Ice2ice visits Arendalsuka – a political festival in southern Norway

by Kerim Nisancioglu & Silje Smith-Johnsen

Silje Smith-Johnsen, captain Kerim Nisancioglu and Øyvind Paasche at their “outdoor office” in Arendal, on their way to Merdø.

Sparking off this year governmental election campaign in Norway, Arendalsuka, a political festival in southern Norway, was crowded with top-level politicians and organisations. During the week of the festival, ice2ice scientists organised a joint ice talk and ice concert in the main square of Arendal showcasing ice2ice research on ice and climate. In addition we guided local kindergarten children and high school pupils on a geological and climate tour on Merdø, a tiny island in the new Norwegian marine national park just outside of Arendal, introducing the kids to the geology and history of the deglaciation in the area, as well as putting the past into the context of future changes expected on Greenland.

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Silje Smith-Johnsen telling a fairytale to kindergarten kids about the fate of the eratic stone “stein” who was brought by the ice from Oslo to Merdø during the last ice age.