — President Biden grew flustered with a reporter here Thursday and angrily told her that she doesn’t know if she will make it home — after he confused the nations of Iceland and Ireland, the latter of which he called his “home” despite nearly two centuries of genealogical distance. Iida Tikka, of Finland’s public broadcaster YLE, was the second member of the press in two days to provoke a presidential outburst in response to a question. “What actions will you take to assure Finland that US will remain a reliable NATO partner for decades to come?” she asked...

N THE YEAR 985, ERIK THE RED, A VIKING EXPLORER, LED A GROUP OF ICELANDIC FARMERS TO ESTABLISH A SETTLEMENT ON THE WEST COAST OF GREENLAND. Archaeological findings indicate that the settlement thrived for more than four centuries, but the story of the settlement left a lasting impact. Surprisingly, the pursuit of locating the descendants of these settlers greatly influenced European and American perceptions of Greenland for many generations. In his recently published book titled “The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy,” Associate Professor Robert Rix asserts that the lost Norse settlement played a...

Home News Transphobia is on the rise in the US. Meet the transgender people planning to relocate to Europe because they can no longer stand the 'hostile environment.' Isobel van Hagen May 7, 2023, 7:48 AM CDT Willgohs in Iceland/ Willgohs in North Dakota Rynn Azerial Willgohs in Iceland, left, and Willgohs in North Dakota at a vigil she organized for a trans woman who was violently attacked in Minneapolis. Rynn Willgohs The nonprofit TRANSport provides support to transgender Americans who want to leave the country. The group has received more than 100 applications from potential émigrés in the past...

The most common question posed by a visitor on arrival in Reykjavik, capital of the so-called Land of Fire and Ice, tends to be where are the nearest hot springs rather than where is the closest hot dog stand. But it's an answer to the latter that I'm most keen to hear on arriving at my hotel in Iceland after a day and a half's worth of flying. In a nation with a cuisine that includes rather less accessible delicacies such as fermented shark, blood sausage and - oh boy - foal meat, hot dogs, you see, are a curious...

Recent Icelandic rifting events have illuminated the roles of centralized crustal magma reservoirs and lateral magma transport, important characteristics of mid-ocean ridge magmatism. A consequence of such shallow crustal processing of magmas is the overprinting of signatures that trace the origin, evolution and transport of melts in the uppermost mantle and lowermost crust. Here we present unique insights into processes occurring in this zone from integrated petrologic and geochemical studies of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland. Geochemical analyses of basalts erupted during the first 50 days of the eruption, combined with associated gas emissions, reveal...

Archaeologists in Seydisfjordur have excavated jewelry that dates from 940 – 1100, just after the initial settlement of Iceland. Notably, one of the beads found in the excavation even bears the colours of the Icelandic national flag.Archaeological digs have been underway in Seydisfjordur, a fishing village in the East Fjords of Iceland, since 2020. Due to the high slopes of the valley, Seydisfjordur is subject to land slides, and local authorities plan to build defensive barriers to protect the village, which has suffered damage in recent years. However, these same land slides have also preserved archaeological sites in the region...