Temperatures Hit 80 Degrees in the Arctic

This must-read post starts with this:

During the last week of July, a 7 square kilometer piece of the Ward Hunt ice shelf, the largest ice shelf in the Arctic broke up into 3 pieces.

Scientists reacted with unusual bluntness:

"Canadian ice shelves have undergone substantial changes in the past six years, starting with the first break-up event on the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, and the loss of the Ayles Ice Shelf," said Dr. Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa. "These latest break-ups we are seeing have come after decades of warming and are irreversible," said Dr. Derek Mueller of Trent University. [Science Daily]

Gary Stern, co-leader of an international research program on sea ice, said it's the same story all around the Arctic.

Speaking from the Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen in Canada's north, Stern said He hadn't seen any ice in weeks. Plans to set up an ice camp last February had to be abandoned when usually dependable ice didn't form for the second year in a row, he said.

"Nobody on the ship is surprised anymore," Stern said. "We've been trying to get the word out for the longest time now that things are happening fast and they're going to continue to happen fast." [Associated Press]

A couple of days after the breakup at the Ward Hunt ice shelf, Canadian Park officials announced the evacuation of 21 tourists from Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island.

Please go read the rest of it and then consider what you must do next.