Convener(s): Keith Alverson (CliC IPO Executive Director, UMass Amherst and IAMAS)
Co-Convener(s): Edward Hanna (CliC SSG Co-chair, University of Lincoln) and Richard Essery (University of Edinburgh)

Description: In the two decades since the establishment of the World Climate Research Program Climate and the Cryosphere Project (CliC) in the 1990’s global warming has increasingly resulted in the continued loss of the global cryosphere. Snow, ice and permafrost declines have been documented in the Arctic, Antarctic, high latitudes and high mountain regions. The impacts of this planetary shift towards a dramatically reduced cryosphere include feedbacks on global and local climate as well as direct and indirect local impacts on ecosystems, human societies and the economy. Papers focusing on both detection and attribution of cryospheric loss, as well as the myriad downstream impacts of this change.