"The 20,000-year-old melting piece of Greenlandic glacial ice travelled more than 5,000 kilometres from the fjords of Nuuk, Greenland to the Raising Hope for Climate Justice conference, where it was touched by the pontiff during his inaugural address (1 October). "Eliasson arranged for the ice to be brought to Rome for this poignant occasion with the support of geologist Minik Rosing," says a statement from Eliasson's studio."
"NASA's Earth Information Center estimates that Greenland's ice sheet is losing approximately 270 billion tonnes annually as a result of climate change. In 2014, Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing launched the climate change-themed project , whereby ice blocks were placed in public areas in Copenhagen, Paris and London, and were left to slowly melt. This, Eliasson said, was to "make scientific data explicit, so we can feel it"."
"The work, Your Planetary Assembly, sits within the new, two-acre Fallaize Park, located in a new science, technology and innovation district known as Oxford North. The piece comprises eight illuminated glass polyhedrons which represent the planets in the Solar System. Eliasson says that "sitting within this local space, you simultaneously inhabit a larger continuum, a meeting point of trajectories that reflects both community and the vastness of the cosmos"."
A 20,000-year-old block of Greenlandic glacial ice was transported over 5,000 kilometres from Nuuk to Rome and touched by the pope during the Raising Hope for Climate Justice conference. The ice, collected from Nuup Kangerluafjord after breaking away from the Greenland ice sheet, is actively melting into the ocean. NASA estimates Greenland loses about 270 billion tonnes of ice annually due to climate change. Eliasson previously placed melting ice blocks in European cities to make scientific data tangible. Eliasson also unveiled Your Planetary Assembly in Oxford: eight illuminated glass polyhedrons representing the planets, sited within Fallaize Park.
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