International Cryosphere Climate Initiative

Learn more about upcoming #COP30 side events hosted at the Cryosphere Pavilion: iccinet.org/cop30-cryosp...

This morning’s session at the #COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion discussed the impacts of black carbon in the Arctic.

Updated emissions data and improved atmospheric modeling highlight why rapid reductions in black carbon remain essential for effective Arctic and global climate policy. Full schedule below!

Scientists Warn Against Plans to Artificially Cool Polar Regions Proposals to artificially cool the world’s polar regions — to stem the impact of global warming — are both expensive, unfeasible and potentially dangerous, according to new scientific research.

Proposals to artificially cool the world’s polar regions to stem the impact of global warming are expensive, unfeasible and potentially dangerous, scientists say.

CC:

@mmchch.bsky.social
@handsoffmotherearth.org h.org

Geoengineering Won’t Save Us From Global Warming - Inside Climate News New research by a team of top ice and climate scientists debunks some speculative technological climate fixes for preserving the polar ice caps.

insideclimatenews.org/news/0909202...

Geoengineering is not going to save the poles from climate change A review of the five main methods proposed for cooling down the poles or slowing the loss of ice concludes they are all wildly impractical, wouldn't work, or both

www.newscientist.com/article/2495...

High-tech plans to save polar ice will fail, new research finds The plans could also unintentionally harm fragile polar ecosystems.

theconversation.com/high-tech-pl...

Re-freezing the North Pole? A giant sea curtain? High-tech efforts to save the Arctic are doomed, report finds | CNN Moonshot proposals to save the planet’s ice sheets are gaining popularity as the planet heats up. But none of the most high-profile ideas are viable — worse, they may cause irreparable harm, according...

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/09/c...

Polar geoengineering dismissed as ‘unimaginably expensive’ and ‘dangerous’ Underwater curtains and artificial ice thickening divert attention from cutting fossil fuel use, says group of climate scientists

The article has also gained significant media coverage:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Polar geoengineering: risks and realities A comprehensive evaluation of geoengineering strategies to slow ice loss in the Arctic and Antarctic

The article has been released as a hub where a variety of materials can be accessed, including information written for—and peer reviewed by—kids aged 8-15 years.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...

Luckily, we already know what we need to do. We have existing goals that we know will work. Global heating will likely stabilize within 20 years of us reaching net zero.

Our focus must remain on emissions reductions, not on speculative ideas that are highly unlikely to work as intended.

Further research into these ideas is not an effective use of limited time and resources. They also risk distracting from the priority of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, investing in proven mitigation strategies, and from the critical need to conduct fundamental research in the polar regions.

Frontiers | Safeguarding the polar regions from dangerous geoengineering: a critical assessment of proposed concepts and future prospects Fossil-fuel burning is heating the planet with catastrophic consequences for its habitability and for the natural world on which our existence depends. Halti...

An authoritative group of #climate scientists have reviewed 5 prominent ideas to #geoengineer the polar regions.

They conclude that these ideas are economically and practically unfeasible, environmentally dangerous & have major governance & ethics issues.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...

🌊🧪

Here are some photos from last year's Cryosphere Pavilion.

Key topics – including ice sheets and sea-level rise, mountain glaciers and snow, permafrost, sea ice, and polar oceans – were featured in more than 70 side events. Our team of ECS volunteers helped ensure everything ran smoothly.

Calling all Early Career Scientists!

We are offering an opportunity to bring your science to policymakers #COP30 by volunteering at the 2025 Cryosphere Pavilion!

Applications close Monday, September 1:
iccinet.org/cop30-cryosp...

Please share widely!

“That world is within reach, but it won’t happen on its own. Not fast enough. Not fair enough. It is up to us. This is our moment of opportunity.”

Watch the full special address here: www.youtube.com/live/4yYpxMi...

To save the cryosphere, we need to speed up the transition from fossil fuels in this year’s NDCs at COP30 🇧🇷

UNSG António Guterres delivered a landmark special address and launched a new report this morning: www.un.org/en/climatech...

Guterres

"The clean energy revolution is a fact. No government, no industry, no special interest can stop it."

Spot-on assessment from United Nations Secretary General António Guterres

Antarctic and Southern Ocean stability is critical not only for the polar ice sheet but also global ecosystems and communities

We are attending #ATCM47 as part of ASOC, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, providing scientific advice to inform decision making 🇦🇶

@antarcticasouth.bsky.social

Today ICCI's Antarctic Director shared the latest science in #ATCM discussions, stating that geoengineering is not a solution to Antarctic ice loss.

She stressed the need to avoid exploiting sensitive Antarctic environments as a means to experiment with geoengineering interventions.

#ShowYourStripes Day!

SCAR INSTANT is attending the ATCM in Milan, italy 🇮🇹. Temperature in Milan have increased drastically over the past 10 years. as the first heat wave strikes, it reminds us that polar areas are vunerable but regulate the temperature of the planet.🌏

@scar-antarctic.bsky.social

The opening plenary and annual SCAR lecture on latest science will take place Tuesday morning. Schedule: www.ats.aq/devAS/Meetin...

Concerted action is needed to better identify early warning indicators of threshold behavior from Antarctica & strengthen environmental protection measures.

Today is the first day of the 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, held in Milan 🇮🇹 from June 23-July 3.

It will take place alongside the 27th meeting of the #CEP.

An important issue: the risk of multi-meter sea level rise if critical thresholds in the Antarctic Ice Sheet system are crossed.

Wildfire smoke causing glaciers to melt faster in Canadian Rockies While warmer temperatures are a main culprit, wildfire smoke is darkening the surface of glaciers, which decreases its albedo.

"We're putting the planet into a condition that hasn't existed since humanity has evolved as a species, and it's destroying our natural landscapes and natural water supplies...making our communities uninhabitable," said Pomeroy. calgaryherald.com/news/local-n...

Clearly, his words went unheeded.

Dr. John Pomeroy, who co-leads #IYGP scientific advisors, exhorted G7 leaders to “just look up” at the mountains around them to see what is happening, in an allusion to the film where scientists warn humanity of an approaching comet that will destroy Earth, an analogy for today’s climate crisis.

But what is happening as a result of climate inaction is also terrible, and if we continue not to do what we know is needed – transition off fossil fuels – it will become more terrible still.

Of course there are terrible things happening across the planet: in the Middle East, in Ukraine, for that matter in southern Sudan (but that also went unheeded).

And of course there is pressure to tiptoe around a U.S. leadership that ignores reality on climate, as on so many other things.

Five of the seven G7 leaders present are presiding over dying glaciers alongside shrinking snowpack that will threaten water resources for decades and centuries to come, in the year when new climate commitments could finally turn the tide of water loss and sea-level rise – and not a word.

A landmark study released three weeks ago (highlighted by negotiators at the Bonn climate talks) identified the Canadian and U.S. Rockies as one of the four most vulnerable glacier regions of the world, along with the European Alps (G7 members France, Germany and Italy), Scandinavia and Iceland.

This would have been bad at any G7, but this year of all years? G7 leaders met in Kananaskis, nestled in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, with a backdrop of some of the most rapidly-melting glaciers in the world.