New Greenpeace photos show rapid Arctic ice retreat in Svalbard

Images released by Greenpeace have highlighted the rapid rate at which Arctic ice is retreating. 

Taken in the Norwegian region of Svalbard, the photographs show not only ice melt over a century, but significant changes in just the last two decades.

The project is a repeat of an initiative by the NGO done 20 years ago. In 2002, photographer Christian Åslund set out to recreate historical 20th-century photos of the region to illustrate how things had changed. 

For Åslund, going back to the same location and seeing climate change laid bare before him in such a transparent way was striking. Speaking to the Guardian, he said, “I did expect a retreat of the glacier but not as much as we encountered. It was a shock.”

Christian Åslund: Literally unbelievable photos

When Åslund photographed the region in 2002, people didn’t believe what he had captured. Many accused him of faking them, saying he’d visited in the summer and the historical photographs were from the winter.

But glaciers, he says, are not like snow and ice that retreat in the summer and return the next winter. Besides, Svalbard is in almost complete darkness during the winter months, so photography would not be possible.

He added, “The Arctic is our climate sentinel – it’s where the climate and ocean crises converge, and where the impacts of these crises are seen first and felt most keenly.”

Åslund hopes that his visual depictions of climate change in action will help catalyse action from people and governments to tackle the crisis before it's too late.

The Arctic: A rapidly melting region

This summer, Svalbard experienced the hottest weather on record for the third consecutive year. 

Meteorologist Daan van den Broek analysed data from the Norwegian climate research service and concluded that the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard, at 78°N, reached an average temperature of 11°C during August 2024.

It was also a wet summer in Svalbard, with July seeing 50 mm of rain, compared to a normal average of 20 mm.

All this adds up to a region that is rapidly melting away. NASA’s Landsat 8 captured images of the melt, concluding that the warm summer had led to melts that were five times more severe than an average year.

Climatologist Xavier Fettweis identified 23 July as a record day for ice melts in Svalbard, with 55 millimetres of water equivalent shed in just one day.

Ice melt is a problem for the whole world

Retreating glaciers in the far north of Europe might seem like a world away from our cosy homes, but the impact of such accelerated melting is set to be felt by us all.

As well as sea level rise, which comes with its own risks of coastal erosion and inland flooding, Arctic ice melt creates a feedback loop that accelerates the problem.

Known as Arctic amplification, the melting of the ice reveals new swathes of dark ocean which, rather than reflecting light and heat away from the earth, actually absorbs it. This warms the sea surface and atmosphere, leading to more melting. 

The loss of ice in the poles can disrupt the jet stream, pushing it south and bringing bitter winters to the continent. Similarly, less reflection means more trapped heat, spurring more intense heatwaves worldwide.

Dr Laura Meller, Project Lead of Greenpeace Nordic, added, “Here, at the top of the world, we can hear an alarm from our planet, and can see laid bare before our eyes the fundamentally connected futures of oceans and our climate. Stopping climate breakdown goes hand in hand with ocean protection to create space for ocean life to recover, thrive and help us avoid the worst impacts of warming.”