By the way, my personal opinion is that "exclusive economic zones" should never extend more than 200 miles. Beyond that everything is international. Carving up the world's oceans into national fiefdoms is a recipe for ecological disaster.
You can be snide about USA today if you like, but I gave you two other sources as well, and if you spent 5 minutes on the Internet you could easily find 50 more reputable sources that say the same thing.
As to the Arctic sea ice, the conclusion of scientists at the latest meeting of the American Geophysical Union this month is that summer sea ice will probably be completely gone by 2012. "My True Religion Is Kindness" -- The Dalai Lama
Regarding North Pole accessibility - it WAS heavily iced at the point in time when the submersion has occurred, and thus projections on what might happen by 2012 are completely irrelevant and cannot diminish the technical feat that has been accomplished.
Yes, I could spend 5 hours on the Internet and find the ultimate source of the words you've cited. It doesn't really matter if they were repeated in a cozillion other "sources" - it's nothing but a herd instinct in action.
