iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Greenland and Antarctica have lost over 11 trillion tonnes of ice since the 1970s, driving global sea level up by more than 3 cm! New paper from the IMBIE Group: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪❄️

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

@unep.org outlines the impact of repeated government failures to cut GHG emissions in line with the Paris Agreement There are no good outcomes in overshooting and staying above 1.5°C, only enormous risks Massive near-term emissions reductions are now needed to limit overshoot extent and duration

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

For anyone currently in #Belem for #COP30 strolling down the river on your rest Sunday thinking I really fancy a spot of science and storytelling... I will be speaking (and floating!) at sunset (6.30 pm) on the Guama River about polar ice loss and the global ocean in a warming world. Come and join!

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Launch of @iccinet.bsky.social 2025 State of the Cryosphere Report yesterday evening is featured on @theguardian.com #COP30 feed today: We cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Shocking stats from this paper on the extreme 2024 summer heat in Arctic Svalbard, which lost 1% of its total ice volume in just ~6 weeks. 🔥 In fact, Svalbard's 2024 glacier mass loss actually exceeded that of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is 50 times larger!!! 😱 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... ❄️🧪🌊

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Good to see a critical appraisal of some of the proposed #Antarctic geoengineering schemes included in this report given the hype and wild headlines these ideas continue to generate in popular media

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Pakistan PM gives a rousing speech at the opening of the High Level conference on glacier preservation, warning that impacts of glacier loss will not be solved with speeches; only immediate and urgent implementation of action is at a global scale will prevent loss and suffering

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

⏰ New study shows ambitious mitigation (1.5°C) saves 2X as much ice globally (53% left) than our current pathway, which will destroy >75% glacier ice once it fully adjusts to a warmer climate Every fraction of °C counts! +0.1°C warmer = 2% more glacier mass lost www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🌊🧪

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

The International Conference on Glaciers Preservation kicks off today with a Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Resilience, Glacier Preservation and Water Cooperation #glaciers2025

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Delighted that our recent paper on the disintegration of the British-Irish Ice Sheet's ice shelves has been included as an Editors’ Highlight in the 50 best Earth Science papers recently published in @natcomms.nature.com! Full paper can be found here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Pleased to see this story is currently trending no. 1 on BBC News... although slightly worried people are thinking there are icebergs NOW off the coast of the UK… 🫢

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

More work needs to be done to calculate the main drivers responsible for the loss of UK’s ice shelves. Better dating of the sediments in which the ploughmarks are found might provide an answer - offering an intriguing possibility to shed more light on this ancient story for future research…

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

So what does all this mean for how Antarctica might respond in a warming world? One of the largest unknowns of future sea-level rise projections is how Antarctic ice shelves, and the icebergs that break off them, will react to climate warming.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

There are very few examples of this transition behaviour in our short satellite record. But perhaps the best is what happened to Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002 when warm air caused meltwater to cover its surface; this then shattered the ice into countless small bergs over just a week.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

We can even detect the collapse of these ice shelves around 18,000 yrs ago when we found a shift in the type of iceberg ploughmark produced by giant tabular bergs (reflecting the normal calving lifecycle of ice shelves) to more numerous and smaller bergs as the North Sea ice shelves disintegrated.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

From the size of the iceberg ploughmarks, we estimate that the UK ice shelves were probably similar in size to some of the smaller ones surrounding Antarctica today, like the Brunt Ice Shelf. Today, 75% of Antarctica is surrounded by ice shelves. Image: Furst et al. 2016

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Only extensive ice shelves can produce tabular icebergs of this unique shape and size. Our new work thus provides the first direct evidence that ice shelves surrounded the UK during the last glacial period and likely affected the behaviour of the ice sheet.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

The comb-like pattern of these tabular icebergs ‘doodles’ had not been seen before offshore of the UK due to lesser data resolution of previous research, which had only documented smaller single keeled marks.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

We mapped the distinctive plough-marks these spectacular giants carved as their undersides dragged across the seafloor of the North Sea as they drifted in currents out towards the ocean.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Cast your mind back to around 20 to 18 thousand years ago when the UK was covered in a giant ice sheet stretching from Scotland to Manchester. Parts of this ice sheet reached the North Sea, where giant icebergs dotted the horizon.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Productive couple of days at the @wmo-global.bsky.social working on a white paper as part of the Expert Team on Cryosphere related Services (JET-CRYO)

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Whilst exploring New York ahead of meetings on climate ambition and NDCs, I came across this interesting resiliency outreach effort along shoreline of Manhattan's financial district. Blue line (~3-4 m above current high tide line) shows height of potential flooding by 2050 from a 1/100 year storm

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

A couple of images dotting the walls here at UNESCO today - sadly, we've not done a good job of protecting our glaciers so far and the vital services they provide. As we enter into the Year of Glacier Preservation, we need a step change in policy action to protect these vital resources globally

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Agnes Pannier Runacher, French Minister for Ecological Transition, calls for strong mobilisation, multi lateralism and support for EU and UN to confront the challenges of glacier loss. "Glacial melt does not end at borders"

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Audrey Azoilay, DG of @unesco.org opens the International Year of Glacier Preservation in Paris with a call to action, increased multi-lateral cooperation and awareness raising and education

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

At @unesco.org today in Paris discussing how to secure a strong policy legacy of the Decade of #Action for Cryospheric Sciences Rapid emissions reductions NOW are critical to ensure that the world is able to adapt in time to the consequences of global ice losses and for reducing #loss and #damage

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Honoured to have given the final glaciology lecture of the year this morning to third year undergraduates at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Complete garbage in @telegraphnews.bsky.social Antarctica has the most amazing, diverse and fragile wildlife in the world Reserved for peace & science since 1950s, in these challenging times, nations need to throw their weight behind protecting this visionary agreement, not look to undermine it

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Global average temperatures for 2024 were 1.6C above the preindustrial period. That's about 0.1C above the previous record set in 2023, and means the last 10 years are now the 10 warmest years on record. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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James Kirkham @jdkirkham.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

In honour of #Antarctica day (and my first ever post on here) I'm sharing one of my favourite #photos of this truly amazing place taken during the summer #sea #ice minima last year. In this image, three resting seals are dwarfed by a capsized iceberg in the Bellingshausen Sea. #photography

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