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Icelanders Hold Funeral For Extinct Glacier

(JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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Icelandic officials and activists held a funeral Sunday for a glacier declared extinct a decade ago.

About 100 people, including activists, officials and children, hiked for two hours to perform a memorial service for Okjokull — a glacier Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson declared extinct about 10 years ago, according to The Associated Press.

Sigurðsson brought a death certificate with him for the glacier, dubbed “Ok.” (RELATED: Trump Will Meet With Top Advisers To Discuss Plans To Challenge Climate Change Reports, Source Says)

A monument is unveiled at site of Okjokull, Iceland's first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (Photo by Jeremie RICHARD / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

A monument is unveiled at site of Okjokull, Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

The crowd held a memorial service for the glacier marked by poems and speeches.

“This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” read a memorial plaque put on the glacier.

The glacier used to cover six miles of ground and is the first of Iceland’s glaciers to disappear, AP reported. Sigurdsson said all Iceland’s glaciers will be gone within 200 years.

TOPSHOT - An Icelandic girl poses for a photo with a "Pull the emergency brake" sign near to where a monument was unveiled at the site of Okjokull, Iceland's first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (Photo by Jeremie RICHARD / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

An Icelandic girl poses for a photo with a “Pull the emergency brake” sign near to where a monument was unveiled at the site of Okjokull, Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

“I know my grandchildren will ask me how this day was and why I didn’t do enough,” 17-year-old Gunnhildur Hallgrimsdottir said, according to AP.

A monument is unveiled at the site of Okjokull, Iceland's first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (Photo by Jeremie RICHARD / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

A monument is unveiled at the site of Okjokull, Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change in the west of Iceland on August 18, 2019. (JEREMIE RICHARD/AFP/Getty Images)

“We see the consequences of the climate crisis,” said Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. “We have no time to lose.”

The prime minister added she will discuss climate change when she meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nordic leaders Tuesday.

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