The glaciers are melting faster than ever. And with them 69% of the global drinking water supply. The environmental sensor company METER has been documenting glacier retreat for decades. But the scientific articles resulting from the data usually only reach an expert audience. The initiative around the Meltdown Flags aims to make the general public understand what is at stake.

Meltdown Flags is a climate data initiative that visualizes global glacier retreat, by reducing the color white in flags of countries with glaciers. From 1995, year of the first UN Climate Change Conference, to present day, until 2050, the point of no return for glaciers.

Yet most people are not aware of how glacier melt affects them: complete meltdown would raise sea level drastically, changing our countries irreversibly. METER has helped document glacier retreat for decades. Complex scientific data was presented in a creative and illustrative way to explain to everyone in the world how important glaciers are to us.

Yet most people are not aware of how glacier melt affects them: complete meltdown would raise sea level drastically, changing our countries irreversibly. METER has helped document glacier retreat for decades. Complex scientific data was presented in a creative and illustrative way to explain to everyone in the world how important glaciers are to us.

Meltdown Flags visualizes global glacier retreat, by reducing the color white in flags of countries with glaciers. From 1995 until 2050, the point of no return for glaciers. The initiative took place at climate demonstrations worldwide, at Social Media and at an exhibition at the Reinhold Messner Museum. The flags first launched at the counter protests leading up to the twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties in Madrid - on going.

The initiative has gathered support from 310+ million people across 86 countries, including activists and scientists, from world-renown mountaineer Reinhold Messner to glaciologist Dr. Heïdi Sevestre, and Fundación Glaciares Chilenos in Chile. Glacier protection is now sought to be included into the Chilean constitution.