Arctic ice melting at 'amazing' speed, scientists find
BBC:
Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer's record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications.
Norwegian researchers report that the sea ice is becoming significantly thinner and more vulnerable.
Last month, the annual thaw of the region's floating ice reached the lowest level since satellite monitoring began, more than 30 years ago.
It is thought the scale of the decline may even affect Europe's weather.
The melt is set to continue for at least another week - the peak is usually reached in mid-September - while temperatures here remain above freezing. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19508906
= new reply since forum marked as read
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. 
The most extreme change in Earth surface conditions during the Cenozoic Era began just after the temporal boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs around 55.0 million years ago. This event, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, alternatively "Eocene thermal maximum 1" (ETM1), and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or "Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum",[1] (IETM/LPTM)), was associated with rapid (in geological terms) global warming, profound changes in ecosystems, and major perturbations in the carbon cycle.
Global temperatures rose by about 6 °C (11 °F) over a period of approximately 20,000 years. That is a 0.0003 °C (.00055 °F) increase per year. Many benthic foraminifera and terrestrial mammals became extinct, but numerous modern mammalian orders emerged. The event is linked to a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope (?13C) records from across the globe, and dissolution of carbonate deposited on all ocean basins. The latter observations strongly suggest that a massive input of 13C-depleted carbon entered the hydrosphere or atmosphere at the start of the PETM. Recently, geoscientists have begun to investigate the PETM to better understand the fate and transport of increasing greenhouse-gas emissions over millennial time scales.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene%E2%80%93Eocene_Thermal_Maximum
Of course, it took 20,000 years for temperatures to go up 6C back then. It's starting to look like we'll be able to do the same thing in about 100 years. Oops.
“These e-mails from leading climatologists make clear efforts to use statistical tricks to distort their findings and intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change.” - Paul Ryan
