Stunning photos published by a British couple illustrate the rapid pace at which global warming is melting ice.
Duncan Porter and his wife returned to the same spot in the Swiss Alps nearly 15 years apart to take two different photos. The result is disheartening.
In the first photo, visible white ice is now almost completely gone, revealing the gray rock beneath. A once-small pond, not visible in the first photo, has transformed into a vast green lake.
“I won’t lie, it made me cry,” Porter wrote in his post on X on Sunday night. His post quickly went viral. Despite the relatively short time span, the image is heartbreaking.
The burning of fossil fuels has caused a 1.3-degree Celsius increase in temperature compared to the pre-industrial era. In Europe, the rate of warming is twice as fast as the global average.
Switzerland has lost one-third of its ice since 2000, according to official statistics, with 10% disappearing in just the last two years.
