Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Is Antarctica gaining land ice?

iceberg

An iceberg calved from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf.

Gallo Images/Getty Images

This fact brief was originally published by Skeptical Science. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Is Antarctica gaining land ice?

No.

While Antarctic sea ice varies seasonally, the continent's land ice has continued to melt at an increasing pace.


Sea ice forms during the Antarctic winter and retreats during the warmer months. Such freeze-thaw cycles have no impact on sea levels since they happen within the ocean. However, Antarctic land ice has seen a net decrease, resulting in a significant increase in fresh water flowing into the sea. That does affect global sea levels.

The behavior of Antarctic land ice varies from region to region. In particular, the West Antarctic Peninsula has seen drastic ice retreat. On the other hand, East Antarctica's land ice has remained relatively stable to date. But if global warming crosses a specific threshold, serious loss is expected to occur. The planet has already moved a third of the way towards that threshold and will pass it within a century, if fossil fuel burning continues unabated.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Nature Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017

My NASA Data Sea and Land Ice Melt

NASA Ice Sheets

Read More

The limits of free speech protections in American broadcasting

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies in Washington on May 21, 2025.

The limits of free speech protections in American broadcasting

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is displeased with a broadcast network. He makes his displeasure clear in public speeches, interviews and congressional testimony.

The network, afraid of the regulatory agency’s power to license their owned-and-operated stations, responds quickly. They change the content of their broadcasts. Network executives understand the FCC’s criticism is supported by the White House, and the chairman implicitly represents the president.

Keep ReadingShow less
MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border
Way into future, RPA Airmen participate in Red Flag 16-2 > Creech ...

MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border

FT HUACHUCA, Ariz. - Inside a windowless and dark shipping container turned into a high-tech surveillance command center, two analysts peered at their own set of six screens that showed data coming in from an MQ-9 Predator B drone. Both were looking for two adults and a child who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and had fled when a Border Patrol agent approached in a truck.

Inside the drone hangar on the other side of the Fort Huachuca base sat another former shipping container, this one occupied by a drone pilot and a camera operator who pivoted the drone's camera to scan nine square miles of shrubs and saguaros for the migrants. Like the command center, the onetime shipping container was dark, lit only by the glow of the computer screens.

Keep ReadingShow less
A child holding a smartphone.

As children scroll through endless violence on their screens, experts warn of a mental health crisis fueled by trauma, desensitization, and the erosion of empathy.

Trauma Through Screens: Are We Failing the Children?

The first time I watched the video of George Floyd’s final moments as he gasped for air, recorded on a smartphone for the world to witness, it was May 2020, and it was gut-wrenching to see a man’s life end in such a horrific way with just a click.

That single video, captured by a bystander, spread across over 1.3 billion screens and sent a shockwave throughout the country. It forced people to confront the brutality of racial injustice in a way that could not be ignored, filtered, or explained away.

Keep ReadingShow less
A person on their phone, using a type of artificial intelligence.

AI is transforming the workplace faster than ever. Experts warn that automation could reshape jobs, wages, and opportunities for millions of American workers.

Getty Images, d3sign

AI Reshapes the American Workplace—But Where Are the Jobs?

In recent years, American workers have been going through an unprecedented experiment in how we work. During the COVID pandemic and social distancing, U.S. businesses embraced the latest online technologies to vastly expand remote work. That, in turn, ushered in the slow creep of artificial intelligence (AI) applications into every crack and seam of society, including in the workplace.

If 2023 was about increasing adoption of AI coming out of the pandemic, experts are saying 2025-26 will be when companies implement deeper changes in the workplace based on ever more pervasive AI.

Keep ReadingShow less