Albedo
The albedo effect when applied to the Earth is a measure of how much of the Sun's energy is reflected back into space. As the white surfaces of ice and snow decrease in area, less energy is reflected into space, and the Earth will warm up even more. With this in mind, the construction uses fire and ice to illuminate our situation here on Earth. The closer the fire gets, the faster the ice melts, until it's gone and the fire is out.