2025 is the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation
In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 2025 the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation (IYGP). This resolution also established March 21 as the annual World Day for Glaciers and World Water Day, starting in 2025. The goal of these observances is to increase global awareness of the essential role glaciers, snow, and ice play in the climate system and to highlight the economic, social, and environmental consequences of changes in the Earth's cryosphere.
To mark the beginning of IYGP 2025, UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, in collaboration with global partners, are coordinating an event on January 21, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland, with online participation available. Learn more about this event and watch the Introduction video.
The images above are of the Qori Kalis glacier in 2002 and 1977, respectively, chronicling the glacier’s ongoing retreat.
Byrd Center's Ice Core Paleoclimatology group Senior Research Scientist and Earth Sciences Distinguished University Professor Lonnie Thompson and his colleagues have spent over four decades documenting how rising temperatures, amplified by strong El Niño events, are affecting glaciers around the world, from the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to the Peruvian ice fields.
With glaciers melting at unprecedented rates, the 2025 IYGP will advocate for research, policy innovation, and climate adaptation actions related to glaciers.
Visit "2025 International Year of Glaciers' Preservation" to learn more.
Related stories:
- How ancient ice cores show ‘black swan’ events in history – even pandemics, The Conversation, September 2020
- Documenting the demise of Quelccaya: The world’s largest tropical ice cap, Ohio State News, August 2018
