Global Institute for Water Security at USask celebrates International Year of Glacier Preservation
The Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) is joining many other water communities around the world in 2025 to celebrate and highlight the crucial role glaciers play in sustaining our planet’s freshwater supply.
The International Year of Glacier Preservation (IYGP) is a United Nations-led effort proposed by the President of the Republic of Tajikistan to raise awareness of the role glaciers play in our daily lives. The goal is to highlight the detrimental impacts of glacier recession around the world. Deglaciation, or the melting of glaciers, is a real threat that will impact communities throughout Canada, including Saskatchewan.
GIWS is one of more than 30 partners in the Canada IYGP, and a member of the National Steering Committee, supporting the year by raising awareness, promoting research, connecting and sharing events and art inspired by the year, and celebrating the earth’s cryosphere – water in all its frozen forms.
The national committee, hosted by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and GIWS, is excited to introduce the first Glacier Year ambassadors who, alongside writer-in-residence Lynn Martel and youth ambassadors, will use their passion and expertise to help promote the importance of glacier observation, prediction and protection.
Raising awareness by bridging Indigenous and western knowledge
Tim Patterson is an Indigenous Knowledge and Relations Advisor, the President of Mountain Culture on the board of directors of the Alpine Club of Canada and one of the 2025 IYGP Ambassadors. Born in Merritt, B.C., Patterson is from the Lower Nicola Indian Band and has resided in Alberta for the last two decades. With a master’s degree in environmental education, Patterson is focused on sharing Indigenous knowledge that is rooted in and around the mountains. Through Zuc’min Guiding, an Indigenous adventure tourism company, Patterson is able to connect with others.
“I want to bring my Indigenous knowledge, my western knowledge, and guiding together,” said Patterson. “So, I use hiking and the outdoors as a way of breaking barriers and introducing people to knowledge construction.”
In his role as IYPG Ambassador, Patterson is hoping to use his knowledge and experience to bring awareness and understanding to the public.
“The changes to the ice can be quite overwhelming, but by understanding the complexity of what is affecting the glaciers we are able to get people to start doing small things,” said Patterson. “There is no silver bullet, but people can still do things that will have an impact.”
Communicating the emotional impact of the cryosphere
Caroline Côté is a professional adventurer and long-distance athlete who works as an explorer and adventure filmmaker. As a visual storyteller, Côté’s goal is to highlight the work scientists are doing while also bringing the beauty of nature to people in cities like Montreal, Côté’s home base.
“People in Quebec are so far from glaciers that I hope to bring the glaciers closer to them, to have them start to learn a little bit about their importance,” said Côté.
Côté’s 2014 expedition, her first and one of the most challenging, was a life-changing experience.
“I had never seen a glacier before and when I looked into the crevasses the blue ice was so beautiful. It was a new colour to me, it was so dense, so pure … That’s when I fell in love with the glacier,” said Côté.
As the IYGP ambassador, Côté hopes to continue bringing awareness to a wider audience and inspire action, however small.
“I would say that scientists and researchers are giving me information that I’d like to send to people,” said Côté. “When I was at Wedge Mountain, I saw that the glacier is the source of everything, from the small plants and flowers to the communities living down from the glacier. We don’t often recognize that it’s not just ice, it feeds into everything.”
The International Year of the Glacier in Canada kicks off in January at the Whyte Museum in Banff, Alta., and will continue with events across Canada and around the world, including the first World Day for Glaciers which will be celebrated on March 21, 2025. The kickoff event for Canada’s participation, MELTDOWN: Mountain Portraits of a Vanishing Treasure, will take place on January 24 at Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.
Learn more about the IYGP efforts at https://www.unglacieryear.ca/
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