Is it true that there are only around 81 years to save Earth before it is too late because the ice caps will be too melted?

This is a thought-provoking question. I would say the time to save our homes is NOW.

Regarding how much time we have, scientists cannot say with confidence how much time we have left to save our Earth. Because different scenarios depend on factors like how much greenhouse gas we are emitting and continue to be emitting, how the natural world is responding to the changes in climate, what are we doing to control our emissions etc. But scientists say that if we don’t want to suffer from extreme weather events, we should limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030. It is good thing that world leaders gathered in Paris, back in December 2015, and decided that all countries should aim to limit global warming well below 2°C and if possible 1.5°C - the Paris Agreement. Now, our job is to ask our countries' leaders what they are doing to keep their promise and achieve this goal and help them to achieve it by following their guidelines.

Regarding the melting of ice caps, it is important to keep in mind that it is one of the downsides of global warming but not the only contributor to global warming. The melting of ice caps can also increase the warming further by reducing Earth capacity to send back some of the energy coming from Sun into the space – scientists called this albedo effect (reflectivity of the Earth’s surface).

You would be happy to know that the scientists who studies sea level changes in past – paleo climate change, says that the Antarctic ice cap has survived much warmer times than current warming and it covers an area of about 14 million square kilometers, which is almost twice the size of Australia, and with an average thickness of about 2 kilometers. This is a huge amount of ice alone in Antarctica. So, it will take more than 81 years to completely melt all the ice caps in the world.

BUT the real concern is that ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland are melting at a much faster rate than they were in 1990s. And we are starting to see some extreme events, as you probably know, currently sea ice around Antarctica is not freezing as it should this winter. This kind of event is likely to happen if we don’t do anything now.