If I click my link above I don't end up seeing the comment I'm linking to. I end up on the final page of comments on the thread instead.

Thanks for all the clarifications Wayne. My remark was slightly tongue in cheek, given all the flak I took for insisting I could see open water on the Barrow webcam back on March 20th! P.S. It seems Typepad's self references are still not working properly :(

Espen - Surely extent/area is still extremely important when it comes to calculating things such as "albedo feedback"?

Wayne/Sam/Ghoti - A most interesting discussion on "pressure ridges" versus "a sign of great warming of the ice"! How might one easily and "scientifically" differentiate between two apparently different interpretations of exactly the same, albeit remote, images?

Another excellent video Andy! I've taken the liberty of including it in my latest blog article, which I hope is OK with you? http://econnexus.org/abrupt-climate-change-in-the-arctic-why-should-we-care/ Amongst other things I was idly wondering if you've started working on something similar for the Greenland Ice Sheet yet?

The Beaufort sea ice is cracking at the seams yet again: http://econnexus.org/beaufort-sea-ice-cracks-once-more/ What's your perception? Will it refreeze yet again, or has this season's melt already started in earnest?

I note Rob has linked to one of my own blog posts on recent events in the Far North. Perhaps I should restate my own views on "geo-engineering"? To be brief, I figure both economists and geo-engineers don't have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell of successfully controlling a complex system that includes long time delays. As Rob perhaps implies, if you can't even model what's actually going on in the real world, how can you possibly expect to be able to control it?

IARC-JAXA extent is now down to 13,252,656 km2. The lowest for April 16th since 2007, which was 12,970,313 km2.

Prof. Harriet Bulkeley says "If we think that climate change needs to be addressed in the city, we probably need to think a bit harder about the progressive element of how we respond to climate change. How can we ensure that it has those environmental and social justice benefits?" http://youtu.be/WWG4MgQIuBw

I've had an interesting few days exploring this topic from a number of different angles. At TEDxExeter on Friday my own slant on their "Living the Questions" theme was to ask people both face to face and virtually "Are you worried about the #Arctic #SeaIce?". This was obviously a highly self-selecting audience, but the answer was overwhelmingly YES!, with a wide range of "knowledge about the problem". As my most recent "tweet" suggests, I went up to London to attend the "Smart Grid GB" conference yesterday. From my perspective the omens were not good concerning whether the EU and UK regulators, standards writers and electricity industry would deliver a "free market led" low carbon economy any time soon. However whilst there I also put my "sea-ice" question to Prof. Harriet Bulkeley, who answered YES! also. She was there trying to persuade the assembled throng that "People are not consumers!" Apparently she's also been doing some research that will be published shortly which reveals that a fair few people (although unfortunately not a majority) say they are willing to change their behaviour "for the right reasons" and not just "for the money".

@Paul - "Some community projects.... would be a great way to get organized and have some goals and direction" How about The Distributed Arctic Sea Ice Model?

Steve - Arrrrh Jim lad? If you've "got Neven's back" then I still wonder why you jointly give The Mail the O2 of publicity on an ASI authority site without accompanying it with a much stronger denunciation than merely "sensationalist". I'd love to hear any news you may receive about Julia's "climate change task force". You're quietly confident there won't be any "geo-engineers" on it? Wayne - I'm sure you're right. However there was at least a brief respite from the cold and damp in London last night. I unexpectedly found myself dancing to a reggae beat at Admiral Nelson's feet to celebrate!

Hopefully on topic - What has Nature ever done for us? Tony Juniper at TEDxExeter 2012: http://tedxexeter.com/2012/05/21/tony-juniper-video/

It seems we're not entirely alone Werther: My #TEDxExeter question to an English stranger is: Are you worried about the #Arctic #SeaIce?— Jim Hunt (@jim_hunt) April 13, 2013

Hi Neven, I wondered if you and your readers might be interested in reading the latest news from the sharp end here in soggy South West England, just down the road from the Hadley Centre? I'd also like to point out that the denialistas are a well organised "guerilla army of the rich". I humbly suggest to you and Steve that if you do choose to wander into their minefields, you do so forewarned and forearmed. Anyone want to join The Pirates?

Following a long day at TEDxExeter, I'd just like to point out that I beat the Mail to the punch on the Julia Slingo story: http://econnexus.org/met-office-admit-our-climate-is-being-disrupted-by-the-warming-of-the-arctic/ and here's how the Mail Online goes about manipulating constructive climate change comments: http://econnexus.org/the-strange-tale-of-the-mail-and-the-snow-dragon/

Hi Paul, It does indeed look at first sight like a major U-turn. Whether it constitutes "a collective wake-up" remains to be seen. Has anyone noticed similar revelations anywhere else around the planet recently? I also wonder which scientists are on Julia's short list, particularly given today's tragic news about Katharine Giles.

NASA Discovers Massive Phytoplankton Bloom Under Arctic Sea Ice: http://youtu.be/bUfZ0ubKprU The commentary mentions "carbon dioxide", but not Wayne's point about "albedo"

More bad news re the science of Arctic sea ice: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22090284 Dr Katharine Giles, a lecturer at University College London (UCL), was on her way to work when she collided with a tipper truck near Victoria Street. She had travelled to the Arctic and the Antarctic to study the sea ice. Dr Giles had a "bright future" and was "ready to provide the next generation of leadership" in the field, UCL said. She was the second cyclist to be killed in the capital this year. A statement from the head of the earth sciences department, Prof Phil Meredith, said: "Coming so soon after the accidental death of Katharine's own closest colleague, Seymour Laxon, we are all left with a sense of the outrageous unfairness with which some of our best colleagues have been taken from us.

Here's the first video in Stefan Rahmstorf's lecture series on climate change. This one is "The Basics of Global Warming" http://youtu.be/i5Jv293oPzQ P.S. I can't work out how to embed it in a comment. Is there a way?

PS - My most recent comment is currently invisible, and John and Noiv's were invisible to me when I wrote it. If I'd seen theirs I would have phrased mine slightly differently!

Wanderer - Interesting indeed! Spring has sprung in the Arctic. The "Goat's head" is in plain view. "A-Team" and Neven are however conspicuous only by their absence!

John C, It looks like you're in with an excellent chance of providing the first correct answer to my All Fools' Quiz! http://econnexus.org/the-economist-being-economical-with-the-truth-about-climate-change/

Does anyone fancy a little festive fun, lovingly prepared by yours truly, especially for All Fools' Day? http://econnexus.org/the-economist-being-economical-with-the-truth-about-climate-change/

I'm a Kilgore Trout fan Steve! So it goes?