Andri Magnason

Writer/Editor

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer, born in Iceland in 1973. He is a father of four children. His newest book: On Time and Water is a book of narrative nonfiction, a tale of glaciers, grandmothers and holy cows, trying to grasp the issue of climate change through science, mythology and personal stories. How do we talk about something that is bigger than language? We can't scale up words like numbers and say something is big to the 12th degree. How do we connect to dates like 2100 in an intimate and urgent way? His answer is stories: It has to be told through stories. His eulogy for the lost OK glacier in Iceland hit headlines all around the world in 2019. His books have been published or performed in more than 40 languages. He is unafraid of surfing genres and has won the Icelandic Literary Award in all categories, fiction, non fiction and YA/childrens literature. His children's book, The Story of the Blue Planet has won awards in the UK, Poland, USA and was chosen best children's book in China in 2019. His non fiction book: Dreamland - a Self Help manual for a Frightened Nation was one of the most sold books in Icelandic history and contributed to the protection of many rivers and waterfalls in the Icelandic highlands. His sci-fi book LoveStar is the winner of the Philip K. Dick Honorary Award and Le Grand Prix l'Imaginaire in France for best Sci-fi of 2016. Andri has also collaborated with architects like the BIG group, the Bjarke Ingels group in Denmark. Andri ran for president of Iceland in 2016 as independent candidate with an environmental agenda and came third. He has recently finished a feature length documentary film: The Hero's Journey to the Third Pole - a Bipolar Musical Documentary with Elephants with focus on mental health awareness.

The future, mythology, ideas, poetry, science, stories, grandmothers, mountains, rivers, holy cows, glaciers, Iceland

I wrote the eulogy for Ok glacier. The first glacier Iceland looses to climate change: A letter to the future Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as glacier. In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. August 2019 415 ppm CO2 My new book, On Time and Water is being published in 26 languages.

activism, documentaries, explaining difficult issues, fantasy, film making, Poetry, sci-fi, storytelling, writing

My TED story is about time and what time we can touch with our bare hands. Its about updating our long term thinking and making an intimate connection with dates like 2100 or even further into the future. When I lecture in schools I ask students to calculate for me: When is someone still alive - that you will love. What do you mean they ask? If you are 20 years old today. You might be a cool 90 year old in the year 2090. At that time you might have a favourite 20 year old in your life. When is that person still talking about you, as one of their major influences in their lives? They do the calculation. That person is born around 2070. Still alive and and remembering you in the the year 2160. So somebody born today, will know and love somebody that is still alive in the year 2160. My grandmother was born in the year 1924 and is still in very good shape. If my daughter becomes as old as my grandmother she is still alive in the year 2104. She will know very well people that are born around 2080. So my daughter will know people that are still alive around 2170. So my daughter can touch 1924 with her bare hands - and perhaps 2170. She can connect almost 250 years. The handshake of generations. I do this experament with students and after a while I ask them. So a climate scientist says something will happen in the year 2090. Do you feel that is beyond your horizon - or half way, in your most intimate time scale? Of the people you will know and love?

Skiing,