My question is, how can we have a drought when the ice caps are melting and places are slightly beginning to flood?
First, the “melting” ice caps. It sounds like someone has given you the impression that we are seeing big increases in sea level because of melting ice caps. This isn’t happening. While many glaciers in the middle latitudes are melting, the Earth’s two big ice caps, the ones that cover Greenland and Antarctica are not quickly melting. The latest evidence seems to be that Greenland’s ice cap is losing a little more ice than it gains each year from falling snow. In January scientists reported that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is actually growing. You’ll find a lot more information by gong to the USATODAY.com Understanding polar melting page. Even if sea levels were quickly rising this would not directly affect drought, such as the ones now going on in a large part of the USA. In simple terms, drought refers to a lack of normal rain and snow over a long period of time. This means that water levels in rivers, lakes and ponds tends to drop. It often also means that levels of underground wat
