Lantern Lectures 2025: Creeping risks of the Arctic: How Svalbard Science can help us to see, understand and adapt
By Gijs Breedveld
This event was recorded live at Svalbard Museum on 12 January 2026 as part of the Lantern Lectures series.
Is the Arctic an early warning system for physical, chemical, and biological risks facing the Earth? In this Lantern Lecture, Gijs Breedveld explores how Svalbard’s unique position in the global system makes it a critical site for understanding slow-moving, often overlooked environmental threats — what he refers to as “creeping risks”.
Drawing on his work in environmental engineering and Arctic research, Breedveld explains how climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are deeply interconnected, and how their effects often become visible in the Arctic long before they are recognised elsewhere. From warming oceans and thawing permafrost to contaminant transport and ecosystem change, Svalbard offers rare insight into processes that are already shaping the planet’s future.
Breedveld argues that by observing these changes closely — and by translating scientific observations into meaningful action — Arctic research can help societies better anticipate, understand, and adapt to environmental risks before they become irreversible. Rather than seeing the Arctic as remote or marginal, he invites us to consider it as a sensor: a place where global challenges are not only detected, but made visible.
About the Speaker
Gijs Breedveld is Head of the Department of Arctic Technology and Research Leader at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). Trained as an environmental engineer, He has spent much of his career studying how environmental contaminants affect ecosystems and pose risks to humans and the environment.
About Lantern Lectures
This event is part of the Lantern Lectures series, a collaboration between Artica Svalbard and Svalbard Museum. Inspired by the 19th-century magic lantern lectures, the series invites local voices and visiting experts to share stories, images, and reflections on life in the Arctic.
Held during the dark season, these talks create space for community, conversation, and deeper understanding of the rapid changes shaping the region today.
