There are chunks of melting glacier ice outside Tate Modern

Fifteen years ago, Nordic art superstar Olafur Eliasson installed a giant glowing sun inside Tate Modern for his famous piece ‘The Weather Project’. Now he’s back in town with ‘Ice Watch London’, another artwork that plays with ideas about climate – and this time, it’s serious. From today, 24 huge ice blocks will appear outside Tate Modern, with another six at Bloomberg HQ in the City. As with previous ‘Ice Watch’ events in Paris and Copenhagen, the chunks – which weigh up to five tonnes each – were lifted from the sea after falling from shrinking Arctic ice sheets. Passers-by will be able to watch the blocks melt over about ten days, depending on the weather, as world leaders meet in Poland for a major climate change summit. After a year of record temperatures, it’ll be a chilly reminder for Londoners that climate change means a lot more than barbecue summers for ever, and that we’ve all got a part to play in keeping the ice where it belongs.