SEARCH and the International Arctic Research Center welcome you to share your stories about cryosphere change

We are learning more and more about the consequences of Earth’s changing cryosphere (frozen waters and ground). But what are the real consequences for people and ecosystems?

We propose a brainstorming session to explore and share the diverse experiences and understanding of the implications of a changing cryosphere—permafrost, glaciers, high mountain environments, polar sea ice, and other cold environments—and its impacts on culture, tradition, sustainability and community way of life.

Our vision for the brainstorming session

In Fall 2026 we’d like to bring together 12–20 people, including Indigenous participants as well as other community and topic leaders, who have Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) concerning the cryosphere. Goals and outcomes include:

• Initial conversations on how we might propel greater collective dialogue
• Greater understanding of hyper-local ecosystems in the cryosphere that are being impacted by climate change
• To foster greater respect for the importance of ice in its many forms
• To take action to protect the cryosphere and build community resilience to its changing condition

This gathering might lead to a subsequent open roundtable discussion with larger participation or planned advocacy / learning actions on issues identified.

Potential topics for discussion

• Recent efforts to advance legal protection/advocacy protecting glaciers and periglacial regions/permafrost (in Argentina/Chile/Peru/Kyrgyzstan, etc.)
• Social media concerning disappearing glaciers (Argentina/Mexico/Bolivia/Nepal/Alaska/Europe)
• Opportunities and challenges to unite around ice and the cryosphere / calls to action
• Focus on specific regions: (Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Greenland, Polar, Asia, etc.)
• Indigenous voices and perspectives on the cryosphere/ice geographies and deep knowledge of ice
• Concerns over melting permafrost and/or changes in glacier melt flow impacts to communities
• Impacts of changing glacial run off change to fish and other organisms
• Permafrost thaw and glacier instability impacts (mountain terrain stability, outburst floods, etc.)
• Methane emissions from permafrost and how they might galvanize advocacy action
• Sea-level rise and changing climates in the cryosphere in multiple regions
• Nature-based solutions and TEK in the cryosphere to build community resilience
• Two-eyed science approaches to cryosphere science (Indigenous and scientific lenses)
• Sea ice ecosystems on which many depend for travel and harvesting resources.
• Changing forest dynamics (such as Boreal Forests / Wildfires, etc.)
• The existence of and role of periglacial features–permafrost (invisible glaciers)
• Making glaciers/storing ice (ways of addressing the loss of glaciers)

Participants would include

• Representatives of Indigenous communities representing high mountain environments, the polar regions, or other cold environments
• Community leaders that are taking action to protect cold environments: glaciers, permafrost, sea ice.
  Communities engaging to thwart anthropogenic industrial operations in glacier/permafrost areas.
  Scientists working on snow, ice, and permafrost environments

Leading questions to address

Participants would be asked to address these questions in short interventions (3-5 minutes)

1. How the cryosphere changing in diverse communities and key impacts to cultures and livelihoods?
2. How are communities addressing these cryospheric changes?
3. How can collective action help build community resilience to a changing cryosphere?

Planning committee and contacts

• Brendan Kelly, Chief Scientist, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Jorge Daniel Taillant, Executive Director, Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Kakwiranóron Cook, Indigenous Affairs Officer, Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Micaela Martinez, Director of Environmental Justice & Research, South Bronx Unite