This Norwegian village is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. How can its people save it?

Longyearbyen on Svalbard’s Spitsbergen island, where glaciers cover most of the land but temperatures are rising up to seven times faster than the global average. Photograph: Image Professionals GmbH/Alamy

On a rugged mountain plateau of snow-dusted rocks, in the remote archipelago of Svalbard, a glaciologist, Andy Hodson, points out the “ears” of ice, white against the rock, that gave Foxfonna glacier its name, after the arctic fox.

The small glacier, on a mountain 8 miles (15km) outside the Norwegian village of Longyearbyen, is a popular summer hike for tourists who come here seeking the Arctic experience.