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The Vanishing Arctic / Stefan Rahmstorf, Project Syndicate, 17/10/2011 (Stefan Rahmstorf is Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University and Department Head at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His most recent book is The Climate Crisis)http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rahmstorf4/EnglishLargely unnoticed, a silent drama has been unfolding over the past weeks in the Arctic. The long-term consequences will far outstrip those of the international debt crisis or the demise of the Libyan dictatorship, the news stories now commanding media attention. The drama – more accurately, a tragedy – playing out in the North is the rapid disappearance of the polar ice cap, the Arctic Ocean’s defining feature...