You presume it's driven by politics.
You're making the assumption that Gore is driven by political considerations more than science. I doubt that. All the media cares about is eyeballs. Anything it can sensationalize it will.
But if Arctic sea ice were increasing while Antarctic sea ice were decreasing it would be probably an indication that global warming wasn't happening. Depending on the reasons for Antarctic sea ice reduction I doubt Gore and others would be making a big deal of it. Trying to make the current increase in Antarctic sea ice a big deal is kind of misleading because it doesn't counter that global warming is happening.
