that really got to me too. the idea that an ice shelf that's thousands of years old and is the size of a state could disappear within a month's time is a sign of things getting desperate in deed.
That's the Antarctic ice shelf, and that's maybe even scarier than the Arctic sea ice, because the Antarctic ice (and the Greenland ice) sits on the sea bottom (or on land)... when the ice that's on land melts, sea level rises.
I remember when that ice the size of Rhode Island broke away. Still freaks me out. I can't believe the various research papers that have come out about the ice on Greenland just this year.
I think this year, I'm going to have to make another attempt to set up a carpool. I've got three neighbors who work at the same place where I work, but I've got a kid in daycare (having a kid is very very bad for the environment), and we all work different schedules, and the hassle has kept us from riding together. But maybe we could do it just a few days a week. With four people, we ought to be able to work out something.