Data this week shows the rate of melt slowing but the ice still losing 40,000 sq km a day. Cryologists [ice experts] talk of it possibly dropping below 3m sq km for the first time in possibly tens of thousands of years. If so, it would be a whopping 25% below the 2007 record minimum extent and something that few ice experts ever thought could happen in their lifetimes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/06/history-sea-greenpeace-arctic-sunrise
John Vidal http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnvidal