Nigel Lawson and Alistair Campbell are utterly incomparable....
I think we can agree on that 
And please, stop the polar bear AGW sob story. Its pathetic. If you want to get serious about polar bears, lets stop hunting them first (400 killed every year), then we can have a serious conversation about their 'disappearing sea ice' problem.
I don't sob for the polar bears, I sob for the bare poles.
That picture is dramatic for the ice, not the bear (the bear just gives perspective).
ImranCanIf we just pretend there are no more polar bears, could we have a serious converstation about... ...
OUR disappearing sea ice?
Please note that the only reference to increasing ice that I've seen around here, talks about ice extent, not ice mass.
Latest figures (GRACE, last Fall) still show over 100 Billion tonnes/ yr. of mass loss each, from the Arctic, the Antarctic, and also Mountain Glaciers.
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2007GL032716.shtmlAbstract
Seasonal fast ice thickness at the island of Hopen (Barents Sea) was monitored over 40 years. Sea ice thickness variability as a climate indicator provides more quantitative information on the state of the ice cover than solely sea ice extent. Usually, starting to form just before December Hopen fast ice reaches maximum thickness in May (on average 0.99 m), before the ice starts to decay. Swell, currents, and winds interrupt the fast ice development at Hopen during several of the winters observed, leading to ice removal and new ice formation. Since 2000, no ice thicker than 1.0 m was observed. We find a trend in the ice thickness anomalies of −0.11 m per decade, coinciding with decreasing seasonal maximum ice thickness, and an increase in local surface air and water temperatures. This is consistent with the decreasing sea ice extent in the Barents Sea and the entire Arctic.
Received 19 November 2007; accepted 12 February 2008; published 20 March 2008.
Arctic sea ice in IPCC climate scenarios in view of the 2007 record low sea ice event
However it is not clear at this time (February 2008) to what extent the observed 2007 event will recover and possibly is not at all comparable to the simulated events in CCSM3, which mostly initiate a permanent step towards less ice.
April 7, 2008
Arctic sea ice extent at maximum below average, thin....
Arctic sea ice reached its yearly maximum extent during the second week of March, 2008. Maximum extent was slightly greater compared to recent years, but was still well below average.
Despite strong growth of new ice over the winter, sea ice is still in a general state of decline. The ice that grew over the past winter is relatively thin, first-year ice that is susceptible to melting away during the summer. Although natural variability in the atmospheric circulation could prevent the ice pack from breaking last year's summer record, a closer look at sea ice conditions indicates that the September 2008 minimum extent will almost certainly be well below average.
Conditions in context:
As Arctic sea ice extent shrank through the summer of 2007 to its record-setting minimum in September, the large open-water areas absorbed a great deal of the sun’s energy. Because the Arctic Ocean needed to lose this heat before sea ice could form, autumn freeze-up began rather slowly. Once freeze-up began, it proceeded very quickly.
As Figure 2 shows, maximum sea ice extent usually occurs during the first week of March. Ice extent then begins its seasonal decline as springtime warming takes hold. In 2008, the maximum extent occurred about a week later than normal, with the extent below average.
March 2008 monthly maximum extent was 780,000 square kilometers (301,000 square miles) greater than the past record low, set in March 2006, but 540,000 square kilometers (208,000 square miles) less than the 1979 to 2000 mean. Including 2008, the linear trend for March indicates that the Arctic is losing an average of 44,000 square kilometers (17,000 square miles) of ice per year in March. Although March 2008 extent is greater than in recent years, the setup looks right for another dramatic ice loss this summer
