Ancient Ice Shelf Breaks Free from Canadian Arctic by: Associated Press 29 December 2006
A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields snapped free from Canada’s Arctic. The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometers (41 square miles) in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada’s Arctic. The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it. “It is consistent with climate change,” Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.
(Hurting) Headitor’s note: The event actually occurred in 2005 but the story did not “break” until late in December 2006 – which is in itself something of a story, if not “the” story of how stories that don’t involve impotent Hollywood gossip or inane political bickering rank in our news agencies’ perception of what constitutes news.
In a related story, our Canadian Prime Minister gave the cold shoulder to an international gay and lesbian convention hosted by Canada in order to oversee exercises designed to bolster Canadian sovereignty over a Northwest Passage that many expect will become a busy and viable alternative to the Panama Canal in the not too distant future. Later in the year, at a United Nations Climate Conference, his Environment Minister’s defense of a Made in Canada alternative to Kyoto that would deliver measurable results by the year 2050 received an icy reception.
