2013 had the sixth lowest ice cover of the last 30 years--all six of which have occurred in the last 7 years. It followed the lowest summer ice cover of all time, last year. So now the denialists are gleefully latching on to this blip, using the most obvious cherry-picking which you dutifully quote because its so persuasive in isolation from other statistics; crowing that the end of the melt is now. A melt, BTW, which up to now the denialists had been steadfastly refusing to admit was even happening.

Wake up, Steve, don't base your scientific judgements on your political superstitions. Albedo, convection and radiative transfer don't give a shit about markets, free or otherwise.

Besides, weren't carbon taxes originally proposed by conservative think tanks? The idea was to bring "free market forces" to greenhouse gas control, to "provide economic incentives" to environmental policy, and to encourage a "robust trade in carbon tax credits". It seems to me the Right didn't abandon carbon taxes until the Left started showing an interest in them. Or maybe it was because they realized they were not going to make any easy money by gaming them.

I posted the data, and links to where you can see for yourself. Don't look at one year, consider the overall trends. They are, if not perfectly clear, then highly compelling; it's common sense. For Chrissake, look at the linear regression!

“Common sense” is reality trying to override that part of your brain that has all kinds of ideas on why reality isn’t important.