Arctic Ice Growth, 2008 - How Much? « Watts Up With That?

Looking at the NSIDC map below, several things are apparent.
Firstly, the widely publicised news stories predicting a possible “ice free Arctic,” an “ice free North Pole,” and a record low extent aren’t likely to happen. (See this WUWT post with a quote from Dr. Meier) The North Pole is nearly as far away from ice free water as in any other year. In order to get to ice free water from the pole, one would have to travel over 500 miles of ice to near Svalbard. Lewis Pugh’s kayak trip, as reported by the BBC August 30 - “Swimmer aims to kayak to N Pole” is going to be an impossible one. That critical error didn’t stop the BBC from highlighting it on the front page of their web site this weekend.