Green Daily

We had some warning that summer came early this year, but the reality of the Arctic ice caps melting is still stunning. Last week a chunk measuring eight square miles broke off the shelf on Ward Island in the Canadian Arctic. And experts predict that more is on the way.

This is the largest break since a 25 mile piece broke off the nearby Ayles ice shelf in 2005. Scientists believe that the next break could even be as large as the 2005 break.

To put the ice loss in perspective, there once was a single 3,500 square mile shelf. So much has melted and broken away that there are now five pieces that only add up to 400 square miles. It was stable for 3,000 years, but something is making it disappear fast.

Wondering if this really that big of a deal? After all, glaciers have melted before, like during Clan of the Cave Bear times. Well, check out this interesting map of early warning signs of global warming. As you might have guessed, "glacier melting" and "the Arctic and Antarctic warming" rank sort of high in terms of things to be concerned about.

It takes thousands of years to build up an ice shelf, so even if we can reverse this global warming trend, there's no getting that ice back. However, we can still avoid living in a desert world that look like Mars and where the only animals are domesticated rats and cockroaches. Eartheasy has some suggestions for ways you can take to reduce your own impact on the climate. At this point, every little bit counts.