‘Feels like they could just sink at any moment’

A famous photo from 2019 provides a snapshot of the changing climate and offers a glimpse of the future, scientists say.

What’s happening?

The image, featuring a first-person view of eight sled dogs trudging through meltwater atop Greenland’s ice sheet, offers stunning shades of blue — and a harrowing tale. It was taken by climate scientist Steffen Olsen of the Danish Meteorological Institute. He is also the coordinator of Blue Action, which evaluates the impact of Arctic warming on the Northern Hemisphere.

Olsen and a team of scientists had been traveling for hours on the ice when they encountered the shocking conditions, the BBC reported. A search for dry land was fruitless, and they had to turn around. They returned a few days later — after the water had seeped through cracks — to retrieve instruments.

A viral image of huskies ‘walking on water’ in 2019 revealed the rapidly changing face of Greenland’s ice.@BBC_Future has more on the story pic.twitter.com/GqSNPZ3iqn

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) March 23, 2025

But that trip, on a day when temperatures reached 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit), is etched in his mind. Locals said it will be 100 years before it happens again.

“It requires a sudden onset of warm air while you still have fresh snow on the ice and solid sea ice,” Olsen told the BBC. “So, it’s an example of an extreme event developing early in the season.”

Why is this important?

As the planet warms rapidly, the Greenland ice sheet is melting rapidly. It loses 234 billion tonnes (over 257 billion tons) of ice per year.

However, in 2019, it was losing over 568 billion tons of ice per year. Almost the entire ice sheet was affected, and the loss started in April — much earlier than usual. Between 1981 and 2020, on average, the melting started in June, according to the BBC.

Melting snow and ice presents a problem that snowballs: There is less snow and ice to reflect the sun’s rays, which adds to the heat in the atmosphere.

British Antarctic Survey marine geophysicist Kelly Hogan told the BBC the photo “really drives home the extent of the problem. … It looks like the dogs are skating on something without a bottom. … It feels like they could just sink at any moment, which is maybe some sort of metaphor for the ice sheet and the future.”

What’s being done about the melting Greenland ice sheet?

Research is crucial to understanding the problems. As the ice sheet continues to melt, these scientists’ safety and work are at risk. Indigenous communities are also having to adapt their ways of life to meet the challenges of the changing climate.

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The photo also offers a window into the world of environmental and scientific studies.

“Science has a communication problem,” BAS paleoclimatologist Bianca Perren told the BBC. “… It’s a symbolic image of what climate change looks like in Greenland. But there’s also a scientific side to it: Maybe this is unprecedented, but it also [paints] a very good, kind of emblematic picture of what the future would look like.”

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