Poets Read Poems About Climate Change on a Melting Glacier

Climate change is causing Greenland’s glaciers to melt, and the pacific island nations are noticing the increased amount of water caused by erosion of these mighty glaciers. In an effort to try and raise awareness about the colossal threat global warming poses, two poets came together on a melting glacier to recite a poem they’d written together.

The two had never met before when Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner traveled from the Marshall Islands in Micronesia to Greenland’s capital city Nuuk where she met Inuk poet Aka Niviâna. They then met up with a small film crew and journeyed on to an isolated area on southern Greenland’s ice sheet where they recited their poem “Rise” atop a melting glacier.

Accompanied by pained cries and a dramatic score, the poem speaks about the land their ancestors knew and the mythology that tells the nation’s stories and culture. The two poets address one another as “sister of ice and snow” and “sister of ocean and sand,” before ceremoniously exchange gifts of shells and stones. The message is powerful, with one verse reading:

Let me show you
airports underwater
bulldozed reefs, blasted sands
and plans to build new atolls
forcing land
from an ancient, rising sea

As Grist reports, regarding the project, Jetnil-Kijiner stated that filming atop an unstable glacier was far from easy. However, when she came face-to-face with a an enormous body of ice that threatens to submerge her homeland, she revealed she felt reverence rather than anger.

“It just felt like I was meeting an elder,” she said. “I was just in awe of the ice, of how large it was, how expansive, how beautiful.”

Niviâna, hails from Greenland’s far north, and it was also her first time seeing the ice sheet for herself. She recalls seeing a large boulder fall near their campsite after it was dislodged by ice. “It was a huge rock,” she said. “It was really overwhelming to see how rapidly the ice was melting.”

While the poem and film are clearly about climate change, they’re not aimed at those who believe global warming is a myth. “I’m not here to convince someone else of my humanity or the reality of our situation,” Jetnil-Kijiner said. “I’m just trying to create a different sort of experience that speaks more truth to my own.”

The film’s director, Dan Lin, said the science behind climate change is important, but the primary goal of the film is to show how it’s viewed through the eyes of two indigenous female poets as they bring together a story about the fragile landscapes and the resilience people can show when faced with injustice.

The idea for the project came about when Jetnil-Kijiner had a conversation with 350.org founder Bill McKibben at a climate change conference. He suggested she recite a poem on a glacier, though Jetnil-Kijiner felt uncomfortable using another country’s landscape and crisis for her own story.

McKibben put Jetnil-Kijiner in contact with a glaciologist named Jason Box, who in turn introduced her to Niviâna. The poets began talking online, which in turn led to their partnership.

The two didn’t meet until the project was underway and that’s when they really got know each other. Jetnil-Kijiner said, “It felt like we wrote our relationship into being.”