Thanks Paul,
You noticed I edited out the stuff about polar bears from that previous news article. While they garner a lot of attention (sometimes too much), I try to focus on the other important functions of the Arctic such as moderating global weather and facilitating the base of the oceanic food chain.
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Sea ice in the Arctic appears to have passed its minimum extent for 2008 without breaking last year's record.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7619770.stm"I think this summer has been more remarkable than last year, in fact, because last year we had really optimal conditions to melt a lot of ice," said Walt Meier, a research scientist at NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado.
"We had clear skies with the Sun blazing down, we had warm temperatures, and winds that pushed the ice edge northwards," he told BBC News.
"We didn't have any of this this year, and yet we still came within 10% of the record; so people might be tempted to call it a recovery, but I don't think that's a good term, we're still on a downwards trend towards ice-free Arctic summers."
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Well, just a day later....
The verdict came in, more or less.
Now we get to wait another year to see....
~
