Heïdi Sevestre in Greenland with Alex Honnold: sobriety will save us

Heïdi Sevestre is the glaciologist who accompanied Alex Honnold on the expedition from which In Greenland with Alex Honnold, the National Geographic miniseries available on Disney Plus from 10 April 2024, was based. Raised in the French Alps, in love with the mountains, the snow and the ice, studied geography in Lyon, obtained an M.Sc. in glaciology from the Welsh University of Aberystwyth, completed a Ph.D. in glagiology at UNIS in Svalbard, the most northerly university in the world, and won the Shackleton Medal for the Protection of the Polar Regions for his studies on the glaciers of Alps, Himalayas and Antarctica.

He is currently Deputy Secretary of the Secretariat of the Arctic Monitoring & Assessment Program (AMAP), a position from which he coordinates Arctic research, guest lecturer and public speaker at the University of Svalbard, conducts research projects on tropical ice in Colombia, and monitors conditions of the glaciers in Svalbard.

Heïdi Sevestre in Greenland with Alex Honnold: sobriety will save us

But above all it is committed to finding solutions to the impact of climate change on these fundamental natural environments, and to keeping hope alive about their future. And it was precisely this, solutions and hope, that we spoke with her on the occasion of the presentation of In Greenland with Alex Honnold.

Heïdi, how long have you been working on glaciers?

I’ve been working on glaciers for a while now.
I finished my PhD in glaciology in 2015 and completed it in the Arctic, not very far from where I am now, 200 meters away, at the University of Svalbard. And since 2015, I’ve actually been on expeditions all over the world, whether to the Arctic or the Antarctic, the Himalayas or the Andes, to study glaciers around the world and better understand how they respond to climate change.
And so from 2015 to today it’s been 9 years now.

Have you seen them change over this period? And if so, how and why?

9 years may not seem like a very long period, but in reality even in such a short time you don’t need to be a scientist to see that the glaciers have changed a lot. I am originally from the French Alps, and since I was little I have seen glaciers retreat and change.

A few months ago I was in the Dolomites, and I went to see the Marmolada glacier to make a documentary for French television.
And whether we are in Italy or France or the Arctic, everyone sees the impact of climate change. A glacier is a very simple thing, it is snow that has accumulated over very long periods in the mountains, and then the snow gradually turns into ice.

But a glacier, in reality, is a barometer of the climate. So, when the temperature changes, when the amount of snow it receives changes, the glacier will react to climate change. And today, yes, we are indeed impacting glaciers around the world very strongly.
You will ask yourself why? Because we burn enormous fossil energy.
The more we burn oil, gas, coal, the more these glaciers will warm, the more these glaciers will melt, and the more this will affect our daily lives.

It will affect our water resources, it will affect sea level rise, it will affect the weather we have at home. And so today, glaciers are the best climate barometers we can observe.

There are many who say that glaciers make the invisible visible, and a very beautiful and very true expression. We don’t see carbon dioxide in the changing atmosphere, but we do see a retreating glacier, and everyone understands, or should understand, that the climate is changing.

What are the most dangerous signs of climate change seen by the glacier observatory?

This is a good question, because it is difficult to choose just one consequence. But if you think in relation to Italy, or the Alps, we know that our mountain glaciers are the best water reservoirs we have in our countries. During the summer, there is a part of our countries that receives water that comes from glaciers. And on Earth, in reality, there are almost two billion people who use glacier water.
And so today, if we lose these glaciers, that’s two billion people who, for part of the year, will have much less water available to live on.

But another consequence that, for me, is at the same level of alarm, and that is related to our expedition to Greenland. If we lose not only the mountain glaciers, but also the great polar ice caps, so Greenland where we have gone, but also Antarctica to the south, and the ice caps continue to melt so rapidly, the sea level will rise really considerably.
And today, if I’m not mistaken, between 0 and 10 meters above sea level on the coasts of our planet, almost 700 million people live there.

For example, Greenland contains enough ice to raise ocean levels by 6-7 meters. So, it’s really a huge problem. Antarctica contains enough ice to raise ocean levels by 58 metres. And I think we all realize very quickly what 58 meters is. So, it’s a very serious topic.

And are there signals given by the glaciers that anticipate consequences that could impact urbanized areas? When you are on the glaciers, do you have the opportunity to see something that is about to happen?

That’s an excellent question. Glaciers in our mountains normally react in two ways to climate change. Either they melt, and we see this progressively, or sometimes they can have a very abrupt reaction and collapse.
This is because pockets of water sometimes form inside glaciers, which can really destabilize them. And this signal, honestly, is very difficult to detect.

In Italy, we have the best glaciologists on the planet monitoring these glaciers which show signs of instability. And we monitor them with satellite images and instruments that make laser measurements to detect changes of a few centimeters, of a few tens of centimeters in the glaciers.

But in reality, the best way to get ahead of these problems is to be on the glaciers, and that’s very complicated. The Marmolada glacier that collapsed for example, was very difficult to access but was also considered a very stable glacier.
So that collapse was something that was really very complicated, if not impossible, to predict.

But there is an interesting aspect. A few months ago, when I was in the Dolomites, they told me the story of the guardian of the refuge that was right under the glacier. It is said that for a few days he heard very strange noises coming from the glacier.
That too was probably a sign that the glacier was becoming unstable.

Talking about the expedition with Alex Honnold, what was the most difficult thing? And which is the most unexpected?

At the beginning of the expedition I was a little scared because I was the only scientist on the team. We had to work with 12 different scientific institutes who had given us 18 projects to complete. And so I thought that organizing everything would be very complicated.
Actually, thanks to the team spirit, we really had an amazing and very motivated team to help us with the scientific aspects, and we managed to make everything happen.
But what wasn’t expected at all was that I climbed. I mean, I’m not a climber at all, I can’t pretend to be a climber when you have Alex Honnold next to you. No one can consider themselves a climber next to Alex Honnold. And I think we all agree on this.
In reality, when we arrived at the foot of the first wall we went to visit, I had to do the tour with Adam Kjeldsen, we had to do the tour on skis. But then the climbers asked me what I thought about climbing with them, and I replied “but never in life, I don’t want to touch that wall!”.
In the end they convinced me that they could allow me to climb, they put their trust in me and allowed me to understand that if I wanted to collect ice samples, I could go with them. Now I have to admit that it was a very memorable experience in my life and something that I will truly never forget.
And once again, it was team spirit that allowed us to do this, with the climbers having so much experience that they were able to get us up these walls.

From your point of view as a glagiologist, did you notice anything that you didn’t expect?

On a scientific level, one thing that half-surprised me because we were expecting it a bit before leaving, is the last glacier we studied, a huge ice monster. It’s been stable for decades, and we know this from satellite imagery, but I really didn’t think we’d still find it stable.
Finally, we found one of Greenland’s exceptions, one of Greenland’s last ice fortresses. And that really gives us good reason to hope that we can still fight even for these glaciers that continue to be stable today.

You talked about reasons for hope: what are the most urgent actions that need to be taken to stop climate change?

I think the first thing to do is ask the question “What needs to be done now to stop climate change or to stop it?”
Because in reality, we can be really, as they say, overwhelmed by climate change. We may find it terrifying or we may feel like there is a false impression, that we are too small to make a difference.
Instead we can do a lot.

So for me, the first thing is to educate yourself on this topic. Understanding what climate change is, understanding why if glaciers disappear in Italy, our daily lives will be affected by this.
So education, for me, number one, and not only for the young generations, but for everyone: politicians, company managers, citizens, the young and the less young, everyone must educate themselves on climate change.
If we don’t know what’s happening, we won’t change.

The second thing is to vote. This is super important. We must vote for people who understand the urgency we find ourselves in, people who want to protect the population. Protecting the population today means protecting them from climate change and the loss of biodiversity. So, vote, vote, vote, it’s very important.

The third thing, which may seem a little strange, but which is very important, is to ask your bank, the bank we use, how they use the money, our savings. Because there are many banks, and in France I know what I’m talking about, who will use our savings to finance fossil energy. So, changing banks, if your bank doesn’t respect science, doesn’t respect the environment.

And the last thing I would say is that we really need to do something. Whatever, we have to do something. Whether it’s taking to the streets to hold non-violent demonstrations, whether it’s going to speak to your company to tell them to implement a climate education plan,
whether it is in your own school, install a garden, shared by students. Today, every action counts.

Every action that allows us to reduce our carbon footprint is important. And finally, the truth is that we won’t be able to save the planet if we don’t have sobriety. Therefore, it means consuming less, using less energy. Sobriety will really be the key, because it also makes us save money, and therefore, we only have to earn everything.

READ ALSO: Alex Honnold in Greenland: my commitment to the climate

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2024-04-11 12:15:31
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