A
 50-year study of the ice cap on Devon Island in Canada’s High Arctic 
has revealed ice growth that alternated with melting prior to 1985. 
However, since that time the ice volume and area have both been in 
steady decline. 
According lead study author Dr. Sarah Boon of 
Canada’s University of Lethbridge, this past decade also saw four 
particularly warm summers that have accelerated the melting, with the 
now-exposed soil and gravel on the ice cap’s edges absorbing more heat 
and speeding the melt rate even more. 
In addition, melt water 
forming beneath the ice also causes entire chunks to slide more quickly 
into the ocean, which in turn raises sea levels, one of the major 
concerns with melting glaciers around the globe.
Our heartfelt thanks
 Dr. Boon and dedicated Canadian colleagues for sharing these factual 
observations, despite their disturbing nature. 
May we all respond to the urgent situation by adopting sustaining lifestyles to save our planet.
In
 a June 2009 video message, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of this 
predicament and how to solve the concerns of the melting Arctic.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
 The Arctic, or North Pole, may be ice-free by 2012, 70 years ahead of 
IPCC estimations. Without the protective ice to reflect sunlight, 90 
percent of the sun's heat can enter the open water, thus accelerating 
global warming. Now, many of these areas where we are seeing such 
devastating effects of climate change, such as Arctic melt, are all 
directly related to the Earth’s temperature increasing. 
So, we must 
cool the planet, first and foremost.To cool the planet most quickly, we 
have to stop consuming meat in order to stop the livestock raising 
industry.
If everyone in the world would adopt this simple but 
most powerful practice of an animal-free diet, then we could reverse the
 effect of global warming in no time.
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/04/14/decades-of-research-show-massive-arctic-ice-cap-is-shrinking.htmlhttp://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/04/melting-of-canadian-arctic-ice-sheet-accelerating-study-finds.html