ABSTRACT
Anyone who has come into contact with the majesty of a glacier understands the emotional and symbolic significance of these overwhelming masses of ice. It is no surprise that their large-scale melting incites concern and gloomy newspaper headlines. The scientific, social and cultural values attributed to glaciers and the material implications of their retreat have made them a powerful symbol for the impacts of global warming. Melting glaciers have, using Maarten Hajer's (1995) terminology, turned into an emblematic issue in climate change discourses, and a strong narrative that portrays glaciers as an endangered species, risking extinction due to global warming (Carey 2007), has emerged. This narrative on glacier retreat, however, mostly embodies a mainstream western perspective, suggesting that climate change can and should be managed through political and technical interventions within the existing political-economic system — a view that is compatible with the framework of green governmentality-ecological modernization.
