Before and After Photo of Couple Shows Dramatic Glacier Retreat

A couple who visited a glacier in Switzerland 15 years apart were so shocked by its exceptional retreat that it made them cry.

The powerful image shows married couple Duncan and Helen Porter from the U.K. standing in the same spot at the Rhône glacier in August 2009 and in August 2024.

Duncan, who is a climate advocate, drove to Switzerland from the family’s home in southwest England with the couple’s teenage daughters Maisie and Emily in a camper van so they could recreate the picture.

“But obviously the circumstance of this photo was drastically different,” Duncan tells The Guardian. Helen adds: “I thought it was really unbelievable.”

Switzerland has lost one-third of its glacier volume since 2000 as Europe has increasingly gotten hotter which is put down to burning fossil fuels that release carbon pollution.

“A lot of people, when they see something like that, they feel quite helpless. But from my experience there’s a huge amount they can do,” adds Duncan who urges people to get involved with local community projects.

The Rhône glacier has shrunk by about a quarter in the decade and a half between Porter’s two photos which means it has actually fared better than some others in Switzerland.

“It was a very impressive glacier,” Sonia Seneviratne, a Swiss climate scientist and co-author, tells The Guardian. “It’s very sad to see those pictures because you see how large the changes have been.”

Duncan shared the photo to X (formerly Twitter) where many commiserated with Duncan over the glacier’s retreat. However, a significant number of the comments attempted to refute Duncan’s photo, even leaving abusive remarks — many of which are subscribed to X’s premium service.

Photos can be a powerful way of showing climate change. In 2022, photographer Neill Drake recreated a photo of a glacier taken in the Arctic over a century ago which highlights its drastically reduced mass.

Image credits: Photographs by Duncan Porter.