The cryosphere is essential for understanding global climate dynamics and future environmental change. Yet U.S. investment in polar and cryosphere science and the institutions supporting it are increasingly uncertain. This raises concerns about the future of long-term monitoring and research in the cryosphere. This panel will examine the societal role of cryosphere science, the consequences of the loss of institutions, and what is at stake when research funding and pathways for graduate students and early-career researchers are eroded. The panel will also examine whether cryospheric science requires a more strategically articulated public narrative to maintain its visibility and relevance within broader scientific and policy frameworks. As funding priorities shift and institutional support wanes, the field’s continued viability may depend on its ability to communicate the systemic importance of polar/cryospheric processes, such as ice-sheet dynamics, permafrost thaw, and cryosphere-climate feedbacks, to a range of stakeholders and the general public.

• SY - Science and Society