Was listening to a radio short a few days back where experts were commenting on the huge decrease of summer ice seen in polar regions and how if the present trend continues, summer ice will be gone completely within 10 years. 10 years seems a very short time to reverse such pronounced trend. Have we gone too far? Is the situation irrecoverable?

Ten years?! I heard 50. Even that was a small number.

Im afraid that we are too little too late. People have tried but money is money to some people, and they dont care what happens as long as they arent alive to see it happen. Ill look more into this, there are always new studies with new answers, I cant imagine all the ice will be melted in ten years. That is just too little time.

I think the 10 year estimate was in the specific context of summer ice (not the break up of the polar ice caps which I have heard 100 years estimates for). And, yes, it did seem a very short timespan - perhaps the scientist on the NPR was being a little over emphatic and zealous to get his point across.

I have heard and read previous estimates ranging from 2030 to 2100 as to when the summer ice will be gone.

Ten years is an incredibly small amount of time. I would have thought it would be more like fifty, as frank31 said.

I think we need to get to work and try and fix this big issue we have, and hopefully, we will be able to stop global warming before then.

Ten years? .... this has some good parts too ... if the ice melts there will be a new economical route for ships ... but there will be also conflicts between USA and Russia

Here is another story from today's news that suggests 10 years is not a bad estimate at all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7139797.stm

Ten years?! That is a very short time. The trend is irreversible, I'm afraid. People just don't want to spend the money to fix the planet. They don't care what happens. If they aren't alive to see it, then it doesn't matter to them. As far as I'm concerned, we are dooming our future generations.