Standing in blinding sunlight on an archipelago above the Arctic Circle, the photographer Christian Åslund looked in shock at a glacier he had last visited in 2002. It had almost completely disappeared.
Two decades ago Greenpeace asked Åslund to use photographs taken in the early 20th century, and photograph the same views in order to document how glaciers in Svalbard were melting due to global heating. The difference in ice density in those pictures, taken almost a century apart, was staggering.
This summer he visited those same places again, 22 years later, to find that the glaciers had visibly shrunk again.
“In 2002, climate change wasn’t as well known as it is now, so that was a compete shock when we saw it,” he says. “And then I didn’t know what to expect going back this time. But seeing all the glaciers, we really saw the difference from these last 22 years. There is a massive amount of glacier ice that has disappeared.”
The disappearance of glaciers was one of the first signs that global heating caused by fossil fuel burning was rapidly affecting conditions on Earth. “It is sad,” says Åslund, “especially when you’re holding the historical picture in your hand and you see the whole fjord was from the glaciers and where the glaciers met, and you’re standing in the landscape when they were almost gone, in the same fjords.”
The weather during his visit was also strikingly warm. “When we were there it was the hottest month ever recorded for that area. So you are standing in the Arctic in a T-shirt and the glaciers are almost gone, and that is sad. It is heating up at a rapid speed, the Arctic. I did expect a retreat of the glacier but not as much as we encountered. It was a shock.”
This summer, Svalbard’s glaciers melted at their fastest rate since records began. On one day alone, according to work from the University of Liège, Svalbard shed about 55mm of water equivalent, a rate five times larger than normal. If this particular range of glaciers fully melted, they would raise the sea level by 1.7cm. But worryingly, the temperature there has rocketed higher than most of the rest of the world; recent estimates say it has heated by 4C in the last 30 years.
But Åslund determinedly continues to feel hopeful. “I don’t feel powerless because we have a hope that we can turn this around. No one can do everything, but we as individuals can all do small things to prevent climate change. My contribution is to highlight what is actually going on there. It is more visible there than most other places on Earth as it is melting in a rapid speed. It will continue to melt until we as a society do something drastically to stop this.”
The comparison images are so shocking that when they were first published in 2002, people accused him of faking them. They said he had either doctored the new images or that he had visited in summer and the old pictures were taken in winter. People did not want to believe they were real.
“That has been going on since 2002 when it was first published. The pictures were criticised for being doctored with images or taken in the wrong season, but a glacier is not affected that much from a winter season to a summer season. It’s not like snow or ice where it melts away and comes back.”
In reply to suggestions that the pictures were taken at different times of year, he says: “If it’s the winter time it is complete darkness in Svalbard so these pictures would not be possible.
“I don’t know why people do not want to believe it is true. I just think some people have problems accepting science, listening to the scientists, and they would rather want to believe it’s fake than real.”
Åslund hopes that his images will help spur people and governments into action and humanity tackles the climate crisis before all glaciers are lost. “I hope this photo series will be published as a reminder of what is going on. And then I will go back, maybe in 20 years’ time, to see the difference from now and hopefully it won’t be as bad.”
• This article was amended on 5 November 2024. The photograph of Kongsfjorden was taken in 1922, not 1927 as stated in the caption of an earlier version.
