In 2007, the Arctic ice cap lost 1 million square miles of previously "perennial" ice. Now half the size it was 50 years ago, the Arctic ice cap is predicted to disappear, except for a thin sheet in winter, by 2013.

White Arctic ice reflects much of the sun's energy back into space. When it disappears, the sun's energy is absorbed more readily by the blue ocean waters, causing more rapid heating of the Earth and, in turn, melting of ice in the Arctic and around the world.

This vicious melting cycle, known as the ice-albedo feedback loop, is a result of the global warming that correlates with human-driven emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide. The peril to life on Earth is clear: Some scientists predict that loss of the Arctic ice cap will be irreversible and will greatly hasten global warming; if the Antarctic ice sheet also melts, scientists estimate that sea levels worldwide will rise by approximately 200 feet.

On July 17, the century-old Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow, was intentionally breached, destroying both the five-mile lake behind it and the ability of the attached hydroelectric project to produce electric energy without producing any carbon-dioxide emissions. Also a century old, the hydroelectric project produced, year in and year out, 1.5 megawatts of generation capacity, about 1/1000th of Maine's peak needs and 7 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

Now that the dam's been breached, its renewable energy production will be replaced mostly by coal, oil and natural-gas generation throughout New England, each with substantial emissions of carbon dioxide.

The interest groups that passionately advocated breaching Fort Halifax Dam argued the dam's output was tiny in relation to regional energy needs. The argument ignored that, with the exception of huge hydroelectric projects such as Dickey-Lincoln, which have been even more passionately opposed by similar groups, nearly all renewable energy projects -- the projects needed to mitigate global warming -- are tiny in comparison to the 500 to 800 megawatt thermal power plants that now replace the output of the Fort Halifax project.

Indeed, in renewable energy there are no silver bullets, only silver BBs, and we need to keep all we have. For example, a wind turbine produces about the same capacity and only half the energy of the Fort Halifax dam, but few would argue that we should not erect wind turbines because they are tiny in comparison to thermal power plants. The same is true for tidal energy, solar power, conservation and the other "tiny" components of a desperately needed energy policy that can reduce our production of carbon dioxide.

If the melting of Arctic ice and the breaching of the Fort Halifax dam were coincidences, each still would be regrettable. But these events are causative rather than coincidental and therefore together constitute a human tragedy far exceeding Shakespearian imagination.

The Fort Halifax Dam was breached intentionally by an owner which, with continued high energy prices, could well afford to install the fish lift necessary to satisfy the original regulatory concerns. The breaching had the consent of state and federal regulators who, under pressure from interest groups, chose to ignore the hypocrisy of allowing destruction of a renewable energy source while decrying global warming.

In a final irony, the dam owner immediately upstream of Fort Halifax informed federal regulators weeks ago that it would accept transfer of the dam and its license and install the required fish lift, allowing both fish and renewable energy to be saved. That offer was rejected by federal regulators and the dam was breached, effectively ending any possibility of its use for power generation.

This all occurred despite the heroic efforts of Save Our Sebasticook, a Winslow-based non-profit formed in 2001 by more than 20 local citizens to save the dam and the lake behind it. SOS and its members, including retired engineers, librarians, soils experts, biologists, attorneys and citizens with other, comparable expertise on the effects of dam breach, supplied volumes of pertinent information to state and federal regulators warning of the consequences of loss of the dam, and raised funds to pay attorneys' and other costs.

I am privileged to have represented SOS in all but the beginning phases of its efforts. I have never witnessed such an extraordinary combination of expertise, passion and effort by a citizen group. Unfortunately, the state Department of Environmental Protection gave little weight to the information supplied by SOS and even chose to deny SOS a full public hearing on its information, concluding that destruction of the five-mile lake and loss of renewable energy did not involve issues of sufficient public interest. Federal regulators were less dismissive but nevertheless missed an historic opportunity to integrate global warming mitigation and energy policy.

It is my hope that it is not too late for humankind to learn the lessons necessary to avoid the extreme harms of global warming. From this experience, we might learn that our energy and environmental policies are frequently schizophrenic and mutually defeating.

We might learn that any political deal, in this case the Kennebec Hydro Developers Agreement, will likely have unintended, negative consequences -- in this case, the unnecessary removal of Fort Halifax Dam.

We might learn that the role of permanent interest groups in our government is generally negative no matter what color hat they say they wear when they urge that decisions not be based on either science or right principles.

We might learn that in matters of this importance, some will believe that character assassination of their opponents is fully justified when, in reality, the solutions necessary to mitigate global warming require that we bridge, rather than create, divisions.

I wrote this on July 17 at 3:30 p.m. The temperature outside my office was 85 degrees. It is less than five years, or so, to the disappearance of the Arctic ice sheet and the creation of a very different world.

Anthony Buxton is an energy attorney with Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios LLP. He is a co-founder and board member of Maine Global Climate Change, LLC.