A researcher drops slices of ice from an ice core sample taken from a glacier in the Pamir mountain range in Tajikistan into a bottle at the Hokkaido University Institute of Low Temperature Science, in Sapporo, in northern Japan's Hokkaido prefecture on December 9, 2025. Dressed in an orange puffer jacket, Japanese glacier scientist Yoshinori Iizuka stepped into a storage freezer chilled to minus 50 Celcius to retrieve an ice core. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP via Getty Images) / TO GO WITH: Japan-Tajikistan-climate-science-environment-research, FOCUS by Hiroshi HIYAMA