It's Melting! It's Melting!

The dream of so many for so long: the Northwest Passage is open for the first time in human history. Money quote:

According to Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Centre, the ice-covered area (light green in this image) is currently around 3 million sq km, which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minimum levels recorded in 2005/6. Over the last ten years the sea ice coverage has shrunk by around 100,000 sq km per year, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is an enormous change.

You can say that again. Can we please have a serious gas tax while there's still ice at the North Pole?