Most people are fascinated by “before and after” pictures showing how people and places can transform over time. This story from Yale Climate Connections shows how photographers are documenting changes to natural features caused by the warming climate by trying to recreate historic photographs of famous places. Where there was once a glacier, now there is bare ground or a lake. Trees have grown where before there was bare rock. The changes show indisputable evidence that something is changing. You can see some paired photographs and read more about how hard it can be to locate just the right spot at Repeat photography shows climate change impacts on real places » Yale Climate Connections.

Ecologist Morton J. Elrod used this boulder to measure the terminus of Grinnell Glacier in 1926. Now, no ice is visible from the rock. Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula