Welcome to Episode 3: Planet Glacier

What do we really know about the ice that is disappearing from our planet? We think we understand glaciers. We have seen the images: ice collapsing into the sea, polar bears stranded on shrinking platforms, ecosystems disappearing. The story seems simple. It is not.

In this episode, Professor Ben Marzeion: climate scientist at the University of Bremen and associated with MARUM, Center for MArine ENvironmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, breaks down what we actually know about the world's 215,000 glaciers.

What he has found after years of research is both surprising and unsettling: even if humanity stopped emitting CO₂ today, 40% of the ice in the world's mountains would still melt. The glaciers are responding to what we did decades ago, and that response has only just begun. But why does this matter for the ocean? Because glacier melt is fresh water entering a saltwater system, and that changes everything: salinity, circulation, ecosystems, and the carbon cycle that keeps our atmosphere in balance.

This episode also includes a reading from a UNESCO report on the voices of indigenous peoples in the Andes, who have lived alongside glaciers for generations and are now watching them disappear.

This podcast was produced as part of the FRONTIERS Science Journalism Fellowship, funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

The residency was carried out at MARUM, Center for MArine ENvironmental Sciences at the University of Bremen.