Our thermodynamics lecturer (who also works with climate research and ice core drilling projects in Greenland) gave an example of a a geophysics experiment. We let out greenhouse gases and see what happens to the Arctic ice.
The colored lines are predictions for what would happen to the Arctic ice.
He then showed the data since 1990 (pink). Everyone laughed.
"So instead of disappearing in 2080, the Arctic sea ice might disappear before you've graduated."
The week after he calculated the energy that has been necessary to smelt the approx 8.25 * 10
14 kg of ice per year.
Latent heat of smelting: L = 334 kJ/kg
E = 8.25 * 10
14 kg * 334 kJ/kg = 2.8 * 10
17 kJ
For comparison our global annual energy consumption: 5.2 * 10
17 kJ