The Facts About Antarctica, Climate Change

Climate change is real -- yet there are those who continue to distort the facts to claim otherwise.

One such group is the Heartland Institute — which has a long history of casting doubt on climate science.

As Staff Writer Kate Yandell writes, Antarctica is losing ice mass to the ocean, contributing to global sea level rise. But a popular video from the Heartland Institute minimized the significance of Antarctic ice loss and then questioned whether it’s happening at all. 

“The truth is, it is unclear if Antarctica is losing any ice on balance or if it’s currently experiencing a net gain,” the video's narrator inaccurately said. 

“The statement is false,” Chad Greene, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Kate. “Antarctica has been losing sea ice, grounded ice, and floating ice shelf mass over the past few decades. Satellite analysis from NASA groups show trends of ice loss, and the same trends have been reported by independent research groups from around the world.” 

The Heartland Institute video misleadingly focuses on Antarctic ice shelves — which float in the sea at the edges of the continent — to arrive at its faulty conclusion.

The video cites a 2015 NASA study that NASA itself now says is at odds "with over a decade of other measurements, including previous NASA studies.” 

“[M]ore recent work shows clearly that on balance Antarctica is losing mass,” Jonathan Kingslake, who studies ice sheet evolution at Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told Kate. 

A second paper cited in the video is more recent. It was a 2023 paper that looked at Antarctic ice shelf area -- not ice sheet mass overall. Saying that the 2023 paper confirmed the earlier NASA findings “is totally misleading,” Kingslake said.

For the facts about Antarctica, read Kate's story, "Antarctic Ice Loss Is Significant, Contrary to Claims."

Reader: Is this true? [Included was a meme that says:] "63 US Banks on brink of collapse. $517B in unrealized losses."

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: The figures cited in the meme come from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which -- as its name implies -- insures deposits. The FDIC says that "deposits are automatically insured to at least $250,000 at each FDIC-insured bank” in the event of a bank failure. 

The FDIC supervises and examines the “operational safety and soundness” of more than 5,000 banks and savings institutions. In its supervisory role, the FDIC on May 29 released its first quarter 2024 performance report on FDIC-insured institutions. The report said the FDIC identified 63 “problem banks,” which is “within the normal range for non-crisis periods.” 

Here’s what the report said: "The number of banks on the Problem Bank List, those with a CAMELS composite rating of '4' or '5,' increased from 52 in fourth quarter 2023 to 63 in first quarter 2024. The number of problem banks represented 1.4 percent of total banks, which was within the normal range for non-crisis periods of one to two percent of all banks."

The $517 billion in unrealized losses mentioned in the meme is a total amount for more than 5,000 FDIC-insured institutions, not just the 63 problem banks. 

The FDIC quarterly report says: "Unrealized losses on available-for-sale and held-to-maturity securities increased by $39 billion to $517 billion in the first quarter. Higher unrealized losses on residential mortgage-backed securities, resulting from higher mortgage rates in the first quarter, drove the overall increase. This is the ninth straight quarter of unusually high unrealized losses since the Federal Reserve began to raise interest rates in first quarter 2022."

Overall, the FDIC said the banking industry has been resilient, but needs to be closely monitored in 2024. 

"In conclusion, the banking industry continued to show resilience in the first quarter, as net income rebounded, asset quality metrics remained generally favorable, and the industry’s liquidity was stable," the FDIC said.

"However, ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, continuing inflationary pressures, volatility in market interest rates, and emerging risks in some bank loan portfolios pose significant downside risks to the banking industry," it added. "These issues, together with funding and margin pressures, will be matters of close supervisory attention by the FDIC in 2024."

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Q&A on Trump’s Criminal Conviction": We answer some of the questions raised by former President Donald Trump’s conviction in New York.
• "Exaggerated Claims Circulate About Judge Merchan’s Family": Social media posts seeking to discredit the judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in New York have been circulating online. Contrary to a popular meme, the judge’s wife works for a Republican district attorney, not the Democratic state attorney general, and his daughter was not personally paid by a high-profile Democrat.
• "FactChecking Biden’s Promises 'Kept'": President Joe Biden punctuated a campaign speech in Philadelphia with the phrase “a promise made and a promise kept,” when chronicling several actions his administration has taken. But in a few cases, he hasn’t kept the promise or he misleadingly described his accomplishments. 
• "Gaza Tunnel Photo Mislabeled on Social Media": A photo taken in January shows a large tunnel under Gaza’s northern border with Israel, reportedly used in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. But recent social media posts falsely claim that the photo shows a tunnel connecting Egypt with the southern Gaza city of Rafah — where Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war have been sheltering. 
• "Trump's Latest False Claim About the U.S.-China Trade Deficit": The total U.S. trade deficit with China in goods and services in 2023 was about $252 billion, the lowest it has been in 14 years. Former President Donald Trump was way off when he falsely claimed that the U.S.-China trade gap is about four times as high.