[Debunked] Viral internet meme indirectly claiming that Greenland has already fully melted.

Mythic Suns

Active Member
E211FA94-2B46-4418-9951-06DBE577BF92.jpeg

I couldn't find a post covering this so I felt I might just add one myself. This meme has been doing the rounds on Facebook and Reddit for a few years now and while a significant amount of ice has melted because of the way we've been treating the Earth, Greenland is still very much covered in ice which this satellite picture on Google Maps proves.
F896D170-77FB-4C69-81E9-F749F7971A05.png

As for the image used in the meme itself, it actually comes from a CGI animation that someone made depicting a predicted outcome for Greenland if we don't do something to improve our climate https://www.cg4tv.com/3d-animation/greenland-cap-melting.html

There's also the massive elephant in the room which is the fact that the screenshotted post used to make the meme is from 24/7 HipHop News who aren't exactly what I'd call a reputable source when it gets to information on climate change (sorry if that sounded snarky but it's kind of hard not to).

To me this meme is what I'd call bunk with good intent, it wants people to believe that the situation in Greenland is even worse than it is to try and scare people into doing the right thing, but the problem with going too far with such tactics is that it can just make people feel hopeless and even cause them to make less of an effort.
 
I'm not sure Google Maps proves it, as that depends on when the base photo was taken.

However there's the MODIS satellite images from last month:
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=-115.67405797396255,39.009840177477656,81.75385395785564,138.57234017747766&t=2021-10-11-T04:37:58Z
View attachment 47557
Yeah I was working on the assumption that the copyright date was the same as when the photo was taken but thinking on it I guess the copyright being updated yearly doesn't guarantee that the photo is.

I agree that the MODIS satellite images are better proof, though annoyingly those do require skipping through a few days to find the one image with the least cloud coverage over Greenland but I guess that's to be expected from an image that wasn't edited for the purposes that people use Google Maps for..
 
Last edited:
What I don't get about these things is why people don't give it another spin in their thought machine.

Everyone knows that Greenland's almost continental in size, and the ice is several miles thick throughout most of it - just these extremely basic things have all kinds of ramifications for the plausibility of this.

Once you start thinking "but if that were true, then wouldn't that mean..." it just falls flat. So my question is, I suppose, do people not think anymore? Or are they badly educated so they aren't aware of the basic geographical facts mentioned above?
 
What I don't get about these things is why people don't give it another spin in their thought machine.
One of the anti-misinformation campaigns I'm recommending promotes exactly that: if you get information from a low-quality source (like any social media), take a few seconds to google it before you pass it on. Searching for "Greenland melting" provides me with the information that, while the ice is melting at an alarming rate, it's still there.

Taking that step back, opening another browser tab, and verifying -- that is something that anyone can do.
 
One of the anti-misinformation campaigns I'm recommending promotes exactly that: if you get information from a low-quality source (like any social media), take a few seconds to google it before you pass it on. Searching for "Greenland melting" provides me with the information that, while the ice is melting at an alarming rate, it's still there.

Taking that step back, opening another browser tab, and verifying -- that is something that anyone can do.
Facebook is absolutely full of people who don't trust sources of evidence unless they say something that matches their preferred narrative, and even then it depends on who is saying it. At the risk of sounding Vulcan there's too much emotion and not enough logic. But that's just my take.
 
Back
Top