Tylor Middlestadt’s “Confronting the silent crisis” continues the trend of misinformation in otherwise credible newspapers and magazines.
Middlestadt writes about how “the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than ever before” just like other articles I have read in National Geographic, Scientific America and Time magazine. However, none of those articles mention the fact that the Greenland ice sheet (and the Antarctic ice cap) have actually been growing in mass during the past 30 years.
All glaciers melt as they fall into the ocean from their own weight. Many headlines have been dedicated to this fact, but everyone has ignored the reality that increased rainfall has increased the size of the world’s two largest ice sheets.
Computer simulators may “predict” melting icecaps in the future, but the fact of the matter is, despite the highest levels of carbon dioxide levels this planet has seen in thousands of years, the two largest glaciers in the world grow in size each year, running contrary to “global warming.”
Alexander Thornton
Civil engineering freshman