Fact Check: The Disappearing Glaciers and the Reality of Climate Change
Half True
Scientists predicted the glaciers would disappear by 2020 with older models dating back to 2003, but newer models published in 2016 indicate the glaciers will still disappear. This claim is almost false - while the scientists were technically wrong about the initial prediction, the glaciers are still melting at an alarming rate because of climate change.
Is this legit? Yes, but 👏🏽we 👏🏽need 👏🏽that 👏🏽 context 👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/FjKceyw3My
— MediaWise (@mediawise) February 16, 2022
In a TikTok posted a few weeks ago, user @redmambah reacts to a CNN article with the headline “Glacier National Park is replacing signs that predicted its glaciers would be gone by 2020.” Combined with music, the video implies climate change is not real because the original prediction was incorrect.
In 2003, scientists calculated that the glaciers at Glacier National Park would disappear by 2020. Despite the original prediction proving false,, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a survey in 2016 the glaciers were disappearing at an alarming rate. Satellite imagery also showed that the glacier has reduced by 39% in size from 1966 and 2015.
Glacier National Park Spokeswoman Gina Kurzman also clarified that the signs were not entirely removed, but replaced with ones that read, “When they [the glaciers] will completely disappear depends on how and when we act. One thing is consistent: the glaciers in the park are shrinking.”
Globally, glaciers have lost almost 270 billion tonnes of ice a year over the first twenty years of the 21st Century. Glaciers are an essential source of water for many places around the world, where people depend on glacial meltwater to replenish their source of drinking water. As glaciers melt, water supplies are at risk.
The glaciers melting at this rate also contribute to rising sea levels. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that sea levels along the U.S. coastline are projected to rise, on average, 10 - 12 inches in the next 30 years which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years. With almost 30 percent of the U.S. population living in relatively coastal areas, sea level plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms.
While the original 2020 prediction was false, the glaciers will disappear eventually if the rate of climate change is not curbed, causing large-scale ecological disaster globally.
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References and Further Reading
Christina Maxouris, Andy Rose. CNN. Glacier National Park is replacing signs that predicted its glaciers would be gone by 2020. 8 January 2020.
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center. Time Series of Glacier Retreat. 19 May 2017.
Jonathan Amos, Climate change: World's glaciers melting at a faster pacehttps://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/us/glaciers-national-park-2020-trnd/index.html, 21 April 2021.
NOAA: 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html February 2022
Darryl Cohen, 94.7M Americans Live in Coastline Regions. About 60.2M Live in Areas Most Vulnerable to Hurricanes, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/07/millions-of-americans-live-coastline-regions.html, 15 July 2019.
United States Geological Survey. Status of Glaciers in Glacier National Park. 16 April 2016.
