On Wednesday, scientists announced that melting over the Greenland ice sheet has already "shattered the seasonal record" set in 2010, with four weeks left before the end of the melting season. Scientists say this record melting is driven by rising Arctic temperatures and could have serious consequences for the environment and coastal communities. But the major media outlets are once again failing to report on clear evidence that our climate is changing.Professor Marco Tedesco, whose research was sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation, examined satellite data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and found that Greenland has "experienced extreme melting in nearly every region" this year. He concluded: "With more yet to come in August, this year's overall melting will fall way above the old records. That's a goliath year - the greatest melt since satellite recording began in 1979."

Tedesco looked at the extent and duration of melting to determine the "cumulative melting index," which measures the "strength" of the melting season. The following chart illustrates that by early August, Greenland's melting index was already higher than at any time in the past 30 years:







Tedesco attributed his findings to rising temperatures in the Arctic, noting that accelerated melting and ice sheet thinning are consistent with models of the effects of climate change. But, he added, "the difference is how quickly this seems to be happening."

This study comes on the heels of a NASA report that found a record 97% of Greenland's ice sheet experienced some surface melting in July. Earlier that month, an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke off Greenland's Petermann Glacier, an event that University of Delaware professor Andreas Muenchow called "one of the manifestations that Greenland is changing very fast."

These developments are concerning not only because they signify a warming climate, but because theyfurther accelerate global sea level rise, which threatens coastal ecosystems and populations. Last year NASA reported that "the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an accelerating pace" and "overtaking ice loss from Earth's mountain glaciers and ice caps to become the dominant contributor to global sea level rise, much sooner than model forecasts have predicted."

Despite the implications of Tedesco's new findings for our changing climate and our communities, not one of the major broadcast (ABC, CBS, NBC), cable (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) or print (Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal) outlets have covered the report.*

the greatest melt since satellite recording began in 1979

the greatest melt since satellite recording began in 1979

But what about the data from core samples that shows a constant warming/cooling trend of approx 500 years? What about cooler winters freezing and causing extravagant growth? (You only quote melts not volumetric difference.)

This data has no greater bearing than that of a Bigfoot hunter.

Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation. This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community, but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the scientific understanding of ice age cycles. In contrast to the global cooling conjecture, the current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled, but undergone global warming throughout the twentieth century.

An international team led by scientists from the Goethe University and the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, has discovered an intense warming phase around 52 million years ago in drill cores obtained from the seafloor near Antarctica — a region that is especially important in climate research.

Computer models indicate that future climate warming will be particularly pronounced in high-latitude regions, i.e., near the poles.

The near-surface ice temperature, like the atmosphere today, is warm, and then the temperature drops in the layers formed roughly between AD 1450 and 1850, a period known as the Little Ice Age, one of several cold snaps that briefly interrupted the overall warming trend ongoing since the end of the Ice Age.

As valuable as the temperature record may be, the real treasure buried in the ice is a record of the atmosphere’s characteristics. When snow forms, it crystallizes around tiny particles in the atmosphere, which fall to the ground with the snow. The type and amount of trapped particles, such as dust, volcanic ash, smoke, or pollen, tell scientists about the climate and environmental conditions when the snow formed. As the snow settles on the ice, air fills the space between the ice crystals. When the snow gets packed down by subsequent layers, the space between the crystals is eventually sealed off, trapping a small sample of the atmosphere in newly formed ice. These bubbles tell scientists what gases were in the atmosphere, and based on the bubble’s location in the ice core, what the climate was at the time it was sealed. Records of methane levels, for example, indicate how much of the Earth wetlands covered because the abundance of life in wetlands gives rise to anaerobic bacteria that release methane as they decompose organic material. Scientists can also use the ice cores to correlate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with climate change—a measurement that has emphasized the role of carbon dioxide in global warming.

A heat dome over the icy country melted a whopping 97 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet in mid-July, NASA said, calling it yet more evidence of the effect man is having on the planet.

"Ice cores from Summit station [Greenland’s coldest and highest] show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time," said Lora Koenig, a Goddard glaciologist and a member of the research team analyzing the satellite data.

“It’s somewhat like the rush to blame severe weather and drought on global warming,” Anthony Watts, a noted climate skeptic and the author of the Watts Up With That blog

The hurricane glut is happening at the same time sea levels continue to rise—the result of global warming that most scientists blame in part on human activity. A recent study using the latest computer climate models predicts warming of the tropical sea surface will strengthen hurricane winds and rainfall by the end of the 21st century. However, some experts, including Gray, argue that climate change due to human activity will not significantly affect hurricanes.

many scientists agree that the present hurricane surge is likely part of a 60-to-70-year cycle that changes the strength of ocean currents distributing heat around the globe. Researchers have used tree rings and ice cores to track this variability back hundreds of years. We're now in a fast-flowing mode of this up-and-down cycle, named the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)