Does anyone know of any resources explaining Arctic ocean currents and how they might change as a result of the disappearing ice cap? I'm no scientist, but the bifurcation of the ice this year seems to be a potentially very important event.

Boa05att, I'm similarly perplexed. When I say that the Arctic could be ice-free in just a few months, people who don't closely follow the region give me a pitied look, as if I've succumbed to some kind of hysteria. But the most sensible projections for an ice-free Arctic (at least seasonally) are no more than three or four years away. What's worse, these sensible projections are nearly-invariably undercut by the hard data coming in every year. When one compares the grim models with the even-grimmer data, then compares THOSE with broad theoretical explanations of the accelerating trend (e.g., albedo or methane release feedbacks), it seems entirely reasonable to say that the Arctic ice cap could melt entirely as soon as this year. I believe this: the Arctic will be ice-free sometime before October of this year. I defy anyone to tell me this is impossible or even unreasonable given the state of the ice, its trajectory, and the theorized causes of its accelerating demise. Someone in another thread (I believe it was crandles) asked why we weren't focusing on what we would do in the event of a complete ice collapse in the Arctic. I don't understand why there hasn't been a chorus of affirmations to this sentiment.