Doyle Rice

USA TODAY

Think you aren't personally responsible for climate change? Think again.

The average American causes about 600 square feet of Arctic sea ice to vanish each year, according to a study released Thursday, and something as simple as your summer road trip may be to blame.

The study, the first to provide this level of detail about the link between carbon pollution and Arctic ice, shows how human carbon emissions are playing a devastating role.

The study found that summer Arctic sea ice will be gone in 30 years — and that means more volatile weather patterns — unless carbon emissions are reduced rapidly.

Sea ice is frozen ocean water that melts each summer, then refreezes each winter. Its summertime area has been shrinking each year by nearly 34,000 square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The study, which combined observations, statistics and dozens of computer models, appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

A lack of Arctic sea has been linked to the ongoing drought in California and some of the recent massive snowstorms along the East Coast, said study lead author Dirk Notz of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany.

Many animal species in the Arctic heavily depend on sea ice, and it's likely they will struggle to survive with an ice-free Arctic during the summer, Notz said. For example, polar bears, who spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, could be at risk.

For each ton of carbon dioxide that a person emits anywhere on Earth, 32 square feet of Arctic summer sea ice disappears, Notz said. That's equal to one round-trip flight from New York to Europe, or a 2,500-mile car ride.

Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for man-made climate change, is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal.

It isn't necessarily all bad news for commercial interests: Notz said that from a purely economic perspective, an ice-free Arctic raises prospects of increased shipping and extraction of oil or gas.

As Arctic ice melts, full steam ahead for shipping?

The average American emits about 20 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which translates into about 600 square feet of Arctic summer sea ice melting away, the study said.

The rapid retreat of sea ice is one of the most direct signs of ongoing climate change on our planet, according to the study, Over the past 40 years, the Arctic’s summer ice cover has shrunk by more than half.

"The article confirms some of my worst fears," said Penn State meteorologist Michael Mann, who was not involved in the study.

He said the study shows that the model simulations typically relied upon to predict climate change impacts like sea ice loss "have indeed erred on the side of being overly conservative."

As for the future of Arctic sea ice, the study said the international target of 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, as spelled out in the Paris Agreement on climate change that goes into effect Friday, will not be sufficient to allow Arctic summer sea ice to survive.