A post on X from a British tourist couple has generated commotion online as it depicts the increasing effects of climate change. The post, consisting of a photo comparison of the couple at a particular spot in the Swiss Alps, the first in August 2009 and the second in August 2024, shows a significant decrease in size of the Rhône glacier along with a drastic change from a snowy white to rocky grey appearance.
“Not gonna lie, it made me cry,” said Duncan Porter in his post which has now been viewed by over four million people and commented on by almost 3000. “I thought it was really unbelievable,” added Porter’s wife, Helen. A mixture of responses have flooded the post, some adding to the shock, others more sceptical. “Same for me when I go to Graubunden and see the state of the glaciers around the Bernina pass; they have reduced dramatically over the 25 years I have been going there,” wrote one user, while another posted, “It must have been photoshopped!”
Fifteen years minus one day between these photos. Taken at the Rhone glacier in Switzerland today.
— Duncan Porter (@misterduncan) August 4, 2024
Not gonna lie, it made me cry. pic.twitter.com/Inz6uO1kum
A 2023 report by the Swiss Academy of Sciences found that in the preceding two years, Swiss glaciers had shrunk by 10% in volume, with an over 4% loss in 2023. Comments earlier this year from Daniel Farinotti, a glacier scientists who studied Rhône, were that the glacier has diminished by 500m since 2007, forming a large glacial pond at its base. Predictions anticipate it will decrease by 68% by the end of this century.
“It’s very sad to see those pictures because you see how large the changes have been,” commented Sonia Seneviratne, a Swiss climate scientist and co-author of an IPCC report, who visited the glacier as a teenager. “It was a very impressive glacier,” she added.
Another study by the Swiss Academy of Sciences in 2022 measured that glacier ice volume had halved in 85 years prior to 2016 and had lost an additional 12% since, now 16% in 2024. “We knew with climate scenarios that this situation would come, at least somewhere in the future,” Matthias Huss, head of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS), told Reuters. “And realising that the future is already right here, right now, this was maybe the most surprising or shocking experience of this summer.”
Porter has since added to the conversation that there are ways we can all contribute to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as getting involved in local community projects as well as advocating for systemic change through the ways we shop and vote.
