So while the Arctic has been steadily declining over the past few decades, the Antarctic has grown. This year, it reached an all time high during the satellite era while the Arctic came in at 6th lowest. Now I know what the first response of "true believers" will be…something like "but what about the VOLUME??" well according to the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany: "Even if there are no large area long-term measurements of sea ice thickness in the Antarctic, we conclude from various studies that the total volume of the Antarctic sea ice has grown over the last years." So there you have it…while the Arctic declines, the Antarctic has gotten fuller. I suspect this trend is going to reverse in both cases. I think the Antarctic will start shrinking while the Arctic begins to recover.
