Ötzi’s discovery was possible because of climate change — specifically, because the unusually warm summer of 1991 caused glacial retreat that exposed the Ötztal hollow where he had lain for five thousand years.

Without that warm summer, he might have remained hidden for additional decades, or forever.

The irony is that the accelerating climate change of the current era is creating conditions that could produce many more discoveries like Ötzi — while simultaneously threatening to destroy the evidence before it can be studied.

Glaciers and permafrost environments across the Alps, the Arctic, the Himalaya, and other high-altitude and high-latitude regions are retreating at accelerating rates.

As they do, they are exposing materials that have been preserved by cold for long periods: ancient organic material including, in some cases, human remains.