Speech at the opening of the International Symposium on Extraordinary Floods.

7/17/00

Valgerður Sverrisdóttir
Minister of Industry and Commerce

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The theme of this symposium is water, the remarkable and vital substance which is the precondition for life here on Earth. Life on our planet originated in water and without water life cannot survive. Over the centuries entire civilisations have risen and fallen by virtue of how good access they have had to water. But the amount and quality of accessible water has varied enormously from one part of the world to another. In some places, whole nations have suffered from lack of water for centuries on end, while elsewhere people and livestock have regularly been swamped by extreme floods.

In more recent times, technological advances have made it possible to reduce the gap between different nations' access to water, but at the same time man has often intervened in the natural water cycle. This can certainly create a great risk of catastrophes if extreme caution is not shown. We also know that a variety of human activities can cause complex and serious changes to atmospheric conditions on Earth. The main concern is the international dialogue today, namely combustion of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, and also the destruction of the rain forests. It is common knowledge that combustion of fossil fuels will lead to a rise in the temperature on Earth, raising the sea level with a corresponding increase in precipitation and extreme weather and flooding. This will be one of the topics addressed at this symposium and we all hope that the 6th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in the Hague in November will produce a global agreement on action to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future.

Here in Iceland we have had the good fortune to have access to ample water, which because of the country's climate and geographical location is continually being renewed, so that long droughts and flash floods are rarer here than in most other countries. However, it so happens that volcanic eruptions under glaciers sometimes cause massive floods in Iceland, which has rightly been called the land of ice and fire. Iceland is the meeting place of these great contrasting forces which separately and in combination have caused enormous disruptions ever since this country was settled. Indeed, this symposium will focus on the role of glaciers and subglacial volcanic activity. This is a particular interesting topic given the conditions that prevail in Iceland. I am referring to the fact that a great part of the Icelandic bedrock has been created under these very same conditions in the glacial periods of the past, and our nation still lives with the interaction of volcanoes and glaciers even today.
For some 800 years, records have been kept describing volcanic activity beneath Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe. According to these sources, an eruption has taken place at intervals of roughly every ten years. By recording these events, our forebears, the saga writers who preserved the history of the whole of Scandinavia, have made a major contribution towards gathering important information about the behaviour of nature in former times. However, it is no less important in the modern age, when more floods and catastrophes can be expected as a result of volcanic activity and climate change, for scientists to undertake preventive action against conceivable catastrophes by collecting data and communicating information as effectively as possible, which will enable us to prevent human casualties and irreparable damage to property and land.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
On behalf of the Government of Iceland I welcome the holding of this symposium in Iceland, since the problems that are on the agenda here will continue to confront our nation and the rest of the world, to different extents, for the foreseeable future.
With these words I declare the International Symposium on Extraordinary Floods open.