It’s funny how some people don’t believe in global warming. Maybe the clear fact that the polar ice caps are melting isn’t really a sign, or maybe they just refuse to believe the obvious. Recently a two-mile radius of ice melted in Antarctica; I believe this should be a wake up call to become aware of the effects of global warming.

This enormous chunk of ice was part of the Wilkins ice shelf. It was seven times the size of Manhattan and just a small fraction of the Antarctic ice shelf. The Wilkins ice shelf had been stable for most of the last century. It was predicted that the ice caps would melt because of global warming, but it broke up well before scientists had predicted.

As ice melts, its loss causes the planet to get warmer and causes the sea level to rise as more ice is threatened. Ice plays a vital role in cooling the Earth’s temperature. Its melting is a sign that global warming is happening faster than expected.

There isn’t a significant debate in the long term anymore. It was easy to say none of this would happen when there wasn’t a significant amount of evidence. Now all these events such as the Wilkins ice shelf, are all wake-up signs. Not everyone believes that this is a reason for concern.

But are also a lot of people that are aware of the situation and who actually care.

“I think we need to pay closer attention to warning signs, but there are little signs all around us that people are changing, like IKEA charging for plastic bags,” said geography teacher Ms. Reina Roberts.

Many students are aware of this global warming situation. “ It’s real, of course it’s real, and we need to do something about it,” said Venice student Xiao Xiong.

In Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” an analogy depicts how people respond to immediate danger and gradual changes. If you put a frog in boiling water, its natural reaction would be to immediately jump out. If you put a frog in a glass of water and gradually warm up the water, the frog will stay there until it can no longer take the heat.

And that is exactly what is happening. We must prevent the Earth from ever reaching that point. The Wilkins ice shelf is a paragon of what is going on. Global warming is a gradual change, it will not happen over night. Therefore, like the frog, we could sit here and do nothing until it’s too late.



Awareness is key. I asked a random student what she thought about the Wilkins ice shelf melting and the effects of global warming, the response was, “ Isn’t global warming a movie?” Clearly, this is a sign that awareness needs to be increased.

It’s hard to imagine how such a massive chunk of ice could ever melt off. These walls towered 100 ft above the sea. And now they are no longer attached to the other major chunks of ice.



“ Definitely something should be done, that’s for sure,” said student Keaton Frey. It is up to everyone to help our planet. After all, we only have one, unless there’s a possibility that we can live in Mars. But that doesn’t seem very promising just yet. The fact is that we are responsible for all these negative changes. And if we caused it, there has to be a way we can help fix it.