Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ICEglobe (The Globalisation of Ice Sheets: a Scientific and Political History)
Période du rapport: 2022-01-10 au 2024-11-09
The ICEglobe project addressed the question of how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets came to be understood as central objects of global scientific concern and climate governance. Although ice sheets now play a critical role in debates on climate change, sea-level rise, and planetary risk, their scientific and political significance is the result of long historical processes that have rarely been examined in an integrated way.
The project responded to this gap by investigating the scientific, political, cultural, and technological processes through which ice-sheet knowledge has been produced, circulated, and globalised since the mid-twentieth century. Understanding these processes is important for policy makers and civil society as contemporary climate decisions rely heavily on models, measurements, and assumptions that were shaped by earlier institutional, geopolitical, and technological frameworks.
The overall objective of ICEglobe was to provide a historically grounded account of how ice sheets became central to contemporary climate science and governance, and to situate current debates on ice-sheet instability, irreversibility, and intervention within longer trajectories of glaciological research. In its concluding phase, the project also examined how contemporary debates surrounding ice-sheet melt have expanded beyond questions of measurement and prediction to include proposals such as large-scale geoengineering interventions and legal frameworks based on the Rights of Nature. By situating these debates within longer scientific and political histories, ICEglobe demonstrates that they are not unprecedented ruptures, but emerge from evolving assumptions about control, responsibility, and human–environment relations in polar science.
The project responded to this gap by investigating the scientific, political, cultural, and technological processes through which ice-sheet knowledge has been produced, circulated, and globalised since the mid-twentieth century. Understanding these processes is important for policy makers and civil society as contemporary climate decisions rely heavily on models, measurements, and assumptions that were shaped by earlier institutional, geopolitical, and technological frameworks.
The overall objective of ICEglobe was to provide a historically grounded account of how ice sheets became central to contemporary climate science and governance, and to situate current debates on ice-sheet instability, irreversibility, and intervention within longer trajectories of glaciological research. In its concluding phase, the project also examined how contemporary debates surrounding ice-sheet melt have expanded beyond questions of measurement and prediction to include proposals such as large-scale geoengineering interventions and legal frameworks based on the Rights of Nature. By situating these debates within longer scientific and political histories, ICEglobe demonstrates that they are not unprecedented ruptures, but emerge from evolving assumptions about control, responsibility, and human–environment relations in polar science.
From the beginning of the project to the end of the reporting period, ICEglobe combined extensive archival research with interdisciplinary analysis drawing on historical geography, science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and visual culture studies. Research was conducted at the Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge, and in other archives in Europe. It was complemented by research visits and a secondment at the University of Greenland, Ilisimatusarfik.
The project reconstructed the emergence of large-scale ice-sheet science, examining field practices, measurement technologies such as seismic and radio-echo sounding, and the development of computer modelling. A central result is the demonstration that Greenland and Antarctica were not treated as isolated research sites, but as mutually constitutive spaces within shared scientific, logistical, and geopolitical frameworks, particularly during and after the Second World War.
In parallel, the project analysed how visual practices, especially photography, contributed to the authority and circulation of cryospheric knowledge. This resulted in commissioned peer-reviewed chapters on early Antarctic photography, which expanded the project’s interdisciplinary scope while remaining aligned with its core objectives.
The results of the project have been disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles, edited-volume chapters, international conferences, invited lectures, and public-facing publications. The principal outcome is a major peer-reviewed monograph intended for both academic and wider readerships, ensuring broad exploitation and visibility of the project’s findings.
The project reconstructed the emergence of large-scale ice-sheet science, examining field practices, measurement technologies such as seismic and radio-echo sounding, and the development of computer modelling. A central result is the demonstration that Greenland and Antarctica were not treated as isolated research sites, but as mutually constitutive spaces within shared scientific, logistical, and geopolitical frameworks, particularly during and after the Second World War.
In parallel, the project analysed how visual practices, especially photography, contributed to the authority and circulation of cryospheric knowledge. This resulted in commissioned peer-reviewed chapters on early Antarctic photography, which expanded the project’s interdisciplinary scope while remaining aligned with its core objectives.
The results of the project have been disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles, edited-volume chapters, international conferences, invited lectures, and public-facing publications. The principal outcome is a major peer-reviewed monograph intended for both academic and wider readerships, ensuring broad exploitation and visibility of the project’s findings.
ICEglobe advances the state of the art by providing the first integrated historical analysis of ice sheets as scientific, political, and epistemic objects, linking contemporary ice-sheet science to the institutional, technological, and geopolitical frameworks through which knowledge of Greenland and Antarctica has been produced and globalised. By treating the two ice sheets as part of a shared historical system, the project moves beyond regionally isolated approaches that have previously dominated the field.
By historicising emerging concepts such as geoengineering and the Rights of Nature, the project contributes to wider societal reflection on how societies respond to environmental change at planetary scales. Rather than promoting specific solutions, ICEglobe clarifies the historical conditions under which such ideas arise, helping policy-makers, researchers, and the public to better understand their scientific, ethical, and political implications.
While the project does not aim at direct economic or industrial impact, its socio-economic relevance lies in strengthening Europe’s research capacity in climate-related humanities and social sciences and supporting evidence-informed approaches to climate governance. The findings are relevant to researchers, policy-makers, cultural institutions, and the wider public, and they contribute to broader reflection on humanity’s relationship with large-scale environmental systems in a changing climate.
By historicising emerging concepts such as geoengineering and the Rights of Nature, the project contributes to wider societal reflection on how societies respond to environmental change at planetary scales. Rather than promoting specific solutions, ICEglobe clarifies the historical conditions under which such ideas arise, helping policy-makers, researchers, and the public to better understand their scientific, ethical, and political implications.
While the project does not aim at direct economic or industrial impact, its socio-economic relevance lies in strengthening Europe’s research capacity in climate-related humanities and social sciences and supporting evidence-informed approaches to climate governance. The findings are relevant to researchers, policy-makers, cultural institutions, and the wider public, and they contribute to broader reflection on humanity’s relationship with large-scale environmental systems in a changing climate.