Before-after photos of glaciers show their alarming decline

Brut America

To show their rapid decline, a scientist is juxtaposing 20th century photos of glaciers with current ones. And the outcome is shocking.

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00:26When we're looking at the same

00:28views of these glaciers

00:30over the course of decades or even

00:32a century, what's

00:34particularly striking is that

00:36the glaciers have reduced in the

00:38area that they cover, but they've also

00:40dropped in height, so we see this huge

00:42difference in the volume.

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01:04In the Mer de Glace in particular,

01:06the type of glacier has kind of changed,

01:08so we see as it thins out,

01:10all the rocks and the debris that are littered

01:12throughout the glacier have come to the surface,

01:14so we go from a glacier that looks

01:16very healthy, and you can see a lot of ice

01:18on the surface, to something which is now

01:20a debris-covered glacier that just

01:22looks very grey and sort of dirty

01:24as the debris has come through.

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01:56We knew in a measured way

01:58the types of changes we were

02:00looking to see, but it's quite

02:02different to see it, and these

02:04images are a way of comparing

02:06the look of the landscape and how that has

02:08changed, which is something which

02:10is over and above the physical changes

02:12to the change in volume, for example.

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02:38One of the reasons why the

02:40climate crisis is difficult to grasp

02:42is it's happening on a huge scale,

02:44and often we have to resort to

02:46maps and charts and data

02:48to understand what's happening.

02:50The idea with these images is to create something

02:52which gives a more tangible impression

02:54of how our changing climate

02:56is having an effect on the landscapes

02:58that we can go and visit and that we can experience.

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