Where the Glaciers Find a Voice: Visiting Andri Snær Magnason

At GeoCamp Iceland, we often describe nature as the ultimate classroom—but even the most powerful landscapes sometimes need interpretation. Melting glaciers may speak volumes, but it takes a certain kind of voice to help us truly hear them. Andri Snær Magnason is one of those rare voices.

As a writer, filmmaker, environmental advocate, and former presidential candidate, Andri has become a vital figure in Iceland’s—and the world’s—climate conversation. His book On Time and Water (Um tímann og vatnið) defies the conventions of environmental writing. It is lyrical and deeply human, blending mythology, science, memory, and philosophy into a narrative that makes the climate crisis intimate and immediate.

Many of the student and faculty groups we welcome begin their journey by reading his work. Meeting Andri in person becomes a natural and necessary extension of that experience. We include these visits not only because of what he knows, but because of what he shows. How to give language to loss, how to frame urgency with empathy, and how to speak about the seemingly unspeakable. 

In a world of retreating ice and rising uncertainty, Andri helps the glaciers find a voice.

Storytelling as a Climate Tool

Andri argues that the language we have inherited is inadequate for the scale of change we face. “We are using 20th-century words,” he says, “to describe a 21st-century catastrophe.” In On Time and Water, he works to expand that language—by introducing his grandmother, one of Iceland’s first female doctors; by visiting the sacred Ganges River in India; and by standing at the edge of disappearing glaciers in the Icelandic highlands.

When students meet Andri, they don’t just hear a lecture. They encounter someone who has wrestled with these questions in both public and private life—who has taken on the challenge of creating metaphors powerful enough to move people from awareness to action. His presence invites students to consider their own role as storytellers, no matter their discipline.

The Glacier as Ancestor

Iceland’s glaciers are disappearing fast. Andri has written about the loss of Okjökull, the first Icelandic glacier officially declared dead. He composed the eulogy for its memorial plaque—addressed not to humans, but to the future: “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you will know if we did it.”

For our participants, standing in front of receding ice fields and then sitting with Andri later in the programme creates a powerful arc. It connects place with purpose, science with spirit. Students begin to understand the glacier not just as a geological feature, but as a relative—an elder being lost to time. This reframing has emotional weight. It makes climate change personal.

Learning Through Networks of Meaning

GeoCamp Iceland isn’t just about travel—it’s about connection. Our work brings students and faculty into conversation with scientists, artists, educators, and thinkers who are shaping Iceland’s response to environmental change. Andri Snær is part of that extended learning network. He reminds us that climate literacy isn’t just about understanding carbon cycles or sea level rise—it’s also about asking: "What stories will we tell about this moment? And how will those stories shape what comes next?"

Including a visit with Andri Snær Magnason in our programmes is not a luxury. It is a pedagogical choice grounded in our belief that education must speak to the whole person—mind, body, and imagination. For future teachers, scientists, artists, and leaders, meeting Andri is a call to responsibility and creativity. It’s a chance to sit with someone who is not just documenting change, but trying to shape it—through language, through empathy, and through bold acts of communication.

These are the moments our students carry home. These are the voices that stay with them.

Andri Snær Magnason: "On Time and Water"
TED Talk: On Time and Water