But in the Arctic, the December sea ice continues its decline.

For those of you who have difficulty in grasping the difference between “weather” and “climate”, perhaps I can put it in a way that even you can understand: Just because one has achieved a budget surplus in any given year doesn’t mean the National Debt has suddenly disappeared.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2018/01/Figure3-1-350×270.png

If you would like a bit more insight into the planet’s overall long-term energy budget, consider this

The http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ webpage has a more detailed look at the following graphic

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2018/01/Figure5b-2-350×192.png