After Ice: Cold Humanities for a Warming Planet

Experts weigh in on a looming consequence of global warming: a future without ice.

As the climate warms and the hydrological cycle falters, ice is no longer a reliable feature of higher latitudes or winter seasons. What are the consequences of the planet’s waning capacity to cool? In other words, what comes after ice?

This collection examines the implications of the end of consistent freezing and thawing cycles. After Ice gathers experts in a wide range of disciplines to articulate aspects of the cold humanities. They investigate ice and its dynamic properties as a foundational element of Indigenous communities in the Arctic regions, as a commodity with technological and political value, and as a reflection of environmental change and the passage of time.

As the future of the cryosphere is increasingly determined by human behavior, this thought-provoking exploration envisions ice as both a phase of water and as a milieu for sensemaking. It asks us to consider how to define, describe, and materially characterize our warming world.

Rafico Ruiz is currently associate director of research at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Paula Schönach is a senior advisor in sustainability at the Aalto University School of Business and director of the CLIMATE-research program of the Strategic Research Council, both in Finland. Rob Shields is the Henry Marshall Tory Research Chair and professor of human geography and sociology at the University of Alberta.