Before and after images show glaciers vanishing before our eyes

Mark PountingClimate and scientific reporter, BBC News

Bi -Bi -See was mixed by a comparison of the images of the Chirva glacier in 1935 on the left and 2022 on the right. The glacier stretches far down the valley in 1935, but by 2022 he retreated along the valley.Bi -bi -x

When Matias Hus first visited Rona’s glacier in Switzerland 35 years ago, the ice was only a few minutes walk from the place where his parents were parked by the car.

“When I first went out onto the ice … there [was] A special sense of eternity, ”says Matias.

Today, the ice is half an hour from the same parking place, and the scene is very different.

“Every time I return, I remember how it was before,” recalls Matias, now the director of the monitoring of glaciers in Switzerland (Glamos), “how the glacier looked when I was a child.”

There are similar stories for many glaciers across the planet, because these frozen rivers of ice are retreating – quickly.

In 2024, the glaciers near the giant ice shields of Greenland and Antarctica lost 450 billion tons of ice, according to the recent report of the World Meteorological Organization.

This is equivalent to an ice block of 7 km (4.3 miles) high, 7 km wide and a depth of 7 km – there is enough water to fill 180 million Olympic pools.

“Glaciers are melting everywhere in the world,” says Professor Ben Marzeon from the Institute of Geography at the University of Bremen. “They are sitting in a climate, which is now very hostile to them from a global warming.”

Switzerland's ice was especially badly affected, having lost a quarter of their ice over the past 10 years, they showed glamus measurements this week.

“It is really difficult to understand the degree of this melt,” Dr. Hussa explains.

But photographs – from space and earth – tell their own history.

Satellite images show how Rona’s glacier has changed since 1990, when Dr. Hussa visited for the first time. In the front of the glacier there is a lake, where there used to be ice.

Satellite images showing how the Rona glacier decreased between 1990 and 2025. The glacier flows from above to the bottom of the image. The front of the glaciers markedly retreated, and now you can see the glacial lake where the ice used to be.

Until recently, glaciologists in the Alps believed that 2% of the ice lost in one year was “extreme”.

Then, 2022, he pulled out this idea from the water, and he lost almost 6% of the remaining ice of Switzerland in one year.

This was followed by significant losses in 2023, 2024, and now 2025.

Redin Hawk, a professor of glaciology at Oslo University, has been visiting the Alps since the 1970s.

According to her, changes during her life are “very amazing”, but “what we see now is really massive changes for several years.”

The Clariden glacier in northeastern Switzerland was approximately in balance until the end of the 20th century -gaining the same amount of ice due to snowfall as he lost for melting.

But in this century he will quickly melt.

Two images showing the Clariden glacier, in 1898 and 2006, above the wider image of the same glacier in 2025. The glacier significantly decreased between 1898 and 2006, but the changes between 2006 and 2025 are even more noticeable: the ice will be thin and retreat.

For many small glaciers, such as the Pizola glacier in the North-East Swiss Alps, it was too many.

“This is one of the glaciers that I observed, and now it has completely disappeared,” says Dr. Huss. “It definitely upsets me.”

Photos allow us to look even further into the past.

Gris glacier, in the south of Switzerland near the Italian border, retreated about 2.2 km (1.4 miles) in the last century. Where once the end of the glacier stood, now a large glacial lake.

Two images of GRies Glacier, one in 1919 higher and one in 2025 lower. In 1919, a thick glacier flows from left to right, extending from the page. In 2025, the glacier only enters the left side of the image. Where the ice was once, it is a large area of ​​the spinning root, behind which is followed by a bright blue lake of the glacier.

In South-East Switzerland, the Persian glacier once fed a larger glacier to a morma, which flows to the valley. Now two are no longer found.

And the largest glacier in the Alps, the Great Aletesch, over the past 75 years retreated about 2.3 km (1.4 miles). Where there was ice, now there are trees.

Two images of the Grand Glacier Alets, one in 1949 higher and one in 2024 lower. The glacier appears between the two walls of the steep valley. In 1949, the glacier extends almost all ways down the image; In 2024, this only appears in the background. There are trees and a root breed, where there used to be ice.

The glaciers, of course, grew up and compressed naturally for millions of years.

In the cold pictures of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries -part of the small ice age -regularly advanced.

During this time, many considered the devil in alpine folklore, their achievements are associated with spiritual forces when they threatened Hamlets and agricultural lands.

There are even stories about the inhabitants of the village, calling for priests to talk to the spirits of the glaciers and make them move upward.

Around 1850, the glaciers began their widespread retreat throughout the Alps, although time varied from place to place.

This coincided with the growing industrialization, when the burning of fossil fuel, especially coal, began to heat our atmosphere, but it is difficult to unravel the natural and human reasons so far back.

Where there are no real doubts that especially the rapid losses of the last 40 years or so are not natural.

Without People warm the planet – burning fossil fuel and releasing a huge amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), – it is expected that the glaciers will be approximately stable.

“We can explain this only if CO2 emissions are taken into account,” confirms Professor Martzon.

What is even more sobering is that these large flowing bodies of ice can take decades to fully adapt to a rapidly warming climate. This means that even if tomorrow global temperatures are stabilized, the glaciers will continue to retreat.

“Most of the future melt of the glaciers has already been blocked,” explains Professor Marzon. “They are lagging behind climate change.”

But everything is not lost.

Half of the ice remaining through the world mountain glaciers could be preserved if Global warming is limited 1.5 ° C According to studies published this year as part of the “pre-industrial” levels of the late 1800s published this year Magazine ScienceField

Our current trajectory leads us to warming about 2.7 ° C higher than the pre -industrial level by the end of this century, which will ultimately lose three quarters of the ice.

This additional water goes to the rivers, and ultimately oceans mean a higher sea level for coastal populations around the world.

But the loss of ice will be especially felt by mountain communities, depending on the glaciers for fresh water.

The glaciers are a little like giant reservoirs. They collect water as a snowfall, which turns into ice – during cold, moist periods, and free it as melting in warm periods.

This melting water helps stabilize river flows during a hot, dry summer – until the glacier disappears.

The loss of this water resource has effects for all those who relies on glaciers – for irrigation, drinking, hydropower and even transport traffic.

Switzerland is not safe from these problems, but the consequences are much deeper for the high mountains of Asia, which some call the third pole from the volume of ice.

About 800 million people rely, at least, partially on the Taxi with glaciers, especially for agriculture. This includes the Verkhny India River basin, which serves as areas of China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In regions with a more dry summer, melted water from ice and snow may be the only significant water source for several months.

“This is where we see the greatest vulnerability,” says Professor Hawk.

So how do scientists feel when they face the future prospects of glaciers in warming?

“It's sad,” says Professor Hawk. “But at the same time, it also expands the possibilities. If you decarbonize and reduce [carbon] Trace, you can save glaciers.

“We have it in our hands.”

The upper image: the glacier of the Swiss Alps, in 1935 and 2022. Credit: Svisstopo and Wow Gazyciology, Et Zurich.

Additional reporting of Dominic Bailey and Ervan Rivo.

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