In the tropics, glaciers are melting at an alarming rate – transforming landscapes, disrupting lives, and erasing cultural memory. The Voices of Glaciers is a powerful new book funded with the support of the MRI that shares the personal reflections of 35 individuals – from Indigenous elders to scientists – who are witnessing this change firsthand.
Glaciers have long stood as silent sentinels of Earth’s climate: keepers of ancient ice, guardians of biodiversity, and vital water sources for millions. Yet in the tropics, these icy giants are disappearing faster than almost anywhere else on the planet. Their loss is not only physical – it is cultural, emotional, and scientific.
The Voices of Glaciers, a powerful new publication from UNESCO and the French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), brings this story vividly to life through the testimonies of 35 individuals – scientists, Indigenous leaders, artists, mountain guides, park rangers, tourists, and young environmental advocates – whose lives are intimately connected to tropical glaciers in the Andes, East Africa, and Southeast Asia.
“From the first time I opened my eyes, I saw glaciers reaching all the way down from the summits to the valleys. Since the 2000s, I can see how much the snow is retreating.”
Liz Macedo, Flores caretaker for mountain huts in the Andes.
At its heart, the book is a rare convergence of science and storytelling. It pairs glaciological research and visual documentation with deeply personal accounts of witnessing change: the grief of elders who remember snow-capped peaks now bare, the resolve of researchers tracking ice loss, and the hope expressed by young climate advocates who refuse to give up on the future. Through themes of care, concern, sadness, adaptation, and resilience, The Voices of Glaciers offers a uniquely human lens on one of the most pressing indicators of climate disruption.
“We propose thinking about each of the voices in this book as a different vantage point and emotional world from which to perceive melting tropical glaciers,” says book author Ignacio Palomo, a researcher at the IRD and the Université Grenoble Alpes, and a member of the MRI Science Leadership Council. “All have lived experiences that shape their perceptions and knowledge, and we acknowledge the diversity of their worlds and world-making practices, while using emotion as a point of encounter.”
The data behind each of these stories is stark. Since the 1980s, the Andes have lost between 30 percent and 50 percent of their glacier mass. By 2050, nearly half of the tropical glaciers documented in the book—including five UNESCO World Heritage Sites and several Biosphere Reserves—may be completely gone. Most of the rest will have lost up to 90 percent of their surface area compared to their extent during the Little Ice Age. These projections signal risks to water security, cultural heritage, biodiversity and local economies in some of the most vulnerable regions on Earth.
“Chimborazo’s sublime grandeur is because of its ice. For the pre-Columbian peoples, this gigantic mountain that reached up to the sky was the origin of life, the origin of water. For us today, we drink water from a bottle or just turn on the tap. We don’t realise how wonderful it is that this water, vital for all living things, comes from the heart of the mountain.”
Marco Cruz, Mountaineer.
The Voices of Glaciers not just a chronicle of loss, however. It is also a testament to adaptation, memory, personal dedication, and hope. The book draws from an interdisciplinary approach that integrates sustainability science, anthropology, glaciology, and Indigenous knowledge, reflecting the complexity and interdependence of cryospheric systems and human societies. It reminds us that rigorous data and climate models must be complemented by emotional truth and local perspective if we are to grasp the full scope of what is being lost, and what may still be saved.
As the international community marks the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025 and launches the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025–2034), The Voices of Glaciers arrives as both a timely contribution and a call to action. Because to protect glaciers is not only to preserve nature, biodiversity, and vital water resources, but also to honour the people and cultures shaped by them.
“When I visited the Quyllurit’i in 2001, the pilgrims took ice, breaking it with stones and carrying it down on their backs for their communities. Just over a decade later, I was struck by the fact that they had abandoned this ancient ritual. They explained that they had noticed the glacier was sick, that it was receding, shrinking more and more, and that they had decided not to remove the ice in order not to worsen its condition. It made me think: our industrialised societies, which are the main drivers of climate change, need dozens of conferences to take decisions – which have still not been taken, by the way – whereas these societies, which live in contact with nature, are able to react immediately and make the right decisions… I think we could take inspiration from this example.”
Bernard Francou, Glaciologist.
Citation: Palomo I., Lana S., Rabatel A., Dangles O. 2025. The Voices of Glaciers: Stories of Grief and Hope Amidst Shrinking Glaciers in the Tropics. With the collaboration of Cauvy-Fraunié S., Ceballos J. L., Adler C., Mark B., Marchant R.,Morales Arnao B., Pérez Arias J. D., Aguilar Durán D. & Zimmer A. Marseille-Paris, IRD Éditions-UNESCO.
This book was published with the support of The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), Life Without Ice (LWI) funded by BNP Paribas, L’Institut des géosciences de l’environnement (IGE), and L’Observatoire des sciences de l’univers de Grenoble (OSUG).
Cover image by Todd Antony.