Glaciers in the Swiss Alps don’t look like they used to, with one tourist’s viral vacation photo illustrating the effects of a warming planet at one of Switzerland’s natural wonders.
Duncan Porter, a software developer from England, took to X over the weekend to share a before and after composite photograph taken 15 years apart at Rhône Glacier with his wife, Helen.
There’s a “staggering” difference between the Rhône Glacier the couple visited in August 2009 and the Rhône Glacier they returned to this month, Porter said. The large mass of ice that once coated the mountain range has melted quickly since Porter’s last visit, leaving behind pools of gray water right at the surface.
“Fifteen years minus one day between these photos,” Porter wrote in the caption. “Taken at the Rhône glacier in Switzerland today. Not gonna lie, it made me cry.”
Over 4 million people have come across Porter’s post since Sunday, which has garnered thousands of comments from climate change deniers to people who are equally heartbroken by the development.
‘Drastically different’ circumstances documented over a short period
Porter’s intention was to share the “drastically different” circumstances captured in the recent photograph, telling The Guardian that “these things are supposed to happen over really long time periods.
“What people should focus on is the speed of change,” he says.
The region is warming about twice as fast as the global average, with scientists documenting that Swiss glaciers have lost 10% of their water volume in the last two years alone, according to reporting by The New York Times.
The last time that much ice had melted in the region occurred over a period of 30 years, between 1960 and 1990, according a news release from the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences.
Rhône Glacier’s latest look hasn’t come as much of a surprise to glacier scientist Daniel Farinotti, who has witnessed the glacier retreat by about a third of a mile since he began to study it in 2007, the Times reported.
The Swiss government is actively searching for solutions to address the changes in climate, which are set to threaten Swiss alpine customs as the country’s largest glaciers, Aletsch and Rhône, shrink, the newspaper reported.
There’s a ‘huge amount’ you can do, English tourist says
While Porter’s picture may have left a lot of people “feeling quite helpless,” he says that based on his experience there’s a “huge amount” you can do day to day, The Guardian reported.
Porter, who is part of a local climate action group committee, says that taking part in local community projects is just one of many “wonderful” ways you can make a difference.
He also advocated for people to push for systemic change through the ways they vote and shop, according to The Guardian.
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