Part of the glacier turned into a lake: the network was struck by photos taken 15 years apart

A tourist who returned to a Swiss glacier with his wife to recreate a valuable photo from 15 years ago was stunned by what he found. Instead of a mountain of ice, he saw a lake.

Duncan shared the "before and after" photos of the Ron Glacier on his X network page. The post immediately went viral, as readers began to express their sadness about such drastic climate change, Metro writes.

Duncan, a software developer, traveled to Switzerland in an RV with his wife and teenage daughters, Macy and Emily, to show them a place with which he has many fond memories.

The first time the American and his wife Helen Porter took a photo near the Rhone Glacier was in August 2009. Duncan admitted that he loved to look at this photo, which hung in his kitchen for many years.

However, when he returned to Switzerland 15 years later, the man did not recognize the area from his favorite photo. In the latest picture, taken in August 2024, part of the glacier had turned into a lake, and there were more bare rocks than snow.

"I'm not going to lie, it made me cry," Duncan admitted. He also noted that he did not think the ice would melt so quickly.

Although in recent years the famous Rhône Glacier has been regularly covered with white tarpaulins to try to slow down its melting rate, climate change, caused mainly by greenhouse gas emissions, has taken its toll.

According to experts, the retreat of glaciers in the Alps has been documented. More than 500 glaciers have already disappeared from Switzerland. The country's government has warned that the remaining 1,500 will disappear by the end of the century if emissions are not limited.

The monitoring body GLAMOS reported that Switzerland's glaciers experienced the second-worst rate of melting in 2023 after record losses in 2022, reducing their total volume by 10% over the past two years. These catastrophic figures indicate that the Alps have lost as much ice in two years as they did in the three decades before 1990.

Climate change has given rise to "last chance" tourism. That is, visitors travel to see natural wonders that are changing or completely disappearing.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!