The Oil Drum: The Polar Ice Cap Fails to Re-form

Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted.

I wanted to check out the data for myself (not trusting the spin of headline writers), and I found the absolutely incredible website The Cryosphere Today at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They already made all the graphs I needed, and have animated GIFS of the icecaps to boot. For example, this picture seems to address what the Independent is talking about, but I’m inclined to say that while the situation is clearly bad and getting worse, the Independent’s spin is a little overdone.
much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.