The Last Glacier

Inspiration

Climate change is often shown through statistics, which can feel distant and difficult to understand. We wanted to create an interactive experience that makes environmental change visible and personal. This inspired us to build "The Last Glacier", a 3D journey through ice, water, time, and possible futures.

What it does

"The Last Glacier" lets visitors explore a 3D glacier, discover the memories stored inside its ice, move through time, follow meltwater downstream, and compare different future scenarios. Visitors can see how their choices affect ice, water, habitats, and communities.

How we built it

I built the project using React, Vite, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Three.js, React Three Fiber, and GSAP. We created modular 3D scenes, animated glacier states, interactive timelines, environmental layers, future scenarios, responsive layouts, and accessible controls.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenges were optimizing the 3D environment for different devices, making the interactions meaningful, and balancing scientific information with an emotional story. We addressed these challenges through optimized assets, progressive loading, responsive quality settings, clear explanations, and a 2D fallback mode.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud that the 3D elements directly support the story. The glacier acts as the main character, the timeline makes change visible, and the river connects the glacier to ecosystems and communities. We are also proud of the project’s artistic identity, accessibility features, and interactive future simulator.

What we learned

I learned that 3D is most effective when every visual element has a clear purpose. We also learned that combining data, storytelling, sound, and interaction can make complex environmental issues easier to understand and remember.

What's next for The Last Glacier

I plan to add real-world glacier data, multiple glacier locations, multilingual support, educator tools, WebXR support, and more detailed climate scenarios. Our long-term goal is to create more immersive web experiences that help people understand environmental systems.

Built With

• 3d
• code
• core-animation
• figma
• framer
• github
• react
• three.js
• vercel