Office actor Rainn Wilson backs plan to bring iceberg to COP26

Climate scientists have brought an iceberg and glacial meltwater from Greenland to COP26 in Glasgow with the help of The Office actor Rainn Wilson.

Arctic Basecamp said they shipped the four ton block of ice, originally part of a larger glacier, as a visible reminder of the scale of the climate crisis.

It was brought to the global conference alongside 1000 litres of glacial meltwater, which will be given out in bottles at COP26 sites.

The water was collected from the fjords of Greenland and bottled in Scotland.

The campaigners said it would serve as an “ice-cold bottled warning” to world leaders of the dangers from climate change.

The Office actor Rainn Wilson has backed the project and will speak virtually at the iceberg, which is located next to the COP26 venue.

Model Lily Cole and Richard Walker, managing director of supermarket chain Iceland, who helped ship the block of ice to the UK, will also take part.

Gail Whiteman, professor of sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, founded Arctic Basecamp.

She said: “By literally bringing the Arctic to COP26 we’re sending a strong message to the world’s leaders that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay there.

“What is happening in the Arctic is only the tip of the iceberg of the climate emergency.

“To ensure a safe future for humanity world leaders must follow the science and stop all new fossil fuel investment if we stand a chance of staying within the +1.5C threshold.

“This iceberg may not be inside the negotiation rooms in the Blue Zone, but it’s here and too big to be ignored.”

Sascha Blidorf, a 20-year-old Greenlandic climate activist who organised the Fridays for the Future school strikes in Greenland, helped bring the bottled glacial water to Glasgow.

She said: “I’m sending a message in a bottle to world leaders because my home country is melting and world leaders need to act now, they can’t just pass the problems to the world’s children.

“It’s really clear to see the effects from climate change up here in the Arctic.

“My message to the world is that we need to act now and make a difference now because we can’t just sit there and wait for others to do something.”

Rainn Wilson said: “On the Greenland ice cap alone 17 million of these (750ml) bottles are melting every second, 17 million bottles a second.

“This is important.

“All of that melting water is going to be at a beach near you very shortly.

“It affects weather patterns all around the world. And we need to do something.”