Sublime

The entire nation of Iceland experienced something like the Waze highway effect, albeit a version that it intentionally cultivated. It’s an organic Instagram trap.

It was larger than any other industry, meaning that Iceland’s most profitable product was selling itself, offering experiences of a once-inaccessible place.

As power stations go, geothermal plants are “clean.” Instead of burning fossil fuels, they rely on steam or superheated water pumped from underground, which is why they tend to be sited in volcanically active areas. Still, as Aradóttir explained to me, they, too, produce emissions. With the superheated water inevitably come unwanted gases, like