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Funeral for lost ice: Iceland bids farewell to glacier

Related Topics: Iceland, Icelandic, ice, Oddur Sigurðsson

With poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change, Icelandic officials, activists and others bade goodbye to what once was a glacier.

Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson pronounced the Okjokull glacier extinct about a decade ago. But on Sunday he brought a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial.

After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier, now called just "Ok," minus the Icelandic word for glacier.

The glacier used to stretch 6 square miles, Sigurdsson said. Residents reminisced about drinking pure water thousands of years old from Ok.