A climate-change frontier in the world's northernmost town

Image Galleries

Wieslaw Sawicki holds a photograph of his son 44-year-old Michal Sawicki who was killed by an avalanche in Svalbard earlier this year, in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. Sawicki worked as a geophysicist at the Polish Polar Research Station in Hornsund on the southern side of Svalbard. The Polish scientist and meteorologist Anna Gorska died when they fell from a mountain in May. Sawicki was an experienced mountaineer, scientist and explorer on his fifth stint for the institute in the Arctic. "Unfortunately, there was a huge snow cornice which looked like it was part of the peak of the mountain," said his father Wieslaw Sawicki, who was visiting Longyearbyen to meet with the governor of the archipelago. "It collapsed with them; they both fell into the abyss." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

An iceberg floats near the Wahlenberg Glacier in Oscar II land at Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway, August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The Wahlenberg Glacier is seen in Oscar II land at Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway, August 5, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A man relaxes in the afternoon sun in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Christiane Huebner plays with her dog Svea in front of her home in the town of Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. Three years ago, as winter approached, 13 meters of coastline fell away overnight, leaving Huebner's cabin perilously close to the fjord. Huebner, her family of three and their husky dogs abandoned the home. "It was a wake-up call since it happened very quickly," she says. They returned the following spring and had to relocate the cabin 80 meters from the shore. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

International director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Kim Holmen, relaxes with a cup of tea as he travels past the Wahlenberg Glacier in Oscar II land at Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway, August 5, 2019. Holmen has lived in the northern Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard for three decades. He describes the changes he's seen as "profound, large and rapid." "We are losing the Svalbard we know. We are losing the Arctic as we know it because of climate change," he said. "This is a forewarning of all the hardship and problems that will spread around the planet." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The Svalbard Church, which claims to be the world's northernmost church, stands in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Children play at the skatepark in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Newlywed Astrid Bjorlo and Ruben Nygaard depart their ceremony in the Svalbard Church in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. The couple met thirty years ago on the island and returned to marry surrounded by friends and family. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Interim Vicar, Ivar Smedsrod consoles Polish visitor Wieslaw Sawicki after a mass at the Svalbard Church in the town of Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. Wieslaw Sawicki's son Michal worked as a geophysicist at the Polish Polar Research Station in Hornsund on the southern side of Svalbard. The Polish scientist and meteorologist Anna Gorska died when they fell from a mountain in May. Michal, 44, was an experienced mountaineer, scientist and explorer on his fifth stint for the institute in the Arctic. "Unfortunately, there was a huge snow cornice which looked like it was part of the peak of the mountain," said Sawicki, who was visiting Longyearbyen to meet with the governor of the archipelago. "It collapsed with them; they both fell into the abyss." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Miner Odd Rune Svenning, 26, changes his clothes after working inside the Gruve 7 mine, the only remaining operational coal mine on Svalbard, Norway, August 7, 2019. Svenning has worked in the mine for two years. "It's an old tradition working here. We are the last ones," he said. "I don't know if this affects the climate, but for us it is sad. We need coal, and for us to get it out is maybe safer or better for both the people working there and the climate." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A man looks at rugs for sale in a store in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

People dine at a restaurant in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A woman poses next to a polar bear mural in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A residential house is seen in front of snow capped mountains in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Miner Bent Jakobsen works inside the Gruve 7 mine, the only remaining operational coal mine on Svalbard, Norway, August 7, 2019. Jakobsen has worked in the mine for almost 14 year. He said he grew up in the family of miners. "Longyearbyen was founded because of coal mining, and we are fading out. Coal mining here is a super-long tradition. Around here everything is dependent on the coal miners, so without us, what do we have left? We have tourism. Well, tourism pollutes too," Jakobsen said. "I do hear everything they say about climate change, but I know from the past we have had super-mild winters, especially on Svalbard. It goes in cycles. We need coal for making cars and cellphones and so forth, but that is what people don't think about. We don't have any good substitution yet." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A pile of antlers are seen on a ski sled in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

White wooden gravestones at risk of landslides due to the thawing permafrost underneath the ground, stand at the side of a mountain in the Longyearbyen cemetery in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The town of Longyearbyen is seen in the late evening light in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A miner works inside the Gruve 7 mine, the only remaining operational coal mine on Svalbard, Norway, August 7, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Audun Salte prepares his huskies for sledding at his husky yard in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. Salte worries that as temperatures warm, climate change could lead to the extinction of all life on Earth. A man who likes kissing and dancing with his dogs ? he has 110 of them ? he's concerned most about the nonhumans on the planet. "If climate change should be the end of humanity, I really don't care, but if climate change is the end of any animal species who hasn't contributed anything towards the speeding up of this process, that's why I am reacting," he said. "On the highway, when people slow down to look at a car crash, climate change is like that because everyone is slowing down to look at the accident but not realising that we are actually the car crash." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A reindeer grazes on land in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Husky dogs pull a rig and musher Audun Salte through the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. Salte worries that as temperatures warm, climate change could lead to the extinction of all life on Earth. A man who likes kissing and dancing with his dogs ? he has 110 of them ? he's concerned most about the nonhumans on the planet. "If climate change should be the end of humanity, I really don't care, but if climate change is the end of any animal species who hasn't contributed anything towards the speeding up of this process, that's why I am reacting," he said. "On the highway, when people slow down to look at a car crash, climate change is like that because everyone is slowing down to look at the accident but not realising that we are actually the car crash." REUTERS/Hannah McKay

An aerial view shows snow-covered mountains in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Interim Vicar, Ivar Smedsrod changes the hymn board ahead of a mass at the Svalbard Church in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. The pastor has only been here for the summer, but in that short time he has already learned of people's fears about the effects of a rapidly changing climate. One such effect is a thawing of the permafrost beneath his feet at the graveyard, which he calls "a place of memories, a place of remembrance." "As the permafrost thaws, things that are in the ground tend to be pulled up," Smedsroed said. "That is happening more or less all of the time, so we might see that the graves literally come up, the coffins." REUTERS/Hannah McKay