You know about North Pole and the South Pole, where polar bears and penguins live. Have you heard of a third pole? West and south of the Tibetan Plateau, a mountainous area holds more glaciers than any place in the world outside the Arctic and Antarctic poles. This region has a special significance for fiber artists: it is the home and habitat of the goats that produce much the world’s cashmere. And as at the North and South Poles, climate change is threatening the animals and people who call this region home.
To bring attention to the threat to glaciers in the region, engineer Sonam Wangchuk climbed into the Himalayas of in Ladakh, India, and carried back a 7 kilogram chunk of glacier. It began a journey across two continents, wrapped in 4 kilograms of cashmere, and finally arrived at the United Nations in New York. The UN has named 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, and Wangchuk’s Travelling Glacier brought the threat of climate change to the world’s door. The cashmere covering the sample not only insulated the ice, it also demonstrates what’s at risk when glaciers melt. The animals and people living in these regions depend on glaciers for water; when the glaciers melt too abruptly, the overflow of water sweeps away whole villages and cities in devastating floods.
Stories of people and animals on other continents can seem remote, abstract, and hopeless, but joining in the movement to preserve this important resource can be as near as your fingertips. Long Thread Media is joining with Wild Fibers to sponsor the Cashmere on Ice Contest, which invites fiber artists to make a project containing cashmere. Projects can be wearable or decorative; a special category highlights fiber grown in the Ladakh region from which Wangchuk sourced his Travelling Glacier.
In this episode, celebrated storyteller and wild fiber expert Linda Cortright shares details about why she cares passionately about this crisis and what fiber artists can do to help the cause.
Learn about the contest and find an FAQ for more details.
Discover the Wild Fibers resource page.
Hear about the effects of glacial melt in another high-elevation fiber-producing region: the Andes.
