In today's Guardian, Al Gore is quoted as saying:
Gore says he has also detected a shift in the view of many business leaders. "They're seeing the writing on every wall they look at. They're seeing the complete disappearance of the polar ice caps right before their eyes in just a few years" .
He also acknowledged something important about his scientific limitations :
Responding to James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory, who said the European trading system for carbon was "disastrous", Gore says: "James Lovelock has forgotten more about science than I will ever learn. "
Al Gore ice caps gone in 5 years
© unknownAl’s high five on ice caps (gone in five years)

Given that sea ice area at the poles is right at the 30 year mean (red line below,) one might conclude that Gore's first comment is baseless and that his second comment about his own limited learning potential, is correct.
Global Daily Ice Area
© University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Polar Research Group

Dr. Vicki Pope at the UK Met Office warned about this on February 11, 2009 in an article titled "Stop Misleading Climate Claims"
Recent headlines have proclaimed that Arctic summer sea ice has decreased so much in the past few years that it has reached a tipping point and will disappear very quickly. The truth is that there is little evidence to support this. Indeed, the record-breaking losses in the past couple of years could easily be due to natural fluctuations in the weather, with summer sea ice increasing again over the next few years.
The Guardian published Dr. Pope's article, but it seems that less than five weeks later they have forgotten her warning.

If the current trend continues, we can expect to have sea ice at the poles for a very long time. When George Will brought this subject up, he was severely criticized because polar ice on that day was below the mean by about 1%. But apparently it is OK with the press for Gore to be off the mark by 100%. It seems that there is zero accountability or accuracy required for alarmists.

BTW - Before anyone starts claiming that the steadiness of the UIUC global sea ice anomaly graph above is irrelevant or coincidental, they might want to pause for a minute and think through if that position is scientifically tenable - or even vaguely rational.