Many scientists predict -- shockingly -- that the entire North Polar ice cap may be completely gone during summer months during the first term of the next president.
For the past three years, the vast cap of shining-white ice covering the Arctic has melted away in summer to an area that would have been unbelievable just a decade ago.
And in Greenland, scientists suspect the melt waters that drain through holes, or moulins, in the ice cap to the bedrock may have contributed to the speed-up of glaciers in that region, too.
It's the cue for effusive guide Fridjon Thorleifsson to introduce the surrounding Columbia Icefield, a 77-square-mile web of six silvery tentacles between Jasper and Banff, and the largest ice cap south of the Arctic Circle.