Mark Lynas is working on a new book about global warming, after touring the world for three years to find stories. A preview article in the Guardian mentions rising oceans in Tuvalu, retreating glaciers in Peru, warming summers in Alaska and a host of other real examples of changing climate.
So I knew there would be change, and that the glaciers in my father's pictures would almost certainly be smaller. But it was the scale of it that was shocking. When I rounded a hill of moraine and saw the same place he had recorded on his slide two decades earlier, I could hardly believe there hadn't been some mistake. The big, fan-shaped glacier had vanished completely. The edge of the lake was now marked with bare rock walls, and the lake itself was swollen with extra meltwater. The area was barely recognisable.
It was with a heavy heart that I loaded my new slides into the projector after my return to Wales. As the image came up, my father leaned forwards with a stricken expression. 'Good God, I can't believe it. That was the whole character of the place. It's so sad.' He paused, as if to take it in. 'It's so sad,' he said again.
Some stories from Science Now back up his experiences. Warmer Ocean Blamed for Drought
