Arctic sea ice loss linked to personal CO2 emissions

Three square metres of Arctic summer sea ice disappears for every tonne of carbon dioxide a person emits, wherever they are on the planet, according to new UCL research. The rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice is one of the most direct indicators of the ongoing climate change on Earth. The newly discovered linear relationship helps us understand our personal contribution to global climate change for the first time and highlights the importance of lowering emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Over the past forty years, the ice cover in summer has shrunk by more than half, with climate models conservatively predicting that the remaining half could disappear by the middle of the century unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced rapidly. 'So far, climate change has often felt like a rather abstract notion. Our results allow us to overcome this perception. For example, it is now straight-forward to calculate that the carbon dioxide emissions for each seat on a return flight from London to San Francisco causes about 5m² of Arctic sea ice to disappear,' said study co-author Professor Julienne Stroeve, UCL Earth Sciences and the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado.