Are we due a new ice age?

Isn't it a regular thing though, something that happens every 30,000 years or so...
 
mrk said:
Isn't it a regular thing though, something that happens every 30,000 years or so...
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Glacials and interglacials are completely natural, yes. The debate of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming is more to do with how man's influence is changing or otherwise speeding up this process. It's a natural process, but man is certainly influencing it at present. Think about it this way: all the carbon dioxide which was in the atmosphere over the past billion years has been stored in the Earth as coal, oil, etc. and within the past 150 years we've effectively released most of it. To not see the impact that this could be having, you'd have to be an idiot or have some selfish motive.

Anthropogenic global warming is happening, and the correlation this time is causal not a casual one. We have from our current understanding, roughly until 2030 to try and get back to around 1990 levels or we could very well be looking at positive feedback which we won't be able to do anything about.

The Earth always goes through climatic changes, and it's our own ignorance that we think borders, etc. will remain static forever. I could happily argue that they are detrimental to our race. Anyway, the question as said is not one of whether it will or it won't - it always has - but it is one of will we, as a species, manage to survive. In terms of our influence, we're poking the bear and we're asking for a mauling.
 
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[TW]Fox;14327895 said:
Nope global warming will stop it, we are going to change billions of years of history because we drive Range Rovers.
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really? Wow who'd have thought :D
 
I thought we were already in an ice age technically, from something I watched /read.

What defines what an ice age is? Isn't it something to do with the axis of the earth!
 
veggiemanuk said:
The fact is that people were predicting the next ice age years before all the green eco crap started spewing from peoples mouths.

It amazes me that globaly, governments denounced global warming and all of a sudden, once they realised they could tax people on it AND GET AWAY WITH IT (something they could not have acheived 20 years ago), have done a total U Turn and people seem to have fallen for it hook line and sinker.

We even have people saying that the planet cant cope with the current population and limitations need to be in place on the number of children we have here in the west.

The fact of the mater is that the planet can sustain 10x the current population, we just need to distribute its wealth more evenly. Pulling the plug on the African trade ban would be a good start. Evidence suggests that as a nation grows more wealthy familys tend to have less children anyway.
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A redistribution of income wouldn't sort out global warming at all. As can be seen from the current BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), they are effecitvley ignoring the issue of climate change, and emitting more and more CO2.

The amount of children in Africa is almost inconsequential, as per head they produce so little greenhouses gas, it would hardly effect anything. By lifting them out of poverty, sure they may have a few less children, but I can almost guarantee that they would end up ( as countries ) producing more bad emissions than before. I hate to say it, and its very harsh, but purely on a global warming perspective, its better to keep the poorest countries poor, make the rich countries use technology to cut down, and supply developing countries with the technologies free and at a cheap price to keep the emissions down.
 
We're currently in the Quaternary Period, but we're in an inter-glacial epoch known as the Holocene (effectively since man came onto the scene - farming, etc.).

Depending on what definition you use - we can technically be in an 'ice age' as there are still large sheets of ice at the poles. We are in an interglacial of the current ice-age (which is the Quaternary Period).

Quaternary Period > Holocene Epoch > Subatlantic Stage

The next time we 'freeze up' I imagine will be during the next glacial stage of our current Period, which could happen at any time really which will (correct me if I'm wrong) signal a new epoch.

Hopefully a geologist will be along to explain the terms better than I can.

EDIT:

Right, I think that's right. Damn, I'm rusty.
 
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Nix said:
We're currently in the Quaternary Period, but we're in an inter-glacial epoch known as the Holocene (effectively since man came onto the scene - farming, etc.).

Depending on what definition you use - we can technically be in an 'ice age' as there are still large sheets of ice at the poles. We are in an interglacial of the current ice-age (which is the Quaternary Period).

Quaternary Period > Holocene Epoch > Subatlantic Stage

The next time we 'freeze up' I imagine will be during the next glacial stage of our current Period, which could happen at any time really which will (correct me if I'm wrong) signal a new epoch.

Hopefully a geologist will be along to explain the terms better than I can.

EDIT:

Right, I think that's right. Damn, I'm rusty.
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That's right, we're currently in an ice-house hence the polar caps but we are in a warmer interval.
 
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