The National Snow and Ice Data Center at the Iniversity of Colorado in Bolder pubilished this shocking press release:

Arctic sea ice cover melted to its lowest extent in the satellite record yesterday, breaking the previous record low observed in 2007. Sea ice extent fell to 4.10 million square kilometers (1.58 million square miles) on August 26, 2012. This was 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) below the September 18, 2007 daily extent of 4.17 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles).

http://nsidc.org/news/press/20120827_2012extentbreaks2007record.html