He made it a point to say it is not necessarily related to global warming, that these calvings occur periodically due to normal pressure from the continental glacier pushing out on the floating shelf, and they have been a feature of this coast for as long as man has been exploring here.

He did mention that if the shelf breaks loose and floats away, it will allow the glacier to flow "quickly" into the sea, and a great deal of ice may be dumped into the sea in a relatively short time where it could melt and contribute to sea level rise. This ice loss would occur much faster than without the calving, but it isn't really accurate to say it was caused by global warming.

In the event that occurs, AGW effects would occur, but he made it a point to stress that the calving itself is NOT caused by the ice melting rapidly due to global warming. Its also why I didn't bring it up when I heard about it. For example, I've noticed when a group of several climate authorities make predictions about the state of the climate or weather, it is always the most extreme one that is gleefully quoted and debunked later by the denialists. The more cautious and reasonable ones are deliberately ignored, especially if they turn out to be right on target.

I felt the need to bring this up because denialists comb meticulously through press releases like this in order to "prove" how the media sensationalizes these events and deliberately misinterprets them for their own nefarious reasons. They are desperate to discredit all reporting on AGW issues and deflect public concern, and they have gotten quite clever at it. You have to be super-conservative and ultra careful when reporting on these issues, because as you know, the rules of evidence are much more strict on real facts than they are with alternate ones.