Study Links Human Actions To Specific Arctic Ice Melt (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes from a report via Science Magazine: Since at least the 1960s, the shrinkage of the ice cap over the Arctic Ocean has advanced in lockstep with the amount of greenhouse gases humans have sent into the atmosphere, according to a study published this week in Science. Every additional metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) puffed into the atmosphere appears to cost the Arctic another 3 square meters of summer sea ice -- a simple and direct observational link that has been sitting under scientists' noses. If current emission trends hold, the study suggests the Arctic will be ice free by 2045 -- far sooner than some climate models predict. The study suggests that those models are underestimating how warm the Arctic has already become and how fast that melting will proceed. And it gives the public and policymakers a concrete illustration of the consequences of burning fossil fuels. For instance, a U.S. family of four would claim nearly 200 square meters of sea ice, based on U.S. emissions in 2013. Over 3 decades, that family would be responsible for destroying more than an American football field's worth of ice.

Comments

Humans are a virus

[Anonymous Coward]

We're killing this planet and I don't know what to do about it. I think the human extinction movement is probably right. We're the only organisms on the planet that can't live in harmony with it (with the exception of maybe beavers).

I know I'm not going to have kids for this reason.

This story will be full of trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who denies that human activity is causing global warming is a troll. There's a ton of evidence to the point that it can't be reasonably disputed. Nonetheless, stories like this predictably fill with posts claiming that global warming isn't occurring. Anyone who denies the overwhelming facts is obviously a troll and should not be taken seriously. Please do not feed the trolls.

And yet again...

[hyades1]

GW denier trolls have thoroughly infested this page. The Koch Brothers must be paying well, these days.

Doomsday Cult

[knorthern knight]

Jehovah's Witnesses have done this, as have other cults...
1 predict the end of the world...
2 screw up badly on prediction...
3 revise date of end of world...
4 GOTO 1

Replace "end of world" with "end of Arctice icecap", and you get the idea...

Sunday 21 August 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/en...
'Next year or the year after, the Arctic will be free of ice'

Saturday 4 June 2016 http://www.independent.co.uk/e...
Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University predicts we could see 'an area of less than one million square kilometres for September of this year'

Monday 17 September 2012 https://www.theguardian.com/en...
One of the world's leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years.

Wednesday, 12 December 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/713... Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'

Rinse... lather... repeat.