Well this is awkward. The BBC, like other media outlets, has been covering melting of the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica as proof of global warming and a potential harbinger of apocalypse. The BBC has even called it the “Doomsday glacier”. But, David Whitehouse says, they’ve known all along that it’s a bunch of ice on top of some major geothermal hotspots including active volcanoes. Of course climate change might cause volcanoes since it gets blamed for everything else including lightning and the spread of the Wuhan virus. But it’s still odd that it causes people not to mention that the ice is melting because it’s on top of some lava.
It’s even odder when you discover that the relationship between volcanoes and icebergs off Antarctica was recognized back in 1901. Surely in science we don’t forget things unless and until we disprove them.
Also in science we don’t ignore things because they don’t fit our narrative. Though perhaps in journalism we do… if we don’t want readers to trust us.
Finally, it’s very odd that when global warming is so obvious the science is settled and the debate is over and the crisis is upon us and everybody knows and only oil-company-subsidized hacks say otherwise, it would be necessary or at least expedient to engage in such trickery. Why not just pick some real conclusive evidence and talk about it?
Like say the increase in hurricanes. Except there wasn’t one. Then the upsurge in forest fires. Oops. Same problem. The extinction of polar bears? The ice-free Arctic? The crop failures? The disappearance of ice on Mount Kilimanjaro then. The end of winter as we know it. There must be something, or you’re standing on dangerous ground.
In a similar vain, the news media has been reporting a higher temperature reading at a single weather station in the northernmost peninsular area of Antartica. WUWT reported February 9th that this temperature aberration is due to foehn winds and not due to any warming of the continent. The media loves scare-mongering and to hell with science and facts.