Glaciers have advanced and retreated before
By
Kelvin Kemm
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June 6th, 2026
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29 Comments
We constantly hear panic stories about glaciers melting, accompanied by hysterical voices calling out that retreating glaciers are a clear sign of human-induced global warming.
Much of this hysteria is driven by green activists and politicians who know just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be sensible.
Scientifically you can’t come to a conclusion, on the basis of a principle. You have to look at the real science and carry out correct measurements.
This is a complex subject, but let us have a quick look at the issue. What about atmospheric warming? Well, for starters, we need some physics. For a gram of cold glacial ice to warm up by 1°C, say from -4°C to -3°C, it takes about two Joules of heat. It needs this amount of heat for each degree Celsius that the ice warms. Inside a glacier it can be as cold as -50°C, but let us just consider the top part and, being generous, call it -10°C. In other words, to raise the temperature of a gram of ice from -10°C to 0°C we will need about 20 Joules. So far so good. So where would this heat come from? Well, the global warming enthusiasts say, ‘from the atmosphere.’ So we take 20 Joules from the atmosphere. That is reasonable.
https://www.cfact.org/2026/06/06/glaciers-have-advanced-and-retreated-before/
