
Scientist believes the summer ice cover at the north pole is about to disappear - vmateixeira
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/arctic-will-be-ice-free-in-summer-next-year
======
Rooster61
The thing that bothers me about the current situation is that this trend would
continue even if you wiped every trace of mankind from the earth. As is said
in the article, natural methane out-gassing will continue regardless of how we
curtail our emissions, not to mention CO2 out-gassing that also occurs through
volcanic and tectonic vectors.

To combat this problem, we will need a system to actively remove greenhouse
gasses from the atmosphere en mass (something that is very, very hard to do to
a magnitude that would actually affect climate change significantly).

------
calebm
I wish predictit.org (or a similar site) had a way to bet on this prediction,
because I would like to bet against it.

------
zengid
How far away are we from developing a scalable air filter for CO2? I found
this.. [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/531346/can-sucking-
co2-ou...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/531346/can-sucking-co2-out-of-
the-atmosphere-really-work/)

~~~
Rooster61
A long ways. Even building a solution big enough to match the yearly
production of CO2 would be a gargantuan feat of engineering. It takes a
prohibitively large amount of energy to capture and process that much gas.

------
skrowl
It seems like we've heard this before, haven't we?

------
tmaly
We can pass all the EPA regulations we want in the US, but if China and India
do nothing, it is a moot point.

~~~
setum
It's silly to blame China & India when US with quarter the population of
India, is and has been the biggest producer of green-house gases, with little
to no signs of improvement. US is the inventor of the concept of climate-
change denial. On the other hand India and China not just accept climate-
change and its impact on environment, but have shown willingness to take
positive steps.

~~~
Retric
China (22.7%) produces almost 50% more green houses gasses than the US
(15.6%).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhous...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions)

The per capita trend is even more troubling with US down ~20% from peak and
China on a very strong upward trend.

~~~
piva00
China is developing and it's impossible in the current economical scenario to
do that without ramping up emissions, the US, EU and other developed countries
had the luck to do that when we didn't knew (or didn't care) about this. It's
easier for a developed nation to curb their emissions, just look here to the
EU in general and even more to countries like Sweden or other Scandinavians,
France and even Germany doesn't look so bad compared to the US.

We can point fingers all we want to developing nations but they are only the
main contributors RIGHT NOW, historically the US and EU have much more to
blame. But blame alone right now will not solve anything.

~~~
Retric
China and the US could both easily afford to replace all coal production with
wind and solar. Public transit can make a huge different with cars.

So, it's more priority's vs need.

