Imagining Himalayan Glacial Futures

Abstract

Worry for the fate of Himalayan glaciers is prominent in climate change research, and encounters with glacial retreat shape imaginings of future ruination. Emotions run high when social scientists concerned with the implications of ice sheet collapse are confronted with the views of select glaciologists who downplay the scope of ice melt. At play in the disciplinary disagreements that arise are different orientations to time, and different imaginaries of Himalayan climate futures based on images of, and data about, glacial retreat. It is the complexity of glaciological knowledge production that this article creates space to understand. At stake is an effort to hold up, for social science audiences, the disparate knowings – between and among disciplines – that impact how Himalayan glacial melt is discussed and imagined.