TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said.Oh yeah, I guess warmer temps cause ice to melt, huh? Interesting. Maybe Al Gore isn't such a wacko afterall. It looks more and more probable everyday that the crap that Rush Limbaugh and other conservative wackos spew is flat out wrong.
The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north.
Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.
Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw.
"This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," Vincent said Thursday.
In 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said.
The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it.
Wake up America... we need to start finding solutions to our problems. We are all in this together and if we want to leave a planet that is worth living to our grandchildren, we better get to work now. The worst part of this story? This actually happened 16 months ago and we are just now confirming what went on with satellite images.
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