What I want to know is, can we go through another Ice Age in the earth present state?

Question

The movie Day After Tomorrow tell me two story one that we could go through an Ice Age or a Dry Age. Can any body tell me if there is a possible of an Ice Age?

Answer 1

Before I answer your question I have to respond to Farmer Andy. Farmer has confused the magnetic poles with the rotational poles of the earth. He is correct that there is evidence that the Earth's magnetic field might reverse again* perhaps within a 1000 to 2000 years but that will have no effect on the rotational axis of the earth and will have no effect on the climate.

The evidence that Farmer cites of fossils in Antarctica are actually evidence of continental drift, not axis of rotation shifts.

It is probably a good idea not to get your scientific information from action movies. Having said that there is a germ of truth in Day After Tomorrow.

Global warming has already started to disrupt climate patterns and will continue to do so. The most significant potential disruption is the stalling of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream brings heat from the equatorial Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and moves it into the North Atlantic. This is called the Thermohaline Circulation. That keeps Europe much warmer in the winter than it would otherwise be. That effect extends throughout the northern hemisphere keeping much of the inhabited zone warm.

If you look at a globe you will see that much of Europe is as far north as Siberia. Imagine what it would be like to live in Europe if its climate were more like Siberia's.

If the Gulf Stream were to stall that heat would not reach the North Atlantic and temperatures would fall throughout the northern hemisphere. The most pronounced impact would be felt in England where mid winter temperatures are predicted to fall by nearly 40F.

This paradoxical cooling as a result of global warming would be triggered if a significant amount of Greenland's ice were to melt into the Atlantic. Scientists are becoming very worried that this might happen because glaciers on Greenland have recently started to melt and slid towards the ocean much faster.

Note that while Europe in particular might get much colder and feel locally like an ice age, the rest of the Earth will continue to heat up. That will cause disruptions in rain fall and may create new deserts and new rainy areas with flooding. It will not be pretty.

*The Earth's magnetic field has reversed many many times in the past and seems to do so on intervals ranging between 50,000 and 1 million years or so. This was discovered by studing sea floor spreading.

Answer 2

Yes, ice ages are just a cycle the earth goes through, it has happened since the eartyh was created and has happened more than once. The movie The Day After Tommorow is somewhat true, the process in which the next ice age happened is correct. but the amount of time it happened in wasnt. Yes another Ice Age is going to happen. But not for at least another 300 years, and even longer if we can reduce global warming.

Answer 3

First, Day After Tomorrow was a retarded tree-hugging movie. Second, the nature of your question assumes we've already gone through one Ice Age. I don't believe that, and there is no evidence to support that. There is ice on the poles, because a comet came close to the earth and when something is extremely cold, it is slightly magnetic, so it was drawn to the magnetic poles. In case you didn't know, the magnetic poles do not line up with the geographical poles. This is because the comet hit us and bumped us off kilter.

Question: If there was an Ice age before, how is there still life?

Answer 4

Yes their is a possible way we can have an ice age I watched this show called doomsday a scientist said in 50 years all of our polar ice capes will be melted we need to stop using protroleum the reason why is because as we burn protroleum it creates a hole into our atmosphere. And there is a lot more that can cause an Ice Age If all the polar ice capes melt Florida will be flooded.

Answer 5

As long as mankind continues to combust fossil fuels,the temperature of the earths atmosphere will rise,resulting in the melting of all natural ice.Florida will dissapear underneath the ever growing atlantic.At the present state,we can not go through another ice age,since we have now upset the natural balance of our earths super thin shell of air...science tom

Answer 6

I would think we have added enough CO2 to the air in the last 100 years or so to hold off any ice age for quite a while.

Answer 7

One theory is that we are still in an ice age. We are just in a warmer part of it and the temperature will eventually come back down again and the ice caps will grow and we'll all be extinct. But maybe we'll just burn ourselves up before that happens.

Answer 8

Well personally, because it was so darn hot today, I don't think we'll go through another ice age too soon! I think things will become hotter than colder right now.

Answer 9

There is more scientific evidence pointing toward global cooling than global warming. Many scientists have found that the earth's magnietic field is deteriorating, meaning that there a polar shift may occur.

Evidence of polar shifts have been found in antarctica where they've found frozen flora that lived there when it was tropical.

Answer 10

u sure know greenhouse effect, right?
and as a matter of fact, the icebergs in north and south poles are all melting, then how could there be another ice age?