‘An alarm from our planet’: New images show the horrifying extent of Arctic ice retreat

Images released by Greenpeace have highlighted the rapid rate at which Arctic ice is retreating. 

Taken in the Norwegian region of Svalbard, the photographs show not only ice melt over a century, but significant changes in just the last two decades.

The project is a repeat of an initiative by the NGO done 20 years ago. In 2002, photographer Christian Åslund set out to recreate historical 20th-century photos of the region to illustrate how things had changed. 

For Åslund, going back to the same location and seeing climate change laid bare before him in such a transparent way was striking. Speaking to the Guardian, he said, “I did expect a retreat of the glacier but not as much as we encountered. It was a shock.”

When Åslund photographed the region in 2002, people didn’t believe what he had captured. Many accused him of faking them, saying he’d visited in the summer and the historical photographs were from the winter.

But glaciers, he says, are not like snow and ice that retreat in the summer and return the next winter. Besides, Svalbard is in almost complete darkness during the winter months, so photography would not be possible.

He added, “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.”

Åslund hopes that his visual depictions of climate change in action will help catalyse action from people and governments to tackle the crisis before it's too late.

This summer, Svalbard experienced the hottest weather on record for the third consecutive year. 

Meteorologist Daan van den Broek analysed data from the Norwegian climate research service and concluded that the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard, at 78°N, reached an average