Grist: First, the truth:
After a summer of seasonal melting, on Sept. 17, 2014, Arctic sea-ice extent* likely hit its minimum for the year. The official word is that it was measured at 5.02 million square kilometers (1.94 million square miles). This is the sixth-lowest minimum since satellite records began in 1979.
It also fits right in with the overall declining trend of Arctic sea ice:
As you can see, back in the late 70s there used to be about 7.5 million square kilometers when ice hit its...