Melting glaciers will harm us all. Yet still we watch, unmoved

The problems that now afflict attempts to establish a military presence in the far north of Canada and Greenland provide timely warnings about the miseries that lie ahead for the rest of the planet as global warming continues its remorseless spread.

- Science Editor Robin McKie

The Arctic has suffered especially early impacts because temperatures here are rising faster than in any other part of our planet. Crucially, this process threatens to trigger even greater climatic mayhem.

Ice is highly effective at reflecting solar radiation back into space, so when the region's floes and glaciers start to disintegrate and disappear, more and more of the dark soil and ocean that lie below are exposed to sunlight and start to heat up, causing further warming. In effect, humanity is turning up the thermostat that once reflected sunlight and cooled the planet.