People in Iceland have gathered together this week to hold a memorial service for a glacier, which has melted and been destroyed as a result of climate change.
The huge pile of ice, which was called 'Okjokull', was destroyed after enduring the warmest July ever recorded. Climate change activists mounted a bronze on bare rock on the site of the glacier, attended by local researchers Rice University alumni.
Speaking at the event, Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir stated: "I hope this ceremony will be an inspiration, not only to us here in Iceland, but also for the rest of the world, because what we are seeing here is just one face of the climate crisis."
The plaque bears the inscription "A letter to the future" and contains an epitaph written by Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason.
It states: "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it."
In a later interview with BBC News, Magnason stated: "ou think in a different time scale when you're writing in copper rather than in paper. You start to think that someone actually is coming there in 300 years reading it. This is a big symbolic moment."
He added: "Climate change doesn't have a beginning or end and I think the philosophy behind this plaque is to place this warning sign to remind ourselves that historical events are happening, and we should not normalise them. We should put our feet down and say, okay, this is gone, this is significant."
Magnason's dedication concludes with the date of the ceremony, and the current concentration of carbon dioxide in the air globally as of today: 415 parts per million (ppm).
