Published September 8, 2024

Trust is an important part of how any society runs. Every time we stand at a pedestrian crossing waiting for the lights to change, we’re trusting the person next to us not to push us in front of a bus. When we board a plane, we’re trusting the chain of people who made it safe to fly. In apartment blocks, we rely on our neighbours not to set the building on fire.

All of that is normal and healthy. But trust has limits, and can be taken advantage of — especially when money is involved. Whether it’s squeezing salaries and eroding standards to maximise profits, or just charging more for less, money has a way of incrementally warping decisions. People chasing profit above all else cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and that’s when we need safety rails in place — or the whole thing will come crashing down.

The recent death of an American tourist on Breiðamerkurjökull was a result of a lot of trust being broken. He trusted his guides to ensure the tour was safe. The Vatnajökull park rangers trusted tourism companies to operate within best practices and safety guidelines. Lawmakers trusted those officials to monitor the safety of glacier tourism. And everyone trusted the lawmakers to administer the whole damn thing.

As you’ll read in this issue’s cover story, experts have been sounding the alarm on the excesses of ice cave tourism for years. Nobody listened to them, and this avoidable tragedy was the result. No amount of trust will bring that person back. The ramifications are already happening for the tour company, Ice Pic Journeys. But the root causes are systemic — and whether the investigation will follow the money remains to be seen.

Catharine Fulton is away.