Antarctica Is Done Being the Coldest Argument

We kept it frozen in our heads so we could keep everything else exactly as it was

RLRicky Lanusse23 June 2026 · 8 min

It rained on a glacier in Antarctica this month, in the middle of winter, in the dark. And every part of that is wrong.

Library access

This essay belongs to the Library archive.

New essays remain open for 60 days and one monthly selection stays free. A membership opens the whole archive.

Support the Library Already a member? Get your access link

Sources

Every claim in a house essay carries a source. The number beside it in the catalogue card is counted from this list, so it appears when the list does. The full bibliographic records — author, year, publisher, DOI, and an archived copy so the footnotes do not rot — move across with the migration from Substack.

The Southern Dispatch — weekly

If this left something in your head, the Southern Dispatch does it weekly.

Read next

Climate & Overshoot · 11 min Glaciers Don't Melt Anymore - They Let Go

Independent and reader-supported. Every essay is free for its first 60 days; membership keeps the whole archive open, for USD $10 a month.If the Library is worth something to you, you can support the house. Become a member

The Studio does this work on commission: the research, the evidence and the document that carries it. Research Briefs from USD $1,000. See the Studio

Antarctica Is Done Being the Coldest Argument

This essay belongs to the Library archive.

If this left something in your head, the Southern Dispatch does it weekly.

You already get the Dispatch. Help keep the Library open.

Keep going.