Newswise — Charles H. Greene, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, a fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and an expert on oceans, climate and Arctic ice, comments on this week’s news of a stunningly rapid thawing of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Green says:“Climate change above the Arctic Circle has been dramatic during the past 25 years; however, 2012 is about to distinguish itself from all of the other years.

“Last month, we witnessed the record set for the greatest loss of Arctic sea ice observed during the month of June, and now during July we have witnessed an almost unimaginably rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet's surface. In addition, on July 16, an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke off Greenland's Petermann Glacier. By summer's end, it is likely that Arctic sea ice extent will break the record low set in 2007 as we move ever closer to a sea ice-free summer in the Arctic Ocean.

“It will be interesting to see what additional records might be set this summer as the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to melt and calve icebergs at rates that continue to amaze the scientists studying them.”

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