Exactly eight years after the ink dried on the draft of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement at COP21 – and with the outcome of COP28 still hanging in the balance – it seems an apt moment to contemplate our place on the planet, with a little help from Olafur Eliasson. In 2020, the Danish-Icelandic artist perched a huge optical device atop the Hochjochferner glacier in South Tyrol, Italy, to encourage people to see man-made climate change from wider “planetary and glacial perspectives”. The permanent installation was designed to resemble an oversized armillary sphere – an ancient astronomical instrument made of concentric brass rings arranged into a globe to represent the movement of celestial bodies around the earth. To reach it, visitors must hike up the mountain, passing through metal archways representing a different ice age in Earth’s history.

Eliasson designed the sphere to make the abstract idea of climate change tangible in a region directly affected by it. As global superpowers continue to spew emissions and temperatures keep rising, the need for increased action is urgent. Governments must do more, but we all have a role to play, as Eliason’s work suggests. A bit of humility from humanity wouldn’t go amiss.