The global sea ice anomaly is shocking. Normally I would run to show it to anyone I know. My only problem with it is that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice behave differently and represent different things. Arctic sea ice is a proxy for global warming and arctic amplification, while the Antarctic behaves more randomly and is lost mostly by El Nino, and is actually predicted to gain by global warming due to increased meltwater discharge from Antarctic glaciers. So bunching them together is not so much good science in my opinion, and was mostly done by deniers claiming there was no problem with sea ice while ignoring the fundamentals.

Not intending to criticize, as this chart is very interesting, just reminding folks about the meaning of it.



the global sea ice represents very well the state of the global climate, in the long run a warmer climate will lead to less to zero ice ( around the year ) and a cooler climate will lead to an ice age with a third of the planet covered by ice. in this context it think that global sea-ice is indeed the right long-term indicator when it comes to the state of the planet and the differences you mentioned are more of a different way how that shows short term.the reason why i predicted for years that there will be a mid-long-term turnaround in the antarctic as well is simply due to the fact that if the planet will be 5C warmer there will be no more sea ice in summer on both sides and once the land ice masses will be heavily reduced, also on both ends, even though that may take centuries if not millenia to get down to zero or close to zero as it has been in the past and who knows what kind of events will happen in the mean time.i say global sea-ice VOLUME is the ultimate way to measure what's happening long term, short term outliers to both sides on both ends are hype and have to be interpreted with care.again this is more as an add on to your post because as i know form many of your posts i agree to your general way to see things and very much appreciate your well founded contributions :-)cheers