Iceland president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook signed three agreements Monday morning to help foster cooperation on research relating to soil erosion and climate change.

The signing was part of Grimsson’s visit that included a lecture in front of about 250 people about scientific research’s role in solving pressing global concerns and efforts to increase research concerning the increasing soil erosion and glacier retreat afflicting his country.

“The chief reason (for the agreements), is how cooperation between the science community at OSU and Iceland could bring solutions to some of the most difficult challenges of the 21st century,” Grimsson said.

The agreements initially call for no more than four upperclass undergraduates to be sent between OSU and the University of Iceland, a number that might be allowed to increase as the number of students from each institution wishing to study abroad increases. Another provision calls for a study abroad group to be sent to the Agricultural University of Iceland in June 2007.

Iceland’s glaciers have experienced serious melting known as glacial retreat. Also, according to an OSU press release, soil erosion currently affects 40 percent of the country.

Rattan Lal, a professor of natural resources at OSU, said carbon helps on a molecular level to keep the basic building blocks of soil bound together.

“When carbon is removed, like through the heavy deforestation that has taken place in Iceland over hundreds of years, trees can no longer absorb carbon from the air and bring it into the ground,” Lal said. “Uprooting them also releases carbon into the air, and carbon release is believed to be a main contributor to global warming.”

Lal is an OSU scientist who works with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, and was recently invited to Iceland to speak about a process known as carbon sequestration.

“Through careful reforestation efforts and other techniques, the process by which carbon is kept in underground ecosystems in Iceland might be improved,” he said.

Climate change debateThough some still dispute the sources of global warming, Grimsson said he believes science research can provide a stronger foundation for future efforts to combat climate change.

He said many Americans’ understanding of the threat climate change poses has recently begun to change significantly.

“I’ve been following the debate in the U.S. for more than 20 years, and I’ve noticed a dramatic change in public opinion and actions among those who act at the city level, the household level and the corporate level,” he said. “All over the U.S. you see a concern and an activity that was not there five or even three years ago.”

Grimsson said he believes the United States can undergo the same kind of attitude change he has seen in Iceland since he was a boy.

“The essence of the U.S. is that once it starts moving, it starts moving very fast,” he said.

A Laboratory for Global SolutionsGrimsson’s lecture placed significant emphasis on how research in Iceland can be generalized to improve conditions in other parts of the world.

Grimsson said there are only 10 glacier specialists in India, where climate change is beginning to melt away the 9,000 glaciers in the Himalayan mountains. He said the runoff from these glaciers is responsible for the food production of more than 1 billion people.

He also pointed to his own country’s history as a sign the U.S. could become more efficient. He said despite deriving almost all energy from coal and oil in the 1940s, 70 percent of total energy comes from geothermal and hydro energy. One hundred percent of electric energy in Iceland is derived from renewable sources.

“If Iceland can do this coming from the history of being one of the poorest countries in Europe, among the richest nations in the world should be able to do it as well,” he said.

Tim Hoffine can be reached at [email protected].