Abstract:

The melting of glaciers and ice sheets is accelerating, a phenomenon that virtually guarantees that sea level rise by 2100 will meet or exceed the highest projections of UNFCCC scientists. Our changing cryospheres and hydrospheres promise misery to millions across the planet. But they also reveal forms of material connectivity that could potentially be mobilized in the struggle against climate change and the petroculture that produced it. This presentation follows the loss of glaciers in Iceland and the many registers in which it is materialized, including the author’s initiative to create a memorial for the first major Icelandic glacier to be lost to climate change (Okjökull). Using a recently released computational tool developed by NASA that allows a visual mapping of glacial basin contributions to sea level rise in the world’s coastal cities, Melt & Rise explores the concept of “hydrological globalization:” the sociomaterial connections and cultural impacts that follow from the redistribution of water across the planet. 

Read more about Associate Professor Cymene Howe here