Global warming breaks Canada's last intact ice shelf

What they're saying: “There aren’t very many ice shelves around the Arctic anymore,” University of Ottawa glaciology professor Luke Copland told the AP.

• “It seems we’ve lost pretty much all of them from northern Greenland and the Russian Arctic. There may be a few in a few protected fjords.”

By the numbers: Temperatures in the region have been 9 degrees warmer than the 1980-2010 average from May to early August, Copland said.

The big picture: The shelf, located on the northwestern boundary of Ellesmere Island, broke into two large icebergs that started drifting away. One is the size of Manhattan.

• If the icebergs reach warmer waters, the climate could melt them, which would contribute to rising sea levels, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Go deeper: The rising seas global warming has already locked in