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Forums - General Discussion - Are We Going Into An Ice Age?

Lafiel on 19 April 2013
Slimebeast said:
Lafiel said:
Augen said:

As a professional in the field, how much does the percentage of carbon in our atmoshpere affect such things?

In the past we had an ice house to hot house change at about 200ppm CO2 (it rose to 285ppm shortly after it got to be a hot house climate), but back then a majority of the landmasses were located near the equator.


How can that be? Those 200ppm and 280ppm ice core measurements go back tens of thousands and at max a hundred thousands of years back in time, correct?

While landmasses to significantly move is a process that takes millions of years, doesn't it?

yes, the ice cores aren't old enough (I'm pretty sure the oldest one we have goes ~800k years back and the oldest still preserved in the antarctic ice sheet might be about 1.5 million years old ), but those aren't the only way to determine past atmospheric compositions, although they are more accurate than other methods

coral/shell/brachiopod fossils and certain sediments, sedimentary facies  for example can give good clues about those aswell



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NintendoPie on 19 April 2013

I'll believe it when I see it... in Florida.



newwil7l on 19 April 2013

Most likely it will happen.



irstupid on 19 April 2013

I'm from Minnesota and the snow is getting annoying, but its weather. Always unpredictable
Heck some years we get barely any snow, some years insane snow all winter. Some winters short, some long, ect.


Are we going to a Ice Age. Hell yes we are. But not for another 10,000 year or so. Pretty sure scientist have already figured out when the next ice age will be, and by that time there won't be any place called MN by then. No one would even have heard of the place.



Lafiel on 19 April 2013
irstupid said:
I'm from Minnesota and the snow is getting annoying, but its weather. Always unpredictable
Heck some years we get barely any snow, some years insane snow all winter. Some winters short, some long, ect.


Are we going to a Ice Age. Hell yes we are. But not for another 10,000 year or so. Pretty sure scientist have already figured out when the next ice age will be, and by that time there won't be any place called MN by then. No one would even have heard of the place.

considering in the last ~1.2 million years interglacials were at most ~15,000 years long(glacials ~90,000 years) and our interglacial began 15,000 years ago I think the next glacial might come sooner than in 10,000 years :)



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irstupid on 19 April 2013
Lafiel said:
irstupid said:
I'm from Minnesota and the snow is getting annoying, but its weather. Always unpredictable
Heck some years we get barely any snow, some years insane snow all winter. Some winters short, some long, ect.


Are we going to a Ice Age. Hell yes we are. But not for another 10,000 year or so. Pretty sure scientist have already figured out when the next ice age will be, and by that time there won't be any place called MN by then. No one would even have heard of the place.

considering in the last ~1.2 million years interglacials were at most ~15,000 years long(glacials ~90,000 years) and our interglacial began 15,000 years ago I think the next glacial might come sooner than in 10,000 years :)


Yea after I postd i quicky looked and they predict roughly 2,000 years.



hsrob on 19 April 2013

Well Australia just had it's hottest summer ever, again (apparently). We had the first day ever recorded where the daily maximum temperature for the entire continent averaged over 40 degrees Celsius.

Furthermore that measurement has only reached above 39 degrees a total of 21 times in over 100 years and nearly half of them where this summer.

If we are going into an Ice Age, Australia never got the memo.



RedInker on 19 April 2013

Weren't geologists worried that we were heading into an ice age back in the 70's? As far as I can recall it didnt happen. It is possible that its just a cold spring and not the sign of a mini ice age.



kitler53 on 19 April 2013

weather =/= climate



newton on 19 April 2013

Since climate is a long term average of weather, and that is what they are talking about when they say global warming or ice age, then no. The climate has become generally warmer over the past decades, so it seems we are heading the other way.