"The Polar Ice Caps are Melting" story comes out every few months. Some expedition goes out and measures the sea ice at some location they already have data from 5, 10 years ago for example and surprise, they announce with much fanfare, that the ice is 20% thinner than it was when they last measured it.
(Sometimes these guys are just kooks by the way. One highly noted study comes from a zoology professor who was working on a cruise ship lol.)
Anyway, here is a link to the latest animation from NASA's ICESat satellite of the North Pole sea ice (the best you will see) 1979 to 2004.
The polar ice moves back and forth so much and moves so much with the seasons that only a long-long-long-term satellite study with radar measurements can tell you anything at all.
If you can tell Siberia's polar ice is melting, let me know.
http://www.nasa.gov/mpeg/103496main_sea_ice2004_320x240.mpeg
Great link, but you see lately it has receded. Here is a little anecdote. My brother has been doing bird tours in Barrow, Nome and St. Lawrence Island for about 20 years, in June. He hasn't seen any ice for about 10 years, and it was all ice before then.