Married couple from Bristol attract awe and abuse on X with photos that show ‘staggering’ changes in the Alps

A tourist has posted “staggering” photos of himself and his wife at the same spot in the Swiss Alps almost exactly 15 years apart, in a pair of photos that highlight the speed with which global heating is melting glaciers.

Duncan Porter, a software developer from Bristol, posted photos that were taken in the same spot at the Rhone glacier in August 2009 and August 2024. The white ice that filled the background has shrunk to reveal grey rock. A once-small pool at the bottom, out of sight in the original, has turned into a vast green lake.

“Not gonna lie, it made me cry,” Porter said in a viral post on social media platform X on Sunday night.

  • pHr34kY@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    4 months ago

    I tried to do the same thing at Franz Josef glacier earlier this year. I didn’t even get the glacier in shot.

    • Wanderer@lemm.eeEnglish
      251·
      4 months ago

      Is that the one that says “the glacier may look like this [picture] in 2100 if global warming keeps happening” and the glacier is noticeably more receded than that?

      • nilaus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        4 months ago

        Yes. Was there 7 years ago and it had already receded way past the 2100 pic.

        • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          4 months ago

          Fuck that’s depressing

          If only all the scientists could have predicted all of this. Maybe even tried to warn us about it and write it in signs.

          Stupid scientists…

          • Droechai@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            4 months ago

            It’s not the scientists fault, it’s the Prussians who focused more on arms and military than social security nets and infrastructure. It’s all been down hill since then

    • Inktvip@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Switzerland has always been the go to holiday destination for my grandparents, parents and now me. The difference in pictures (and memories) between the generations is terrifying