This week, Iceland woke up to another day of fires, with giant lava fountains lighting up the dark morning sky. Although the evacuated town of Grindavik was spared this time, the lava still wreaked havoc, engulfing pipes that provided heating and hot water to thousands of people in the area and disrupting access to the tourist attraction Blue Lagoon.
The road was blocked. This is the third short-term eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula since December 2023, and the sixth since 2021. However, scientists believe this is just the beginning of a period of volcanic activity that could last for decades or even centuries.
Iceland is no stranger to volcanoes and is one of the most volcanically active places in the world. That’s because the country sits on a geological hotspot, where clouds of hot material from deep within the Earth rise to the surface.
However, Iceland is also located on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American plates. These plates pull apart very slowly, creating space for hot molten rock (magma) to flow upward. As magma accumulates underground, pressure increases and an eruption destroys the surface of the earth (the hot rock at this point is called lava).
In Poznan, 4,444 demonstrators lit smoke bombs and fireworks, and a drum of garbage was thrown on the street. According to organizers, about 6,000 farmers gathered in the city.
Many farmers held banners saying no to the EU’s Green Deal, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the city of Bydgoszcz, the atmosphere became even more heated, with tyres, piles of straw and an EU flag set on fire.
A group of protesters tried to force their way into a local authority building, but police used pepper spray to stop them. New Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekielski met with protesting farmers in Przyborowice, northwest of Warsaw, and said: My duty as Minister of Agriculture is to be here today to talk to farmers.