When the liberals have cried, "Global warming!",
They have often been answered with scorning.
  The Earth's temperature turn
  Seemed a distant concern
And so nobody heeded their warning.

But there has been reconsideration
Due to the Antarctic situation.
  Some are finding it scary
  That since February
We've seen too much disintegration.

In two months, an ice shelf disappears
That had lasted for thousands of years.
  Environmentalists
  Say collapses like this
Prove that there's truth behind all their fears.

Now the ice shelf was named Larsen B.
(Larsen A collapsed previously.)
  After totally shattering,
  It's now a large smattering
Of icebergs in the Weddell Sea.

Five hundred billion tons of ice floe--
Both Larsen A and B were brought low.
  The full Larsen ice shelf
  Now half its former self,
And Larsen C could be next to go.

So some people have changed what they thunk,
Now claiming global warming's not bunk.
  Cynicism can lapse
  When one sees the collapse
Of an ice shelf's Rhode-Island-sized chunk.

As we can see from reports released,
Antarctic temperatures have increased.
  Two degrees Celsius
  May not seem cause for fuss
But the warming trend still has not ceased.

Every decade warms half a degree
Which will harm us, eventually.
  "The peninsula's cold,
  And will stay cold," we're told.
True inland, but it warms by the sea.

Global warming has brought terrible thaws,
And of meltwater, it is the cause.
  Meltwater in the cracks
  Of an ice floe impacts
The whole ice shelf by spreading the flaws.

Some worry ocean levels will rise
This fear seems easy to analyze
  When a glass of ice water
  Is left somewhere hotter
The water level maintains its size.

But that only holds true for sea ice,
When it comes to land ice sheets, no dice.
  If the ice shelves restraining them
  Cease from containing them,
The meter of water won't be nice.

While sea ice melting won't cover dry land,
Land-based ice melts bring water to high land.
  What a terrible fate,
  If a true "Ocean State"
Was to be what became of Rhode Island.