that Indepdent article you linked to says that :Ironically, the famously impassable Northwest Passage – which claimed the lives of numerous explorers trying to find a new trade route to China – is now so free of ice that people can take a cruise through it on a ship powered by the fossil fuels that help cause global warming." look here http://oceancruisingclub.org/newsitem/478/Northwest-Passage-remains-icebound-in-2018 Look at the sea ice here http://polarportal.dk/en/sea-ice-and-icebergs/sea-ice-thickness-and-volume/ you can see that there is more ice now than has been the case in the last 4 years. only 2014 had more ice.
Anyway, the sun is going silent, and that means we'll be getting colder. Maybe we need more CO2?