Reaching the Arctic sea ice annual minimum

It looks like we've hit bottom for the year, and it's not exactly good news. Although we didn't break the record set in 2007 for Lowest Minimum Arctic Sea Ice Extent In Recorded Human History, we got close. This year's minimum, about 4.5 million square kilometers, is much nearer to last year's low than the long term average minimum: 6.75 million square kilometers.

Here's a news article, in the 'Local' section of the Seattle P-I, discussing the issue with some UW scientists: North Pole ever closer to having no ice. Ignatius Rigor says "It's hard to see how the ice might come back, unless we are able to curb the greenhouse gases." But even if we stopped emitting tomorrow, the greenhouse gases we've already put into the atmosphere have imparted a kind of 'chemical inertia' that will take Nature many human generations to be rid of.