The ice pack continues to diminish worldwide, through direct melting and calving of icebergs as these recent photos of the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica clearly show. While ideologues afflicted by vast gaps in knowledge continue to argue about the contributing causes of global warming instead of dedicating their energies to finding ways to fund and implement adaptation measures to protect human activity and our built environment, Nature continues its inexorably response to drivers of global warming, which causes ice melt and calving which in turn contribute to sea level rise. Coastal communities in the USA and worldwide do not have the luxury of time to listen to those who based on crass ignorance or blind ideology continue to deny the science and attack the scientists. Coastal communities must make planning and adaptation to defend against these hazards their highest priority, this is truly a matter of survival.
The signals from Nature are unmistakeable, right in front of humankind. It is up to us to read them and act accordingly!
Ice in the Arctic Ocean earlier this year (2013) showing multiple fractures under the influence of warmer waters and atmosphere.
Surface ice in the Arctic
Saunders islands off the coast of Greenland where the icecap is diminishing rapidly
Iceberg calving in West Antarctica as summer in the Southern Hemisphere approaches
Map showing causes of ice loss, ice melt or iceberg calving, in Antarctica from 2010 through 2012