arctic 'tipping point' may not be reached, page-5

Interesting how many people on this forum who say things like 'However I don't swallow this AGW thing' still post articles that discuss the potential impacts of anthropogenic global warming.

The original post is an example. As the authors write in the first sentence of the paper they published in Science (subs req'd) that is discussed in the BBC article in the original post:

Global warming will probably cause the disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean during this century (1,2), and the ocean bordering North Greenland is expected to be the very last area to become ice-free in summer (2, 4).

CO2 is currently considerably higher than it was in the Holocene Thermal Maximum. The global temperature today is higher than it was then (the northern latitudes were warmer but not the entire globe).

If the full extent of arctic ice does not disappear quite as soon as some project it might, that is a good thing. The sea ice disappearing in summer is bad enough, let alone the rapid melting of land ice leading to rising sea levels.

This paper is an example of the work being done to flesh out the details of what might happen over coming decades because it's important to understand how and where the impacts will be felt so we can take steps to survive. It certainly doesn't mean AGW is not happening, nor that sea levels will not rise (probably sharply towards the end of this century), nor that there will be an ice free summer in the arctic sooner rather than later.