3.1 Sea Ice Volume will become the most significant Arctic statistic for the remainder of this decade. It's wafer thin now (compared to a decade or two ago) but will still maintain enough integrity to keep Extent and Area somewhere in the range of the last 3 seasons. As Volume continues to decline however, Extent and Area will drop dramatically - but not for another 2 or 3 years.

Arcticio, you read my mind. What point is there to all this focus on extent? The modelling that needs to be perfected is Sea Ice Volume. If PIOMAS is correct, minimum volume is 80% less than 1979, and nearly half what it was in 2007. A paper-thin 'extent' of ice will be irrelevant if there's no volume to back it up. These genii need to focus on where the real issue lies - not area, not extent, but volume.