The Ice Memory Foundation takes part and supports the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation

Here we go! The Ice Memory Foundation took part in the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025 Opening Ceremony on January 21st in Geneva. This high-level event was co-organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UNESCO, with support from Tajikistan and France.
The Ice Memory Foundation engages with the glaciers’ community, including colleagues who are standing up for water resources and the human, socio-economics impacts of the melting glaciers. All together, we are working on highlighting the high value of ice from mountain glaciers, especially the World Heritage ones. 
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As high-altitude glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation is crucial for raising awareness and understanding of the human, economics and scientific issues at stake. Even if glaciers are located in a specific number of countries, their retreat affects all Nations and people. 
 
High-level commitments from governments are crucial to preserve ice memory, especially as more and more voices are rising to oppose the scientific evidences of climate change. Ice Memory Foundation believes in science, especially in ice core science as a vital and lasting legacy for adaptation, both today and in the future. 
 
By participating in this first Curtain Raiser Event in Geneva, we started a year of actions and collaborations. The scientific challenges at stake were recalled by Jérôme Chappellaz, Senior Glaciologist and Chair of the Ice Memory Foundation, who underligned the importance of ice core science in global policies:
 
We know how much CO2 we have put in the atmosphere
compared with pre-industrial time because of ice. We know about the evolution of heavy metals, of radioactive emissions, 
about the atmosphere thanks to ice core measurements.
And there is much more to come. 
It's pretty sure that in the future, based on new technologies, and new approaches, there would be much more science to come out from these ice cores. 
Preserving ice cores for future generations 
of scientists  is our absolute responsibility. 
If we fail to act now, it will be too lat
Updated on  March 13, 2025