Global warming has contributed to a rise in global sea level not only because it causes glaciers and ice sheets to me...

Irina on October 24, 2019

@Meredith,

(E) is correct because the passage tells us that global warming contributes to the rise in sea levels via (a) melting of glaciers/ ice sheets and (b) increase in the overall volume of water. The rise of sea level thus only tells us about the combined effect of these two phenomena, to determine the amount of water resulting from melting of glaciers/ ice sheets, we would have to know the additional water volume that resulted from the expansion of the water volume due to higher temperatures. Without this information, the rise in sea level alone cannot tell us how much of that extra water could be attributed to the melting of ice sheets/ glaciers as (E) states.