Are we overdue for an Ice Age and can it happen any time soon?
We are technically still in an Ice Age, but a warm interglacial phase of an Ice Age, with the last cold glacial stage ending around 10,000 years ago. The glacial / interglacial cycles we have been in over the past 2.5 million years are closely correlated with regular changes in Earths orbit around the Sun in 40,000 and 100,000 year periods. Theoretically, we should be due to go into another full glacial period within the next 20-30,000 years. However, our present climate has recently become influenced by extra forcings from Human activities, such as aerosol particles from pollution, CO2 and soot from burning of fossil fuels, and deforestation and agriculture that have a great effect on the Earths ability to reflect and absorb the Suns heat. Many scientists believe that these on-going changes may cause the Earth to break out of it’s current ice age. Ultimately, even if we do leave the current ice age, the Earth will almost certainly go back into ice age mode in the very far future.
No, we’re actually far under due for an ice age Basically, water and air molecules are moved around by the spin of the earth and gravity from the moon and the sun (of which we also get a level of heat from)…e.g. tides etc All of those things give us the weather we have now. To change this, the earth needs to move off angle or off circular course around the sun. Every so many millenia, the earth alters course by some means (somethign to do with a fractionally eliptical course we’re already travelling on round the sun) Though, by either destroying the Ozone layer, or making it thicker, you alter the amount of heat getting in/out and thus the likely hood is, we’ll have both extreme heat waves and extreme winters before the natural time – Though we expect we’ll pump CO2 for another 50 years before we see any real emergance.
