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.
