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Alarming photos show melting glaciers several years apart

These shocking images reveal the ugly truth of climate change, where glaciers in Alaska have melted within five years.

Larry Pannell, 56, a photojournalist who has been travelling around the globe for nine years, started spending his summers on cruise ships to Alaska to see the glaciers.

During his last trip he compared images of the ‘Inside Passage’ he took in the past and was shocked to realise the massive difference in the amount of ice.

He first captured images of the glacier in 2012 and could see the heartbreaking difference when comparing it with more recent photographs.

PIC BY Larry Pannell / CATERS NEWS - (PICTURED The Sawyer Glacier pictured on May 15th 2012 ) These shocking images reveal the ugly truth of climate change, where glaciers in Alaska have melted within five years. Larry Pannell, 56, a photojournalist has been travelling around the world the globe for nine years-  he started spending his summers on cruise ships to Alaska, to see the glaciers. During his last trip he compared images of the ‘Inside Passage’  he took in the past and was shocked to realise 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. SEE CATERS COPY
The Sawyer Glacier pictured on May 15th 2012. Source: Larry Pannell/Caters

“Although I have witnessed the retreat of many glaciers it is hard to notice the difference when you visit year after year,” he said.

“That changed this year.

“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.”

Mr Pannell said they visited the Sawyer glacier each week on the cruise and there had been a number of times they could not approach the glacier safely due to the amount of ice in the water.

“Easily almost half of the glacier had disappeared,” he said,

“Returning to my cabin I took my book on Alaska off the shelf and began to compare before and after shots.

The Sawyer Glacier pictured on May 31st 2019. Source: Larry Pannell/Caters
The Sawyer Glacier pictured on May 31st 2019. Source: Larry Pannell/Caters

“My heart broke, it ached, and my eyes began to tear as I realised two thirds of the Sawyer Glacier had disappeared over a seven-year period.”

In June climate change experts warned residents in a popular Queensland holiday town that up to 2000 coastal homes could be flooded by rising ocean levels come the turn of the century.

A report on Noosa in the Sunshine Coast also revealed 200 residential lots could be washed away completely from coastal erosion if the current trajectory continued.

Visit Mr Pannell’s blog for more information about his journey to the glaciers.

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