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The Globalisation of Ice Sheets: a Scientific and Political History

Description du projet

La science et l’histoire des inlandsis de l’Antarctique et du Groenland

Malgré l’intérêt croissant pour l’étude physique des inlandsis, très peu d’attention a été accordée à leur histoire scientifique et politique. Or, pour que notre réponse sociétale et gouvernementale à la fonte des inlandsis soit pleinement informée, il est urgent de procéder à une analyse plus nuancée de la manière dont les connaissances sur les inlandsis ont été produites et utilisées par le passé. Le projet ICEglobe, financé par l’UE, comblera cette lacune en étudiant les processus d’échanges scientifiques et culturels entre les différentes sources d’informations sur les inlandsis du Groenland et de l’Antarctique. L’initiative analysera les contextes collaboratifs, technologiques et géopolitiques qui ont façonné nos connaissances afin de déterminer comment la modélisation et la fonte des inlandsis ont influencé l’idée de réciprocité et de coexistence entre l’humanité et la nature.

Objectif

The proposed project 'The Globalisation of Ice Sheets: a Scientific and Political History' (ICEglobe) charts and questions the historical processes of knowledge production and utilization that have transformed the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from geographical unknowns into objects of global significance within the context of climate change. Forecasting the future of ice sheets, their contribution to sea level rise and its global consequences has become a top priority for governments and international bodies such as the IPCC. Despite the increased resources allocated to the physical study of ice sheets, however, very little attention has been given to their scientific and political history. ICEglobe argues that if our societal and governmental response to ice sheet melt is to be fully informed and effective, there is an urgent need for more nuanced analysis of how ice sheet knowledge has been produced and utilized in the past. Drawing on the archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge (the host), of my secondment partner organisation, and of other repositories in Europe and internationally, the project will research the intertwined processes of scientific and cultural exchange between the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. It will examine the collaborative, technological and geopolitical contexts that have shaped ice sheet knowledge over the same period; it will question how ice sheet modelization and melt have sparked the re-emergence of debates around catastrophism and irreversibility; and it will consider how ice sheets challenge the idea and logic of human-nature reciprocity and coexistence. ICEglobe will be supervised by a Cultural, Political and Historical Geographer specialized in the Polar Regions and will be enriched by the Canditate’s longstanding interdisciplinary interest in the cryosphere. It will result in four papers and the first comprehensive monograph on the scientific and political history of ice sheets.

Coordinateur

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 318 656,16
Adresse
TRINITY LANE THE OLD SCHOOLS
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Royaume-Uni

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Région
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Liens
Coût total
€ 318 656,16