Arctic sea ice coverage plunges to record low

Ars Technica has a good discussion article on the scary drop in Arctic sea ice cover. It is an interesting and thoughtful piece, and deserves reading; there are external factors at play here. However, this is the fact:

The obvious question on everyone's minds is where ice coverage will bottom out. The average from the first few decades of the satellite era is in the neighborhood of 7 million square kilometers, but this year is almost certain to see a bottom somewhere below 4 million. That's still a long way from an ice-free Arctic, but it's clear that we can't dismiss that scenario as being part of some distant, purely hypothetical future. A practically ice-free Arctic—one where shipping lanes consistently stay open for weeks—is likely to come even sooner.

Bets are off, and scenarios thought to be years away look around the corner. Time to pick up and re-read The World in 2050, and hope for the best