UNA-WF July 2023

Dearreader,

Veraldarvinir/WorldwideFriends(WF)wasfoundedin2001as annon-profitorganizationpromotingnatureprotection,peaceorientedactivities,friendship,andinternationalunderstanding amongpeople.

ThemainactivitiesofferedbyWFinIcelandareShort-and Long-Termvolunteeringprograms,summercampsforteenagers, exchangeprograms&educationaltours.

Todaytheendeavorofattainingworldpeacehasbecomea tangiblepossibilityandthedevelopmentandstrengtheningof bondsofcooperationandfriendshipthroughcontactwithpeople fromothercountriesandcultureshasproventobeoneofthe mostfruitfulmeansofachievingunderstandingandunityamong nations.

Veraldarvinir'smainaimistoincreaseintercultural understandingbyofferinginternationalvolunteersthe opportunitytotakepartinnatureandpeace-relatedactivities.

Inthelast21yearswehosted20.613Internationalparticipantsin ourprogramsinIcelandandtheycontributed2.34millionhours toIcelandicnature.

A B O U T W O R L D W I D E F R I E N D S

CONTENTS

PAGE 3

MEET THE TEAM

PAGE 5

VOLCANOES ADN ERUPTIONS

PAGE 7

GLACIERS

PAGE 9

BRIEUC INTERVIEW

PAGE 11

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT

PAGE 17

COOKIES RECIPE

PAGE 15

GREAT SEAL COUNTING

MEET THE TEAM

LARA KUMMERER

My name is Lara, I am 22 years old and I am from Austria. I am currently studying Environmental and Biology resource management in Vienna. Apart from my multi-sports career, I really like to travel the world and learn about other cultures. So I would say I am a very openminded person who is looking for new challenges.

DARREN GÖTTERT

My name is Darren, I am 19 years old and I am from Germany. I like sports and all kind of arts, especially fashion. I am in Iceland to see how the people here try to live in a more sustainable way. I Want to learn more about their solutions to not pollute our environment.

SERGI TEROL

I'm Sergi, from Spain. I'm 18 years old and I study communication. I've decided to expand my thematic range and play a conscientious role through words. My premature journey as a diver was the incentive that led me to want to contribute my grain of sand in the conservation of natural areas. Pollution knows no borders, and as long as there is an ignorant humanity, pollution will continue to grow at its pace. So wherever you go, you can help!

THEO HUYGHE

Hello! My name is Théo, for the friends Goofy. I'm from France and I'm 21 years old. In the start I planned to stay in this project just for 2 weeks but this is my 5th week!

Why Iceland? Because I wanted to discover the landscapes and the environment is very important for me, also to improve my english and meet new people.

MOTOKI

Hi! I’m Motoki and I’m 27 years old. I’m from Japan. I was a teacher and taught social studies but I wanted to learn and see the real world not in my classroom. I would like to contribute to the world and this project is ideal!

MONICA SUZA

Hi, I’m Monica, I’m a 34 years old Environmental Engineer from Ecuador I’ve always been so passionate about nature and environment, and Iceland was one of my inspiration to study a career like this! After working for a big company many years I quit my job and found this volunteering work, so I’m here experimenting something completely new, even if some people said I’m too old for this! Be the change that you wanna see in the world!

SVENJA INGRID

Hi :)

My name is Svenja, I’m 19 years old and I’m from Germany.

I love nature and animals and I have never been to Iceland before, so I wanted to see the beautiful nature in real life! Through beach cleaning, I want to help to protect the environment at least as I can.

KARLA NARVÁEZ

Hi, my name is Karla!I’m 23 years old and I’m from Mexico. I study finance and public accounting. I have been volunteering for a long time but never been into one that was alla about environment, and wanted to help with new actions that will impact the world. Also because of the amazing views and activities in this country!

AND ERUPTIONS

The whole world has heard about Iceland’s volcanic eruption in 2023’s summer. A lot of people crossed many countries to come and witness this event and some are still waiting for this opportunity.

So we’re gonna talk about it and about volcanic activity in the island.

Fagradalsfjall is a tuya volcano formed in the Last Glacial Period on the Reykjanes Peninsula, around 40 kilometres from Reykjavík, Iceland.

The highest summit in this area is Langhóll (385 m).

For 815 years, there had been no volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The 19th March 2021 the volcano decides to wake up and surprise the world with an eruption that lasted 6 months, emitting fresh lava until the 18 September 2021. The eruption was unique among the volcanoes monitored in Iceland so far.

A new eruption starts the 3rd August 2022 but lasts just 18 days.

This summer earthquake activity started to get intense the 4th July 2023 beneath the Fagradalsfjall region on the Reykjanes Peninsula. The 10 July 2023 the expected eruption started and everybody was wondering if this year's eruption was gonna be longer, but it lasted less than a month sadly.

Are the volcanic eruptions dangerous in Iceland?

Due to the common sense of the early inhabitants, the majority of settlements located distant from active volcanoes so nowadays, Icelandic volcanic outbursts pose minimal risk to human life. The national seismic stations are quite good at forecasting eruptions. When a big volcano, like Katla or Askja, begins to rumble, the surrounding regions are immediately closed off and closely monitored.

How many volcanos there are in Iceland?

Iceland has around 130 volcanoes of which only 32 are active. Only the Fagradalsfjall was in eruption utill this last days.

GLACIERS

Did you know that in Iceland most volcanoes has female names and most glaciers male names ?

Iceland has one of the most impressive contrasts in nature. We can see that between volcanoes and glaciers, a really beautiful landscape. So after talking about volcanoes we will talk a bit about the cold side of Iceland.

WHAT IS A GLACIER?

Glaciers are a snow, ice and water mass that is constantly moving over land .

Iceland has around 269 which is a surprising number and they cover around the 11% of surface of the country Although you can see all the glaciers as the same, there are different types of them as ice caps, cirque glaciers, mountain glaciers, Piedmont glacier...

GLACIERS

The biggest glacier in iceland is Vatnajökull, which is in the east of the country. The surface of this glacier is around 8000 km² and about the 8% of the country.

Vatnajökull National Park was founded in 2008 and it's the largest glacier in all Europe.

GLOBAL WARMING AND GLACIERS

"Glaciers in Iceland reached their maximum size at the end of the 19th century and have since retreated and lost more than 2100 km2 (17%) of their area.

Runoff from the glaciers has changed, and glacial lakes have formed or increased in size in front of many of them, while some have disappeared. The rate of retreat has increased in the last couple of decades and during the period 2000–2017 the glaciers lost more than 700 km2 of their area which amounts to 43 km2 per year on average."

-National Park of Vatnajökull-

MEET Brieuc De Lambertye

The guy who crossed Iceland by foot

Today we meet Brieuc, the french guy who crossed Iceland from north to south by foot in 17 days

INTRODUCEYOURSELF

I'mBrieucDeLambertye,I'm22 yearsoldandI'mfromFrance.I studyEngineeringandIlove adventuresandtraveling.

HOW DOES THIS IDEA STARTS?

The idea starts when my school ask us to make a presentation about global warming. After seeing the every year ideas that the students were presenting I wanted to go further and present a completely different project.

My project of global warming was crossing Iceland from north to south by foot as a protest to raise awareness of the situation and present this journey with all its occurrences.

Brieuc De Lambertye

WHAT DIFFICULTIES YOU HAD TO FACE?

I think the most difficult part was passing through the icelandic desert. The biggest difficulty was to not have access to points of water. Of course I was prepared and I had my water supplies but that made it more complicated. Another factor was the wind, which made the walking really hard. Also complicated things when I had to rest and set up my tenth which was completely impossible with that wind. After walking all day, sometimes I had to walk 10-13 km more to find a place where I could pitch my tenth and sleep.

I have also met interesting people, for example a french girl which who I had the opportunity to have an interesting conversation about climate change. She also offered me some fresh fruit which was the best of my life!

The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives that were formulated in 2015 by the United Nations designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future

HOW IS IT DEVELOPING?

The United Nations presented a 2023 report about how these goals are developing and if we are reaching the lines that were prescript in 2015 to reach in 2030. Sadly this report showed that we're not even reaching half of that.

Here's some of the most important data highlights about it:

1 NO POVERTY

575

If current trends continue, by 2030: million people will still be in extreme poverty.

2 ZERO HUNGER

+600 million people are project to face hunger in 2030

3 GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

146 out 200 countries or areas have already met o or are in track to meet the under-5 mortality target

25 million children missed out important routine vaccines in 2021, 6 million more than 2019

Approximately 800 women died every day from pregnancy or childbirth in 2020

5 GENDER EQUALITY

At the current rate, it will take an estimated 300 years to end child marriage, 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments.

4 QUALITY EDUCATION

84 million of children/y outh will be out of school

300 million students will lack basic numeracy/literacy skills

Only 116 countries will achieve universal secondary school completion target

6 CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

In 2020, 2.4 billion people lived in waterstressed countries

2.2 billion lacked safely managed drinking water

3.5 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation

81% species dependent on inland wetlands have declined since 1970

675 million people still live in the dark

Modern renewables power nearly 30% of electricity but still remain low in heat and transport (2020)

If current trends continues, 1 in 4 people will still use unsafe and inefficient cooking systems by 2030

9 INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

CO2 emissions reached 36.8 billion metric tons

Globalmanufacturing growthslowedfrom 2021duetoinflation, energypriceshocks, supplydisruptions andglobaleconomic deceleration

11

SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

1,1 billion urban residents are living in slums

2 billion more are expected in the next 30 year

2 billion workers are in precarious informal jobs without social protection (2022)

Global unemploymen is expected to fall below pre-pandemic levels

1 in 4 young people are not in education, employment or training

10

INEQUALITIES

Refugee number hit a record high of 34.6 million of whom the 41% are children

The tragic loss of nearly 7,000 lives along migratory routes in 2022

One in six people worldwide has experienced discrimination in some form, with women and people with disabilities disproportionately affected

12

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

High income countries leave 24 metric tons of environmental footprint

Low income countries leave 2.5 metric tons of environmental footprint

On average, each person wastes 120 kilograms of food per year

The world will exceed 1,5ºC by 2035 and faces

2,5ºC warming by 2100

Sea level rise has doubled in the last decade

Highly vulnerable regions experience 15x higher mortality rates from disasters

We need a deep, rapid and sustained GHG emission reduction by 43% by 2030 and to net zero by 2050

15

LIFE ON LAND

100 million hectares of healthy and productive land was degraded every year

Equivalent to 2x the size of Greenland

The world is facing the largest species extinction event since dinosaurage

17

PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Many developed countries facing debt crisis

Sea plastic pollution in 2021 was 17 million metric tons and will be 4x times more by 2040

1 of 5 fish caught are originated from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

More than a third of global fish stocks are overfished

16 PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

108.4 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide as of end of 2022. 2.5x the number a decade ago Nearly 200,000 trafficking victims were detected worldwide between 2017 and 2020 but many more likely remained undetected The highest number of International homicides in 20 years

458,000 lives lost

NET ODA reached $206 billion in 2022

·15,3% upper than 2021·

"Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been."

António Guterres Secretary-General, United Nations

THE GREAT SEAL COUNTING

The Icelandic seal center

is a non-profit, owned and founded by the local community between 2005 and 2006.

A research center, museum, visitor center, souvenir shop, and fully licensed travel agency located in Hvammstangi.

Every 30 of July the Icelandic Seal Center organizes the seal counting with volunteers in the area, whether they are local, landowner or tourist. Any person can participate and the more people participate easier and funnier is the activity

Part of the Worldwide Friends volunteers and camp leaders participated in this event, wich was really exciting for all!

The process

How counting seals work?

11:00

Arriving to the Seal Center in Hvammstangi. They offered some refreshments as coffee and chocolate bars. Then we had a presentation about the activity and they delivered de data that we needed.

They separate people in groups and they assign different points in the area divided in kilometer. Ready to start!

12:00

The activity takes part during low tide so it's easier to locate the seals.

We had to walk through our points and use the binoculars to check if there's any seal around. After finishing our area and having all the information about the zone, coordinates, time and type of seals, we started heading back to the seal center in Hvammstangi.

16:00

Around 16:00 everybody starts to arrive to the seal center to start the total counting. Meanwhile, we have some refreshments as juice, coffee sandwiches and sweets among others. It was really fun!!!

COOKIES

By Ramona, in Brú

Our weakness here are the cookies, so here's an easy recipe that we use a lot!

·INGREDIENTS·

2 eggs

200 gr sugar

200 gr butter

250 gr flour

100 gr chocolate chips or raisins

7 gr of baking powder

COOKIES

PREPARATION

In a bowl beat the eggs with sugar until they become white and foamy. Add the butter previously softened and whisk, then put the sifted flour continuing to work with a fork. Add the yeast and finally the chocolate chips. Bring then spaced on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Place them in the oven previously heated to 170ºC for about 13 minutes.