[GLIMS] Saving the planet, one research work, one greeting at a time

[Jeffrey Kargel]

Dear Ukrainian and Russian GLIMS colleagues and friends,
I write in the sad occasion of the current events and with no knowledge of where all this is headed. I have written to a few of you, but I am sure I missed more than I could send messages. I just want to take the moment, while East-West communications remain open, to thank you for your work on glacier and mountain processes and climate-change impacts on Earth surface system processes, and planetary science. Whether Ukrainian or Russian or both, you have my best wishes for safety and-- we all need a big dose of it-- sanity. At various times in the past, some of you recently, it has been a pleasure working with you. Even as some of us find ourselves on different sides of a divide (or maybe you have family on the other side), I want you to know that as individuals and as a global scientific community we can still work toward a common purpose of helping to understand a climatically troubled planet. We may be unable to affect other troubling matters around us, but we can still work for a healthier planet or at least a planet that maintains much of its natural beauty, ecological riches, and humanly supportable environmental conditions. Whether it is working together, or working separately, we work to the same goal. I will just leave it at that, and say in either a religious sense or just a manner of speaking (whichever way makes sense to you), May God Help Us All.  I wish you and your friends and colleagues on both sides of the looming divide to have happiness and well being. It's hard, I know. And with some luck, we may come out of this sooner that with the previous Cold War. I have my views, and my anger at what is happening, and my shock that it could be happening in this day and age; but what I also have is friendship and recognition of the value of what you have contributed scientifically, and to the safety of mountain villages and mountain infrastructure, and the security of our global climatic/environmental system. It is for all of of collective benefit. This must continue.
Sincerely, in sorrow, but also gratitude specifically for your contributions to humanity, and in hopes for your and your families' safety and well being, and in hopes that our leaders could see the bigger picture. If a new Iron Curtain comes down, please remember my words, and my sincerity, and that we are all in this together, on this one little planet together. TOGETHER.
Jeffrey Kargel

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