Pictures taken seven years apart show shocking effects of climate change
Shocking photos show how a glacier in Alaska has almost totally melted away in just seven years because of climate change.
Photojournalist Larry Pannell, 56, first captured images of the Sawyer Glacier while on a cruise to the region back in 2012.
Since then he has gone on several trips to see the ice shelf and has been shocked to see the physical effects of global warming first hand.
During his last trip he compared images of the glaciers he took in the past and realised the massive difference in the amount of ice.
Larry said: “Although I have witnessed the retreat of many glaciers it is hard to notice the difference when you visit year after year.
“That changed this year when for the first time in seven years I returned to the Sawyer Glacier.
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“To say I was shocked is an understatement of what I felt as the ship came to rest several hundred yards away from its face, it was a shadow of its former self.
“We visit the Sawyer every week and there has been a number of weeks that we could not approach the glacier safely with the amount of ice in the water.
Larry initially estimated that half the glacier had completely disappeared since the last time he saw it three years ago.
“Returning to my cabin I took my book on Alaska off the shelf and began to compare before and after shots,” he continued.
“My heart broke, it ached, and my eyes began to tear as I realized two thirds of the Sawyer Glacier had disappeared over a seven-year period.”
In May this year scientists suggested glaciers could soon disappear from half of world’s top beauty spots because of global warming.
More than half of the UN-designated World Heritage sites were said to be under threat unless rapid action is taken to stop climate change.
