Global warming, did it just start, or is it still going on from 10,000yrs?

Question

If the Ice age changed the world so dramatically, then aren't we still at the very end of the ice age, almost to the next tropic age?

Answer 1

Earth's climate is changing. The result so far:

Global temperatures have risen 5° C

Glaciers have melted and retreated dramatically

Ecosystems around the world are being altered



This is not new news. These changes started 18,000 years ago, as the earth emerged from the Pleistocene Ice Age-- a time when ice-covered mammoths and mastodons roamed the earth.

Geologists know great ice sheets once covered large portions of the continents. These glaciers have alternately retreated and advanced as the earth has warmed and cooled, in cycles spanning hundreds, thousands, and millions of years.

Historical data from ocean sediments and ice cores indicate warm interglacial periods of 15,000 - 20,000 years separate each major ice age. We currently are in an interglacial period, and are due ( some say overdue ) for the next 100,000- year Ice Age.

by

http://www.dhaarvi.blogspot.com

Answer 2

At the end of the Wisconsonian Stage (which is the last stage of the Pleistocene Epoch) 11,000 years ago there was two miles of ice on top of the state of Wisconsin. The ice has been receding ever since that time. With the advent of the Industrial Age and the burning of fossil fuels to power it, the rate of that melting has increased. Since geoscientists do not understand why the Earth is in a rare period of "Global Cooling", they cannot predict if another round of glaciation is imminent.

Answer 3

No,Humans did not start it, only speed it up.The earth goes through this process to rebuild,just like when a forest burns down then grows back better then before,well same here,but a little bigger scale.
To make a long story short,were melting ice caps,bergs and they are mostly freshwater,the oceans are salt so the fresh is diluting the salt and disrupting the deep ocean current,as it changes so does are weather.

Answer 4

its gone back and forth,cold and hot,its only become a political monster lately.a good example is why there charts dont start from 1945 to 1975,when most scientists thought we were entering a new ice age,Gore starts his from 1975 to the present

Answer 5

Its been going on for long but the magnitude of its effect changes with the more pollution, gas emission etc there is.