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[–] 149 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

Welcome to hell, Icelanders!

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  • [–] 35 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Hell arrived a while ago and it is summer on Lake Myvatn, or Midge Lake. You can't breathe without inhaling insects, so you have to wear a mask just in case a cloud of those things happen your way.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, we went to Iceland ~3 years ago and we learned beforehand to bring a mosquito net for Lake Myvatn. So this headline confuses me. The article says mosquitoes were only discovered there this month, but some random blog knew about it years ago?

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  • [–] 29 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    There are biting midges, and I presume they're very annoying, but most don't bite and they're all different from mosquitoes.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Ah, yeah I saw a lot of insects that I presumed were mosquitoes... do they look similar?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    The only annoying insects I've seen in Iceland, when visiting Goðafoss I think, seemed a good bit larger than mosquitoes. Not sure if those are midges or some other insect.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    I'm not a linguist nor am I Icelandic. However, when visiting I did notice that the language has this "Eth" (Ð ð) letter and [the "Thorn" Þ þ letter.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter%29).

    My simple, English-based understanding is that they represent two variations of the English "th" sound. Eth is voiced, softer, and similar to the "th" in "the" or "father" and Thorn is unvoiced, harsher, and similar to the "th" sound in its name "thorn" or "thank". It's subtle and I never remember learning about the differences in my schooling.

    I've also noticed there is a small "movement", here and a few other sites online, to try and bring one or both of these back, replacing "th" with one or both these characters in English posts and comments.

    Edit: Pronouncing the actual name of the waterfall, the Wikipedia page has a playable pronunciation that sounds to me like "go the foss" which matches an English pronunciation of just replacing Eth with TH, but that's just an approximation.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Neat! Thanks for sharing. I knew about the thorn and then saw on the wiki the "Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈkɔːðaˌfɔsːft]" and my brain kinda shut off lol.

    Wasn't y also a th character back in "ye olde" times for example?
    English is weird.

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  • [–] 76 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Since we all know Global Warming is a hoax, obviously those mosquitoes were smuggled into Iceland by Antifa.

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  • [–] 25 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    For some time the propaganda has been that global warming is real, but not caused my human activity. It's a natural and unavoidable cycle.

    Asked a guy at work, "OK, but 10-years ago is was called fake, wasn't happening. What changed?"

    Forget his answer, but remember him being taken aback for a minute.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Yep I'm British and I've lost count of how many times a denier has said "no cos we used to grow grapes in England"

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  • [–] 43 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Great job, humans. You’ve ruined Iceland.

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  • [–] 33 points 9 months ago

    My Plague Inc run is finally going as planned.

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  • [–] 28 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Ugh, that sucks for those people. Mosquitoes truly are the spawn of Trump.

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  • [–] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    How'd they get there? Human activity or somehow carried by weather maybe?

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Any number of places. It could have been a stowaway in luggage, imported livestock, etc.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, probably this. And the increase in temperature simply made the conditions bearable when they got outside.

    Could they have also maybe just.. flown over there? Insect migrations like this can happen, but I don't think it's possible on such a scale, even for mosquitoes.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Sand from Sahara in Africa is sometimes carried by wind and rains down in Scandinavia and even South America.

    Fish eggs have landed in tree tops in the Amazon and what not.

    I'm sure a mosquito or their eggs could ride the wind to Iceland as well.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    They probably flew.

    Every day animals are adjusting their habits and habitats based on the changing environment.

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  • [–] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Interesting.

    Cold is going to be a commodity in the coming decades.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    followed by some cataclisms, then ice age.

    don't quote me on that

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Damn it! We only have a few places of refuge!

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    There is no global warming. They just have +3 ice armor.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I doubt it's the harsh weather that prevents mosquitos. They probably just never made it to the island before and now made it on a plane or boat finally.

    In Canada you'll find hellish mosquitos up in the Arctic circle which has a much colder climates than Iceland I believe.

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