Iceland Part Four – Bless Iceland

We love making new friends...Facebooktwitterpinterestmail Please share us with yours!

Halló friends! Welcome back! 

This month we've been visiting Iceland, learning all about puffins, Icelandic National Day, food and culture. In my first travel letter this month, I wrote about how Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice. In my second letter, I told you about Iceland's unique agriculture, and how they use geothermal heat to keep their greenhouses warm throughout the year. My third letter this month was about Icelandic National Day celebration, and about puffins and what it's like to see them close up.

By Ásgeir Eggertsson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Normally my last travel letter of the month - that would be this one - is about how to help the country I'm writing about. But Iceland has things pretty well taken care of, so instead I'm going to talk about some of the things we can learn from Iceland. Hopefully that way you can apply some of these things in your home town!

Iceland is filled with glaciers, large and ancient blocks of ice, sometimes as big as a city! As the planet has been warming up, many of these glaciers have been melting faster and faster. Although this isn't a big problem for Iceland because the island actually rises as the glaciers get smaller, Iceland recognizes it's a problem for the rest of the world. To help slow down climate change, they've been thinking of ways to process carbon dioxide - that's a gas that gets released from many conventional power sources - so that it can't get into the atmosphere and warm up the planet.

To do this, they've developed a method for carbon capture and sequestration. That's a fancy term for taking carbon dioxide and pumping it deep underground. There, over the course of only a couple years, the carbon becomes part of the rock underground in the form of a mineral called calcite, keeping it safely out of the atmosphere! They've found it works best with a special volcanic rock called basalts.


You may have seen wind turbines in your own country. They're usually very tall
 and they have propellers on them that turn when the wind blows. The turning propellers move a motor, which generates electricity. These traditional wind turbines would not work in Iceland, because they have very high winds that would break them. A clever Icelander named Saethor Asgeirsson came up with a solution. Instead of tall, skinny wind turbines, they use a special kind of wind turbine that sits on the ground and is wide. Unlike normal wind turbines, it doesn't matter which way it faces. Also, they can withstand the strong winds of Iceland that can be 40 miles per hour on an average day, or up to 112 miles per hour in a storm! I'd better be careful when I leave, or my red air balloon might be a rough ride!

Even though Iceland already get's it's electricity from renewable sources like hydro-electric power plants - that's a building that makes electricity by running water through a turbine - many home owners there want their own wind turbine too! The special blades make sure the turbine doesn't spin too fast, making it safe for use just about anywhere.


Like I discussed in my first Travel Letter from Iceland, they're very good about living in balance with their environment here. Their government works very hard to make sure their farming, fishing, and building all remain in balance with the needs of the island and the needs of the people. In this way, they can know that Iceland will be a great place to live, capable of providing the resources needed, for many generations to come.


I want you to get inspired by Iceland like I have, and really think about ways that you can help the environment where you are. Now, Iceland is very lucky, and has a wonderful combination of geothermal heat, warm ocean waters, and rich volcanic soil, so its people have worked hard to not take any of that for granted.

So here is a great question we can all ask ourselves: How do you think you can make the most out of what your environment has given you? Take a moment, grab a piece of paper, think like a scientist and write down some ideas to see what kind of questions you can come up with. Here are some I wrote down while sitting in my red air balloon before taking off:

  • Do you have a backyard to grow a small garden in?

  • Can you open windows and use sunlight instead of turning lights on?

  • Can you conserve water by taking shorter showers, or turning off the water when you brush?

  • How do you get around town, by car or public transportation?

  • Can you walk, using your car less to reduce carbon emissions?

If you would like, you can ask your parent, guardian or teacher to send me your message or picture, so I can see what are some of the ideas you came up with to help your environment. You may only feel like a small kid (or a small cub in my case) but all of us, no matter what our age or size can make a difference.  And it starts with each of us friends! 🙂

Iceland has been an amazing adventure, and I'm so glad you all were able to join me! 

Bless Iceland! Bless friends!

-Joy Sun Bear

joysunbear
Author: joysunbear

We love making new friends...Facebooktwitterpinterestmail Please share us with yours!