
Loss of Arctic’s reflective sea ice could advance global warming by 25 years - hunglee2
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/research-highlight-loss-arctics-reflective-sea-ice-will-advance-global-warming-25-years
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mettamage
I have to say, I'm a bit surprised they figured this out so late as they did.

The reason for that is: as a layman I know that snow reflects sunlight.
Surely, climate researchers would have figured out that this is one of the
main factors that can change over time.

Ah well, I guess I was to optimistic. It's good to know that they found out
now.

~~~
akuchling
According to
[https://history.aip.org/climate/simple.htm](https://history.aip.org/climate/simple.htm),
a region of dark terrain or water getting warmer was first suggested in 1875
by James Croll. The linked paper (PDF at
[http://eisenman.ucsd.edu/papers/Pistone-Eisenman-
Ramanathan-...](http://eisenman.ucsd.edu/papers/Pistone-Eisenman-
Ramanathan-2019.pdf) ) is trying to quantitatively "estimate the additional
solar heating that would occur under the complete disappearance of Arctic sea
ice", in their own words, and compare this figure to a certain amount of
carbon emissions.

Their results are pretty worrying. Quoting again: "This heating of 0.71 W/m2
is approximately equivalent to the direct radiative effect of emitting one
trillion tons of CO2into the atmosphere (see calculation in Appendix A). As of
2016, an estimated 2.4 trillion tons of CO2 have been emitted since the
preindustrial period due to both fossil fuel combustion (1.54 trillion tons)
and land use changes (0.82 trillion tons), with an additional 40 billion tons
of CO2 per year emitted from these sources during 2007–2016 (Le Quéré et al.,
2018). Thus, the additional warming due to the complete loss of Arctic sea ice
would be equivalent to 25 years of global CO2 emissions at the current rate.
This implies that if the Arctic sea ice were to disappear much more rapidly
than in current climate model projections, it would drastically shorten the
time available to adapt to climate changes and the time for achieving carbon
neutrality."

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maelito
We need 1 tonne lifestyles

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harwoodleon
With Trump at the helm, this now seems inevitable.

I really wonder if this climate destruction is a form of warfare. It certainly
favours countries in higher latitudes.

~~~
adrianN
I don't like Trump either, but there is not a single nation on Earth that is
on track to reach the Paris goals. Blaming Trump is not helpful. I doubt that
Hillary would have been much better.

~~~
atoav
I am not trying to bash the conman here, but even if the hypothetical other
US-president would’ve chosen to just do _nothing_ and leave everything as it
was they would’ve done better than Trump.

Trump actively made things worse and I am not sure if relativizing things in
such an important area is a good thing.

Because the fire brigade that actively denies your country is on fire and
pumps gasoline into it just to show it to you _is objectively worse_ than the
one that clumsily falls over their own protective gear while spraying your
country with way too little water.

~~~
dijit
This tautology makes me sick. All I keep hearing is boring old tropes from the
leader of the US.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but we as a planet are guilty of doing
nothing. It’s not beholden on any single country to save the world.

Yes, trump pulling out of the Paris accords is quite frightening, but if the
US public didn’t have an appetite for convenience over longevity then we might
not have such an issue.

I know I’m guilty of being wasteful and not supporting renewable or carbon
neutral alternatives (I even complained that my energy prices are going up
much faster due to the push for renewables).

But that’s where it needs to start. Not blaming those at the top; trying to
inspire those down here who could be swayed to have a little less convenience
in their lives and to buy from companies that pledge to be carbon neutral.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I would suggest that trying to blame individual action is incorrect. This is a
collective action problem and all the standard solutions would work.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem)

E.g. people wouldn't get a choice to buy from non carbon neutral businesses if
legislation was put in place to ramp up a carbon fee. And they would all
benefit from this.

