A new set of photos by Swedish photographer Christian Åslund show just how far the glaciers have retreated over the past century.

By Daniel Graham

Published: Wednesday, 06 November 2024 at 10:16 AM

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A series of powerful before-and-after photos released by Greenpeace show the dramatic retreat of Arctic glaciers over the past 100 years. 

The latest photographs revisit a renowned series created 22 years ago by acclaimed Swedish photographer Christian Åslund.

In 2002, Åslund brought attention to the Arctic’s changing landscape by replicating early 20th-century photographs from the Norwegian Polar Institute’s archive, highlighting significant ice loss. Now, in his latest visit, Åslund has returned to these same locations to capture what remains – revealing the stark reality of climate change in one of the planet’s most fragile regions.

“At so many of the glaciers I photographed for this series, we saw the same story – ice walls completely gone and glaciers retreating back into nothing,” says Åslund.

“They illustrate just how quickly our planet is changing as the climate crisis worsens. The Arctic is our climate sentinel – it’s where the climate and ocean crises converge, and where the impacts of these crises are seen first and felt most keenly.”

The Arctic region is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, with glaciers and sea ice disappearing at record levels, according to data from the Norwegian Centre for Data Service.

As glaciers and ice sheets melt, sea levels are rising, putting coastal areas at risk. When sea ice melts, it exposes the darker ocean surface, which absorbs more heat instead of reflecting it, further driving shifts in global weather patterns.

“Svalbard’s glaciers are now ghosts, haunting the Arctic,” says Dr Laura Meller, Project Lead of Greenpeace Nordic. 

“Even if as a scientist I know the terrible facts about the Arctic warming, seeing these pictures is always heartbreaking. Here, at the top of the world, we can hear an alarm from our planet, and can see laid bare before our eyes the fundamentally connected futures of oceans and our climate.

“Stopping climate breakdown goes hand in hand with ocean protection to create space for ocean life to recover, thrive and help us avoid the worst impacts of warming,” says Meller.

Before and after: Arctic glaciers in retreat

See the full photo series on the Greenpeace Media Library 

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