Findings. This NSF CAREER grant has funded research and educational activities related to the history of glaciology and human-glacier interactions in mountain areas and Polar Regions. Glaciers are vital indicators and symbols of global climate change, and the long history of producing glacier knowledge helps understand the relationship between science, technology, and society. Research shows that local communities are often overlooked in glacier-related research, which tends to focus on the ice and climate rather than people. Yet communities are affected by ice loss through diminishing glacier runoff, hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods, and cultural impacts on identities, recreation, and spirituality.

This grant has demonstrated the key role that the physical environment (in this case glaciers) plays in the evolution of scientific studies, engineering practices, and technological innovations. Ice movement itself -- whether on the Greenland ice sheet, in the Peruvian Andes, or a drifting iceberg in the ocean -- has directly shaped economies and politics as well as the science, technology, and engineering related to ice. During the Cold War, ice movement in Polar Regions affected the trajectory of military and scientific practices. Iceberg movement -- driven by ocean currents, wind, sea ice conditions, and seafloor topography -- has from the 1800s until today shaped transatlantic shipping, submarine cables and communications infrastructure, offshore oil extraction, and tourism economies. Researchers have developed specific strategies (like burying submarine cables or towing icebergs away from oil rigs) and built sophisticated surveillance and iceberg modelling systems to track icebergs in the ocean.

This project's analysis of the history of glacier science and earth sciences has also revealed inequality in glacier research, specifically in who conducts the science (and who doesn't), how scientific questions often orient research around global rather than local problems, and how local communities can be marginalized from the actual production of glacier-related knowledge, even when the glaciers are in their own communities. Narratives of glacier science also underscore storylines of conquering remote areas, opening icy regions to commodification and consumption, and using science and technology not just to understand climate change but also, and historically, to help advance geopolitical and commercial interests. Research indicates that there must be a greater effort toward "glacier justice," which is a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to ice loss that engages and partners with local communities living near glaciers.

Intellectual Merit. This Science and Technology Studies (STS) research on the history of glaciers and glaciology has transformed knowledge about glaciers, the tools used to analyze ice, and the reasons particular knowledge is generated about glaciers and icebergs.  The interdisciplinary aspects of the research and the co-authorship with researchers (and students) from diverse fields in the humanities, social sciences, earth sciences, and engineering have helped better understand and incorporate science and engineering into STS and environmental history research. Additionally, this research has shifted the conversation about glaciers because results raise critical questions about the trajectory of climate science and glaciological knowledge. This more critical approach to climate science -- what project publications refer to as "critical climate history" ? does not deny the powerful effects of ice loss on society but rather transcends the more typical scholarship that seeks primarily to demonstrate that glaciers are shrinking, celebrate glacier science, lament ice loss, and document impacts, which are crucial but only part of the story. These results advance a more integrated approach to STS scholarship, with nonlinear trajectories of science, technology, and engineering, as well as a need to resolve human vulnerability and causes of glacier retreat.

Broader Impacts. Broader impacts of this project are widespread because hundreds of millions of people worldwide live near glaciers, depend on glacier runoff for water, reside in zones subjected to ongoing glacier hazards, inhabit coastal areas that could be flooded by melting ice sheets, travel or recreate in glaciated landscapes that hold cultural value such as national parks, and have identities and spiritual connections to high altitude and high latitude sites where glaciers exist. This CAREER project has produced many tangible research products and outcomes (see Figure 1). Because this was a CAREER grant with educational activities, there have been substantive teaching, mentoring, training, and professional development products as well. Principal Investigator (PI) Carey has launched a new Glacier Lab for the Study of Ice and Society through which he has trained and mentored two dozen undergraduates, 10 graduate students, and 2 postdocs. The PI developed and taught a new "Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program" course on climate science and society. The PI developed and taught a new Honors College undergraduate course on the history of earth sciences. The PI won 6 awards during the grant period, including the King Albert Mountain Award from Switzerland for lifetime research achievements and many University of Oregon awards for research excellence, undergraduate research mentorship, student advising, and contributions to student diversity.

Last Modified: 10/29/2020
Modified by: Mark P Carey