Striking photos highlight the stark reality of Arctic glacier melt

The mighty collision of two glaciers – Kongsbreen and Kronebreen – in Svalbard, Norway, is captured in a woven patchwork of black and white images taken by the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1967 (main picture, top). Nearly six decades later, a striking panorama of the same site reveals the dramatic ice loss in the Arctic due to climate change (main picture, bottom).

“It was difficult to witness because it was such a stark change from the archive photos,” says Christian Åslund, the photographer who captured the most recent shot of the two glaciers. “You get a sense of how it has been and how it should be – it’s a completely different landscape now.”

The sharp contrast between the two panoramas demonstrates the disproportionate impact of rising temperatures in the Arctic. The region is warming more than twice as quickly as the rest of the planet in a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. This is largely due to the loss of sea ice, which becomes increasingly vulnerable to melting as it continues to dwindle. This August was the warmest ever recorded in the Svalbard region, says Åslund.

“I hope these photos serve as a reminder for people that we can all do something to collectively try to turn this tide around,” says Åslund. “We have a global responsibility to slow climate change. I don’t think it is too late.”