Celebrating at UNESCO: the first-ever global day for glaciers

2025 marks an important year for glaciers, as it’s the official Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, an initiative by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Part of the initiative is also the official declaration of March 21^st as the World Day for Glaciers. UNESCO wants to celebrate this day in the hope that it “urges global action to protect glaciers and their crucial role in sustaining life on Earth for future generations.” Larissa van der Lann was lucky enough to be invited to be a panelist at UNESCO, and below she tell’s us about her experience.

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A day for Glaciers

The official two-day launch event at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris consisted of sessions on policy, advocacy, the state of the art in science as well as education, socio-economic impact and adaptation. Important voices in the conversation include Heïdi Sevestre, glaciologist and famous communicator, Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director General of ICIMOD and Anil Mishra, Chief of Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation Section, UNESCO Water Sciences.

Fresh POW

The afternoon sessions include a streaming of the Protect Our Winters (POW) Europe documentary ‘Downstream’. Protect Our Winters is an organization that unites (winter sport) athletes, brands, artists and scientists to educate on climate change and advocate for a real transition. Started by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones, POW quickly moved from the US to a global organization, with the mission to harness the passion of the outdoor community to turn the tide on climate change. Their documentary Downstream, in collaboration with Icebreaker is visible here. It shows the impact that glaciers have on communities and ecosystems downstream, and why it is so essential to preserve them. The documentary demonstrates how progressive brands, scientists, creatives, athletes, and NGOs can collaborate to address urgent issues such as glacier loss and climate change.

A productive panel discussion

After the screening, a panel discussion is held, showing the diversity that POW brings as an organization. The panel is moderated by Ingrid Beutler, and the speakers include Thomas Delfino, French professional snowboarder, Emma Fourreau, French Member of the European Parliament, Fabrice Remy, International lawyer and VP of POW France and myself: Larissa van der Laan, glaciologist, artist and outreach officer for the EGU Cryosphere division. The panel questions include scientific questions on the importance of glaciers, questions on the impact that athletes and creatives can make, and how politicians such as Emma address huge challenges such as glacier mass loss.

A question from the audience that interested everyone was “does it matter when I contact my representatives, for example via e-mail?” The encouraging answer from Emma Fourreau was that yes, it really matters. If they get several pings on one topic from the constituents, they know what is important to their voters, and can pivot accordingly. So, the message to all of us: we need to let our politicians know that we care about climate change and glacier preservation. When we make enough noise, we’re too difficult to ignore!

Overall, I am incredibly grateful to sit on a panel such as this, hopefully explaining the science in an understandable manner. The energy and further conversations from science communication events, such as this one, can really snowball (ha, see what I did there?) into making a difference… and the take home message? Email your local politician!!

Further resources

• Check out the UNESCO website for more information on the world day for glaciers. 
• Want to know more about the work Larissa does? Check out this other blog post all about combining art and science.

Edited by Emma Pearce

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