On my TikTok, I have been sharing how completely bonkers the weather is right now in southern Spain. And the moment you bring up the weather, there is always that one person who slides into the comments with a snarky remark about climate warming. And of course, it happened again.
So I had to correct him. I told him that the term “climate warming” was not some neutral scientific phrase. It was originally coined by a lobby group that worked for Big Oil, because the original term was “climate change.” But “climate change” sounds far more alarming than “warming,” so the word was softened for PR reasons. And here we are, decades later, still talking about “warming the climate” like we are describing a cozy blanket instead of a planetary system in trouble.
Since I made that statement, another man showed up and said, “Wasn’t there just a study that showed the polar ice cap is not melting?”
I had seen those headlines circulating, but I did not bother clicking them because I knew someone was twisting something. But now that I had to respond, I went and looked up the study. And yes, it is exactly what I suspected: bending words and bending concepts until they break.
Because when you look at the graphs, the study does not say “the ice is not melting.” It shows a paradox, a situation where two opposite things are true at the same time.
On the map, blue means ice loss and red means ice gain. The large blue bubbles show where Antarctica is still losing ice quickly, and the red bubbles show where new ice has been added. So for the short period from 2021 to 2023 the gains temporarily balanced out the losses, which makes the whole picture look even on the surface.
But that raises the question: what happens when massive amounts of meltwater enter the ocean and start diluting its salinity? But since I am not a scientist, I said on my video that I am not going to pretend to analyze it. I just pointed out the paradox and let people draw their own conclusions.
Then another follower commented that if the Gulf Stream changes, Europe is in serious trouble because that would mean a new ice age.
And honestly, yes, that is exactly what scientists warn about. If the Atlantic circulation flips, Europe cools rapidly. And the only thing I could say at that point was, “Well, then we are moving to Africa, because where else are we going to go?”
Maybe I will not see it happen, because I am already 40. But the possibility exists.
Things are changing. And I honestly do not understand why anyone would publish a headline pretending everything is fine. Or maybe that is what people want, the illusion that everything is fine. But everything is not fine at all.
