High in the mountains of Iceland, Rice University anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer helped lead the world’s first funeral for a glacier. The tribute marked the loss of Okjökull — “Ok” for short, which had officially been declared dead by glaciologists after shrinking beyond the point of regeneration.
That moment, part solemn memorial and part climate warning, now has a new chapter. The pair’s glacier funeral project is featured in “Breaking the Ice,” an international exhibition launched in connection with the United Nations’ International Year of Glacier Preservation.
The exhibition, developed by the Norwegian Mountain Center in collaboration with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate and partners around the globe, opened this summer in Lom, Norway. Today, a digital version debuts making it accessible worldwide.
Through photographs, video and interviews, “Breaking the Ice” tells the stories of glaciers and the people who live near them in places spanning Nepal, Colombia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Norway’s own Jotunheimen mountains. It also poses a clear question: What will it take to protect what remains?
Howe and Boyer’s contribution revisits their 2019 memorial for Ok, held on the windswept mountain where the glacier once thrived. The ceremony included a plaque inscribed with a letter to the future, urging action to address climate change before more ice is lost.
“The Ok memorial drew attention to the loss of one glacier, but since 2019, groups of scientists and citizens have staged memorial events for glaciers across the world from the Alps to the Cascades to the Himalayas,” said Howe, professor of anthropology and co-director of Rice’s Program in Science and Technology Studies. “There is a widening movement of people who wish to use memorials and funerals to draw attention to the crisis of the global cryosphere. Humans have to die, but glaciers don’t. That’s a choice we are making through our behavior.”
The Okjökull memorial was more than symbolic. It was part of the pair’s Global Glacier Casualty List, a Rice-based project that documents glaciers that have vanished or are critically endangered, blending scientific data with local stories and cultural memory.
“When losses of glacial ice are measured in millions or even billions of metric tons a year, it can be very hard for nonexperts to grasp what is happening, but people understand what a funeral is and how it marks the end of an important life,” said Boyer, professor of anthropology and co-director of the Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience. “Rituals can help make environmental losses more meaningful to people and hopefully also inspire them to action. Recent studies suggest that if we can quickly end fossil fuel use, we may be able to save 30% more ice than if we stay on our present path. That will also reduce the negative impact of sea level rise on the world’s coastal cities.”
The exhibition’s timing is deliberate. Scientists estimate that without significant action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, more than three-quarters of the world’s glacier mass could vanish by 2100. For communities that depend on glacier-fed water for drinking, farming and fishing — and for cultures that hold glaciers as sacred — the losses will be deeply felt.
By sharing these stories alongside striking images and voices from across the globe, “Breaking the Ice” invites visitors to see glaciers not just as frozen landscapes but as vital parts of our shared human heritage.