It is more likely that extreme weather including relentless snowfall is an effect of climate change rather than any kind of proof that all is well with mother nature. But nobody can proclaim that huge snowfalls are caused by climate change or that it is proof otherwise. Are the deniers so ignorant to think that cold days and snowflakes will never happen again or are they simply perpetuating a myth and hoping to keep everyone else ignorant? Are there opportunists on all sides of public debate? Surely there are greedy loud mouths and false prophets anywhere there is a chance to make money with face time in the arena of media and common conciseness. It isn’t about the long term path of human progress but instead is the short term goals of our own ego. A potentially hazardous game of diversion.

The Earth and nature is the only expert, we’re only trying to unlock the formula and understand how it works. Regulating a planet’s temperature range is like a giant heat pump. Weather is there to move heat. That is what a hurricane does, what a nor’easter is there for, why the weather changes and why we look to weather forecasters for what is happening. All that change and seemingly unpredictable weather is there to keep things within a range where life can survive in all its diversity. We can only push those natural capabilities just so far before that heat pump must create ever more extreme events to maintain the natural balance. When an extreme event passes over your head you might have to batten down the hatches and pick up a shovel. Complaining won’t help. Snow happens.

You walk down a winding path cut deep into the lava. No doubt this is by design and adds to the effect of awe once you see the milky blue water. You enter the building and get your bracelet that serves as your pass and will open the turnstile and is your electronic key to the lockers. A very modern Nordic spa look and feel to the place. But outside this is unlike any spa. Acres of rough lava with all that hot water and zones of varying temperatures. After your shower you take the short walk between the building and the water where you will see and hear tourists laugh and hesitate as they get hit by the cold wind and wonder why they are dressed for a summer swim. No problem, just go in.

Heavenly.

The Blue Lagoon is the outflow lagoon from a geothermal power plant.  Produces electricity, heat, and hot water to the district heating system for the city and towns.

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A much cheaper alternative to a guided tour is a local bus to the same or different place. The only hard part is figuring out where and what bus will take you there. I decided on Hveragerði which is a small village to the south. It sits in an active geothermal field and is known for its greenhouses. On the trip to the village you quickly rise over a pass where the iconic moss covered lava fields and snow covered mountains are all around you. Instantly recognizable as Iceland these are the mountains that I’ve seen in hundreds of pictures. With the limited and low angle sunshine you often pass snow and ice despite the +5C temperature. The slopes are covered in ice and snow in a style often seen in the Arctic.

On the other side of the mountain pass are numerous plumes of steam. And then more of them. And then a huge concentration of steam and when we get closer we pass an electrical power station run from that lovely steam. Large insulated pipes snake around the country side. Some feeding the plant from the boreholes and other pipes feeding hot water back to the city and towns. This is where all that hot water and heat is coming from.

If I hadn’t been on a bus I would have stopped my car a dozen times in the first 30 minutes with all the beautiful vistas we were passing. The other passengers seemed to all be locals heading back home and were used to what to me were unusual sites. I had just passed incredibly beautiful countryside that also happens to supply electricity, heat, hot and cold water without a drop of fossil fuel being burned. Well, the bus was burning some to get there.

Hveragerði itself sits in the middle of another geothermal field. Hundreds of steam vents are belching steam from everywhere including in the middle of town. A few houses and shops would use them for “curb appeal” with a cute lava rock formation surrounding a small steam vent. Be careful, that is boiling water and will burn you in a hurry.

Even down at the river there are steam vents on the shore and in the stream. Up on the slopes are a lot more so that makes for a nice hike along black lava trails. The larger vents were capped and piped to collector zones before running back to town. Along the river the pipes were teed at each house to feed it heat and hot water. Eventually the pipes would get much larger as more and more feeder lines joined up. If there were guides they might explain more details of what some of the hardware was all about. All kinds of hissing and other steam noises can be heard from various areas. When you get close enough you can smell that sulfur from deep in the earth. I was essentially walking on top of an active volcano.

Amazing.

Hveragerði, Iceland.  Active geothermal zone.

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Well here’s a bit of good news that woke me up finally. Iceland is putting up “Cheap and Green Energy to be sold along the Ring Road” Now you can take your alternative energy vehicle out of the capital area and not worry about a source of fuel. One of the biggest points of all this is what I’ve been saying for a long time, government fleets should be taking the lead and running their own vehicles on clean energy. Vehicle fleets such as the government are much easier to control than the wider consumer market. And it doesn’t have to be as expensive as the propaganda states. In the long run we’ll save a fortune and possibly our own future. At least someone out there is giving green a chance.

Running garbage trucks on methane gathered from the local refuse dump is not a new idea in Iceland but it has developed far enough to supply the surplus to passenger vehicles and taxi fleets. Hydrogen production is coming along very nicely in Iceland, you can even take a sight seeing cruise on a hydrogen powered ship.

The yang to the yin is that these green fueling station are being run by the oil companies. Having N1 a.k.a Esso a.k.a Exxon a.k.a the devil himself do this is like contracting the fox to design a better hen cage. But they have the goods to do it so for the time being and because the private sector will never get a foothold until big oil and governments finally stop talking and start doing it. So bravo Iceland, the days of foreign oil dependence are numbered and you will show us gluttons how it might be done.

The whole debate has become politicized and polarized. Left vs right. We have people doing long winded discussions that are in defense of their previous discussions or to refute the other side that we’ve lost track of the problems here and now that have no political theology. We can even find manuals on how to talk to a climate skeptic. For others it seems that if we only subscribed to the “correct” form of religion or ideology then everything will be ok and we don’t have to do anything except believe in the right thing.

The status quo is already causing us grief in so many ways that we don’t have to wait for one side or the other to be proven right, we’re already making a mess of things. We’ve always taken advantage of this planet but even with our modern enlightenment and modest efficiency improvements we’re not keeping pace with the volume of our pollution. Can we find some common ground here?

I’ve said is before and will say it again, how is it that this wee nation keeps coming up with these ideas? Remember that Island has not a drop of fossil fuel resources but like everywhere they have domestic garbage that can produce enough methane to pay for itself. Ethanol, methane, and hydrogen aren’t the magic bullets but is just one piece of the puzzle along with many other ideas and solutions. Ultimately we must change our driving habits.

One small idea that saw little fanfare but has proven to make a difference is the bicycle. Students riding a bicycle to school. Imagine that, an old idea that was certainly common back in my day has made a comeback. Instead of grandiose announcements and mega dollar research with charts and numbers they simply encouraged and made practical the use of bicycles. And it works, with up to half the students riding to school I can imagine how much of a difference that makes. I am amazed at how many idling vans I see every morning and afternoon at my own children’s school. I hold my nose as I walk past the long lines of vehicles. I know that not all of these children can walk to school but many of them can and I’ve never seen a bicycle at the school. With the weather in Iceland being some of the harshest anywhere I can’t see enough reasons why we don’t do the same over here. At least a few bicycles would make me happier.

I’d be more comfortable with powering server farms from the clean energy. But if these smelters are going to be built somewhere  anyhow would it be better to at least use energy that doesn’t pollute? Perhaps, but the debate continues.

With the typically short driving distances that most suburbanites experience they might run most of their trips by electric alone. Also, the combustion engine onboard might be fueled by whatever locally produced fuel is common. In Iceland’s case that would be methane produced by domestic garbage or hydrogen produced locally using cheap and cleanly produced electricity. In other areas it might be some other fuel (how about we stop flaring gas from oil wells and use it for cars or something more useful?)

Iceland and a few other countries are not fooling around with the future, they are doing something about it now and developing practical solutions and technologies. They aren’t arguing over what single source of energy will power the world or if we’re really at the point that decisions must be made. Let’s try as many ideas as we can that potentially could save us from ourselves. No more excuses.

No single energy source is right for everybody. Let’s get off the idea that only the current crop of energy giants can make those choices as they’ve done for far too long. Think more local and we’ll discover that there are a number of solutions depending on many variables. Hydrogen isn’t the solution for many places but it is certainly a good candidate for Iceland given its resources. Other areas might do well with another solution. It is now the time to develop those solutions and not wait for all the pieces to fall in place just so it is cheap enough for big corp to make billions. The status quo is no longer viable. Thank you Iceland, I like your thinking.

The automobile is a huge if not the largest single contributor to the muck that causes you to hide inside an air conditioned building. Those measurements are not taken from the source but are a general average over a larger area. So if you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic you are breathing air from the highest concentration source of pollution. The pollution level figures are irrelevant since your are sitting in a high level zone no matter what the general figures are. The AC and iPod are not helping anything except your attitude. You are in fact living on top of a smokestack.