Artist uses 80 tonnes of Greenland ice to make one big statement

A boat tows ice through Nuup Kangerlua — the Nuuk fiord — for use at the Ice Watch installation at Place de la République in Paris on Nov. 29, the day before COP21 is set to start. (PHOTO BY JORGEN CHEMNITZ, COURTESY OF ICE WATCH)

A crane at Nuuk harbour hoists a chunk of ice harvested from the Nuuk fiord for use in the Ice Watch installation. (PHOTO BY JORGEN CHEMNITZ, COURTESY OF ICE WATCH)

Take 80 tonnes of glacier ice and one public square inside a beautiful European city. Arrange ice in clock-like formation. Stand back and watch it melt.

That’s the recipe Greenlandic geologist Minik Rosing and Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson chose this year for a huge art installation in Paris aimed at drawing attention to global warming when world leaders meet for the COP21 United Nations climate change conference later this month.

They’ll set up the installation, called “Ice Watch,” at Place de la République in Paris on Nov. 29, the day before COP21 is set to start.

“Art has the ability to change our perceptions and perspectives on the world, and Ice Watch makes the climate challenges we are facing tangible. I hope it will inspire shared commitment to taking climate action,” Eliasson said in a news release.

The Ice Watch installation will remain on display until Dec. 11. Any remaining chunks of Greenland glacier ice will be taken to local French schools and cultural institutions for a community education program.

Workers have already started harvesting the ice from a fiord near Nuuk and are transporting it to Europe from Nuuk in sealift containers.

“Through our actions we are now close to terminating the period of stable climate that served as the condition for civilisations to arise and flourish,” Rosing said.

Born in Nuuk, Rosing is now a geology professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.

“Science and technology have made it possible for us to destabilize Earth’s climate, but now that we understand the mechanisms behind these changes, we have the power to prevent them from growing,” Rosing said.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, an offshoot of the Manhattan-based Bloomberg LP financial services and media empire, has donated funds to pay for the Ice Watch project.

“Ice Watch is a great example of how public art can draw attention to big challenges and spur people to action,” Michael Bloomberg, the ex-mayor of New York City and Bloomberg LP’s president and CEO, said in a news release.

COP21, which stands for “Conference of the Parties,” brings together the 195 countries that comprise the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It’s called “21” because it’s their 21st meeting since these UN conferences began in 1995.

The goal of the Paris meeting is officially a legally-binding agreement on emissions targets. These would be aimed at reducing the production of climate-warming greenhouse gases to a level that will limit global warming to an average of 2 Celsius by the end of this century.

But a European Parliament analysis on what lies ahead says “many analysts expect a ‘soft’ agreement, in which emissions targets are made binding only through national legislation, but not enforced by the international community.”

At COP21, many also want to see an agreement on money to help countries, such as low-lying island states in the Pacific and Indian oceans — and maybe indigenous peoples in the Arctic, too — adapt to climate change.

It’s likely that any deal they reach would replace the Kyoto Accord, which peters out in 2020.

Unlike the Kyoto deal, any Paris agreement will likely include countries like India and China, whose rapidly expanding economies are consuming energy at an ever-increasing rate.

China and India did participate in the 2009 COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen which concluded with a political statement, called the Copenhagen Accord, but no legally-binding agreement.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and India’s leader, Narendra Modri will go to Paris, along with United States President Barack Obama, who has already declared that climate change is a priority for the U.S.-chaired Arctic Council.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend, along with all other provincial and territorial premiers, including Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna.

Trudeau’s new environment minister, Catherine McKenna, who is also Trudeau’s minister responsible for climate change, will also fly to Paris.

Along with other Arctic indigenous groups, the Inuit Circumpolar Council will bring a delegation of Inuit leaders from Canada, Alaska and Greenland to observe the proceedings and likely take part in Arctic-related side events.