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An iceberg topples, then rolls, as warming water melts the bottom of the ice.

Its broken off from the Wahlenbergbreen glacier in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

This is fewer than a thousand miles from the North Pole and the ice is turning to slush rapidly - something Kim Holmen from the Norwegian Polar Institute knows all too well.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE NORWEGIAN POLAR INSTITUTE, KIM HOLM�N, SAYING:

"The temperature of Svalbard has gone up, the air temperature has risen by almost 10 degrees across the last thirty years, the ocean is warmer. We are losing the Svalbard we know. We are losing the arctic as we know it because of climate change. This is a forewarning of all the hardship and problems that will spread around the planet."

Svalbard's main town, Longyearbyen, is the most northernmost on earth.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS REPORTER ALEX FRASER SAYING:

"But This is the fastest heating town on the planet, average winter air temperatures have gone up 10 degrees Celsius in the last thirty years."

At the church, summer vicar Ivar Smedsrod, knows it's quite literally a matter of life - and death.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERIM VICAR - SVALBARD CHURCH, IVAR SMEDSR�D, SAYING:

"As the permafrost thaws things that are in the ground tend to be pulled up, so we might see that the graves literally come up, the coffins. The next thing that we could see is that they might all be covered in the next big landslide coming down the hill, as they just escaped one by a couple of feet."

Thawing permafrost and unpredictable weather is a constant threat for the residents of Longyearben, they have witnessed a recent increase in what they see as 'unnatural' disasters.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) STUDENT AND LONGYEARBYEN RESIDENT, ERIK HOLMUND, SAYING:

"In December of 2015, a man and a child died. There was a whole apartment complex that was caught in an avalanche."

Others have had to move their homes because of the threat of erosion. Three years ago, 13 meters of coastline fell away overnight, leaving Christiane H�bner's cabin perilously close to the fjord. Her family had to relocate 80 meters from the shore.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LONGYEARBYEN RESIDENT, CHRISTIANE H�BNER, SAYING:

"It was a wake-up call since it happened very quickly so we had one day basically where 13 meters just disappeared and things are happening very fast when they happen. We had the means, we had the money, we had the time to move the cabin without losing anything but others don't."

A report released in February by the Norwegian Center for Climate Services warned that the average air temperature is expected to increase by up to a further 10C by the end of the century.

Dog sledder Audun Salte worries that as temperatures rise, climate change could lead to the extinction of all life on Earth.

Although his biggest concern is the lives of his 110 huskies.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF SVALBARD HUSKY, AUDUN SALTE, SAYING:

"It's not about saving the Arctic, it is about saving us. It is about saving the animals. Because If climate change should be the end of humanity I really don't care but if climate change is the end of any animal species who hasn't contributed anything towards the speeding up of this process that's why I am reacting."

Increasing numbers of tourists are visiting the town - eager to witness climate change close up - Salte compares the situation to a road accident that we can't help staring at.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF SVALBARD HUSKY, AUDUN SALTE, SAYING:

"On the highway when people slow down to look at a car crash, the whole climate change is like that because everyone is slowing down to look at the accident but not realizing that we are actually the car crash."