Here is a depressing article in Japanese: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/eco/news/20130404-OYT1T00916.htm
The headline means roughly: North pole ice pack continues to shrink; loss this year about as large as the land area of the Japanese archipelago My summary (not an exact translation): NASA has been monitoring the size of the polar ice pack for 35 years. The size of the ice pack increases during the winter months. This year the total size was the fifth smallest on record. This year's cold weather was the shortest on record. The total area of the icepack continues to decrease. The area of the reduced size of the icepack is roughly 15 million square kilometers. It has decreased by 370,000 square kilometers which is close to the total land area of Japan. The decline in ice pack size has rapidly increased since 2004. NASA says this is being caused by global warming. - Jed
