Earth is losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice each year – enough to create an ice cube more than 10km high.
How do we know this?
Satellites like ESA’s CryoSat-2 mission collect crucial climate data from hundreds of miles above Earth.
Once of the challenges we face is how do we make data from space feel real for people on the ground.
Climate change and the research behind it can often feel distant and abstract, but the impacts are immediate and global.
That’s why researchers, space agencies and climate change organisations are getting creative, transforming complex information into experiences that resonate with people outside the scientific community and inspire action from Governments and government agencies.
This International Day of Climate Action, we’re sharing some of the ways that creativity has been used to share environmental science stories in 2025.
Visual storytelling from space
ESA, with Planetary Visions, have partnered to create videos that visualise the research carried out by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and other research groups.
Here are some examples:
This animation, featuring research led by CPOM PhD Researcher Nitin Ravinder, shows the thinning of the Greenland ice sheet between 2010 and 2023.
Video Credit: ESA / Planetary Visions / CPOM
And this animation shows something surprising discovered by CPOM Researchers from Lancaster University this year – a subglacial flood bursting through the ice sheet.
Video Credit: ESA/CPOM/Planetary Visions
Stepping inside a year’s worth of ice loss: The Giant Ice Cube
How much ice is a trillion tonnes? CPOM created a 3D, explorable model to help answer this question.
Dr Tom Slater’s research has been transformed into an interactive experience that has travelled across the country, letting school children ‘step into’ a year’s worth of ice loss.
Of those surveyed at our outreach events 85% said they learned something new and 56% said they would consider becoming polar scientists.
Watch this video about why science outreach work is inspiring the next generation of environmental scientists.
Video: CPOM
Using poetry and art to bring science to life
ESA collaborated with artist Jamie Perera to create a multi-sensory installation that transforms satellite data into art. Using poetry penned by ESA’s Peter Bickerton and sonification (turning data into sound) the installation at this year’s Living Planet Symposium shares the science behind the EarthCARE Earth Explorer satellite mission, which gathers data on clouds and aerosols.
Video: ESA
Hear more from Peter Bickerton on how ESA uses creativity to share their science and why this is important
In this short interview, Peter Bickerton, talks about how he uses creativity to tap into people’s imaginations while sharing crucial climate and environmental data derived from earth explorer satellites.
Video credit: CPOM
Bonus: We also have a video of Peter’s 15-year anniversary poem about one of our favourite satellites CryoSat-2!
Video credit: CPOM
Behind the scenes on scientific fieldwork
Some of the most compelling climate science happens in the world’s most remote places where most people will never visit.
That’s why CPOM and programmes like BIOPOLE, led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) bring the Arctic and Antarctic to audiences through video content.
In this video filmed aboard RSS Sir David Attenborough, viewers get to see the science in action.
National Capability science like this spans decades of monitoring and measuring, but these glimpses behind the scenes remind us that climate data comes from real people doing remarkable work in extreme conditions.
Video: CPOM
A castle becomes a canvas
This November, CPOM PhD researcher Diego Moral Pombo in partnership with photographer and media specialist James Hooton, will transform Lancaster Castle into a stunning polar science showcase.
Their light installation projected onto Lancaster Castle’s historic John O’Gaunt Gate will bring ice sheets and glaciers to life, visualizing the hidden dynamics happening deep beneath the ice.
By placing climate science in a public place, the installation will invite visitors to the Light Up Lancaster festival to consider how the Earth’s ice sheets are changing, and why.
From research to action
The satellite data shows that Earth’s ice is melting, but data alone rarely inspires action. By transforming complex satellite observations into giant ice cubes, poetry, art installations, and visual stories help people understand that climate change is happening now, is measurable from space, and is affecting communities worldwide.
This International Day of Climate Action, we’re reminded that inspiring climate action requires both science and imaginative communication.
When the science community makes space-based climate data tangible, accessible and engaging, we empower everyone, from schoolchildren to policymakers to understand the challenge, and be part of the solution.
