Semantics aside, there are real costs that are starting to accumulate. We are already seeing the harbinger of the Great Cull, 6000 boat people denied landing in the South China Sea. Some of them are from Bangladesh, one of the first countries that will experience the effect of sea-level rise. The Pacific Islands are a drop in the ocean (pun intended) compared to the 157 million people living at an average of 10m above sea level. When the Ganges Delta goes there will be an awful lot of people in boats looking for somewhere to run. That will impact on us all, wherever we are, but by that time it will be too late to regret how we allowed ourselves to frogmarched into oblivion by a few short-sighted people whose only interest was to protect their assets. Drilling in the Arctic is another instance of that behaviour and Bill McKibben is right to call Obama out on this.

The butterflies are already on the move! http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/11/continental-swallowtail-breeding-in-uk-for-first-time Great article, when do we get the second part?

Here in the Canary Islands, (28.8 N 16.1 W), we've got a loop of the jet stream sitting over us for the last two days and only likely to move on Friday. It's brought more than the annual rainfall in one day and wind gusts of 70 - 100 km/hr. Stripped the leaves of our trees and broken lots of palm fronds. We're battened down for another day as I type this!

It's interesting to note that there is another indicator apparently "flatlining": global mean temperature over Land and Sea for the last 10 to 15 years or so. Nonetheless, the signal at Mauna Loa continues to rise and the slope of monthly ice extent anomaly is inexorably negative so whatever is going on will one day, I'm sure, come back to bite us in the bum! The Arctic pole re-freezing? Not for much longer if the data is to be believed.

To give further context to the size of Big Berg, it's bigger than the island of Tenerife, (2034 km2, pop. +- 1 million) part of the Canaries archipelago, where I live. That's a large lump of ice.

Aaron Lewis: "I think the data flow and flood of ideas through this blog rivals the best academic venues." I'll echo that: A-teams' post is a good example. Baie dankie Neven.

Karl, I suspect you are trolling. If I am wrong, then I suggest you go to a forum such as RealClimate to look at the factual information on AGW which is freely available. This forum is about Arctic Sea Ice and the thread is about models. Let us not get diverted into defending AGW.

Baie dankie, Neven. It's been a great ride. And perhaps the greatest compliment to you has been the outstanding level of comment that you have attracted. De Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Thank you once again.

This should interest you Neven. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/29/british-north-west-passage-ship "British north-west passage ship found in Canada HMS Investigator was abandoned in 1853 trying to find earlier mission searching for north-west passage across North America."