Part of my work as a geographer and glacier scientist involves traveling around the world. Literally. Several times a year, I join expeditions, traversing continents and oceans, sometimes half the planet, in mere days. I’ve visited glaciers in some startling places — like Uganda’s Stanley Glacier, where ice retreat influences human health and malaria outbreaks. Or Iceland’s Breiðamerkurjökull, where glacier change is exacerbating the ice-breaking pressures of global tourism . Or South Georgia’s Heaney Glacier, where ice retreat has provided expansive real estate for one of the largest King penguin colonies on Earth.

My job is to translate the landscape: how oceans move nutrients pole to pole; why one mountain might support snow but another does not; how glaciers shape societies.

I’ll own it’s a peculiar way to experience the world.

From 30,000 feet, borders fall away. Trees become forests become systems become a living planet. I see connections everywhere.…