My understanding is global warming will lead to an ice age, did man cause the last ice age?

Question

Over time the earths climate is always changing.

I was hoping for reason not emotions let's here from a scientist. And if you invoke science name one just one who supports your view as scientist now dispute whether man is causing global warming.

Answer 1

First, the last ice age, during the Pleistocene, was not caused by humans but by a natural cycle, related to the wobble in the earth's axis. However, it is possible that our current global warming problem, most likely caused (or at least aggravated) by humans, could cause at least a mini-ice age. If glaciers melt in the North Atlantic, the seawater will become less salty. The usual sinking of salty Gulf Stream water that occurs in the Greeland and Labrador Seas to produce the North Atlantic Deep water (NADW) either will not occur at all, or occur farther south. The formation of the NADW begins the "Great Ocean Conveyer Belt) circulation and serves as a thermostat for Earth's climate. When it is "on" and the NADW forms where it is supposed to, all that heat brought to the North Atlantic by the Gulf Stream is lost, moderating the climate. If the formation of the NADW is "off", the climate of the northern hemisphere, at least, gets cold enough to bring on an ice age. These shifts in climate can happen very fast (easily within a generation).

Answer 2

Global warming is caused by many factors which are eventually inflicted by man. However, the previous ice age occured due to the fact that the Earth's climate and temperature was experiencing a major shift. It is known through the theory of Alfred Wegener that the land mass on Earth was once a whole big piece known as Pangaea. However, rocks shifted and started moving in different directions. Eventually at a certain point, most of the Earth's land mass was positioned in cold regions causing the ice age. This fact is strengthen with the point that at the time, man were still very much naive and were not exploiting the Earth as how they are know.

In contrast, the present global warming is causing a rise in the global temperature which will cause an imbalance in the Earth's climate. Scientists have made predictions which are almost verified now that when this man made phenomenon worsens, places further towards the N.Pole and S,Pole would experience extreme cold temperatures. Meanwhile, further to the centre of the globe (as we move towards the Equator), the temperature would experience a steep increase. This is already evident now as we see many unexpected things happening in the weather. So basically, an ice age repeat sounds impossible but the climate would certainly get very, very upset.

Answer 3

No, there is no possible way the man created the first Ice Age. With their technology compared to ours, no way. But, people think that it is the buildings and the smoke that is causing Global Warming. Not true. All that the buildings are doing is releasing CO2 and that is just eating away the Stratosphere. Global Warming is caused by the hole in the Ozone layer, and having the sun beam extra light on us. But, the world will always experience massive global warming or cooling, no matter the time length. The sun is just helping the warming, and after warming, there is cooling, and that will bring the second Ice Age, no matter how long the time period.

Answer 4

The Earth's climate is always changing but it does so very slowly over thousands and millions of years. The changes we're seeing now are much faster than anything that's happened before.

There is some speculation that global warming could lead to a mini 'ice age' for certain countries. It's only speculation and it's something that's not clearly understood. It concerns Themohaline Circulation - the density driven ocean currents.

A possible effect of global warming is the failure or slowing of the ocean conveyor belts or meridional overturning circulation. Research is continuing and it's unclear at this time what effect, if any, global warming will have on thermohaline circulation. One theory is that the melting of polar ice could reduce salinity and introduce cold water into the oceans which could trigger a slowing or shutdown of thermohaline circulation. It's thought that the Gulf Stream which conveys warm Caribbean water to the coasts of Ireland, Britain and northern Europe is the most likely to be affected. Should this occur temperatures in these regions would drop be several degrees.

Hitorically ice ages have come and gone through natural events but as I said at the begining, these changes are very slow. In the case of ice ages they're incredible slow, each ice age cycle lasting approximately 100 million years.

Answer 5

Humanity did not cause the last ice age. Although there is no general concensus on what caused it, it is likely that volcanic events, the natural positioning of the Earth, or natural global warming may have caused the ice age. No one is denying that climate change occurs naturally, but the recent pattern of global warming is much more rapid than natural warming (although it is still quite slow), and there is significant evidence that it is being caused by us.

Answer 6

There certainly not was once any legitimate confrontation at the motives of Global Warming to any extent further than there was once ever confrontation that cigarette smoking brought about Lung Cancer. There had been paid "hacks" within the medical neighborhood that tried to gift fake proof, each in terms of Tobacco and now with human brought on Global Warming (learn Exxon and Mobile oil corporations). The uneducated humans denying Global Warming are "flat-Earth'ers " and must accept as a lot credence as humans who consider the Sun revolves across the Earth. The quantity of Carbon Dioxide that has been further to the atmosphere within the final one hundred fifty years is a 3rd larger than it has ever been within the final 650,000 years. The measurements are recorded from ice samples from Antarctica. In 50 years, CO2 phases are projected to be +fifty five% larger than they've ever been ever. This is that if we do not anything and keep to do the consume-drink-and-be-merry coverage we're doing now. The prime CO2 variety was once ~270 ppm of CO2. It is now approximately 350 ppm. It is projected to head in the direction of six hundred ppm. Understand additionally that within the final ice age (whilst CO2 was once round one hundred fifty ppm) the situation of wherein Chicago is now, was once underneath one mile of ice! We are treading totally new flooring with what we're doing with the atmosphere. Know additionally that if both the Greenland or Antarctic ice cabinets soften, approximately 20% of Florida might be underneath water. This entails all of Miami-Dade county and the Tampa-St. Pete places. Don't fail to remember different coastal places, comparable to New Orleans and New York town. Tens of thousands of humans might be displaced on this nation by myself.

Answer 7

it depends who you ask this question to ..

I am sure some extremists would argue that because of man's influence in the pre historic world (living, killing, burning wood, cutting down trees and shitting in the woods..) caused the environment to change and the earth tried to kill off these nasty fleas (yep we are the parasites on the earth's bum..) by freezing the little sods but by the look of things it didn't work...

we are here - but maybe not to stay - it is time to leave people [this would makes the environmentalists happy!] and go out into the solar system and universe and make a go of it...

but then we would probably be called responsible for increased solar winds or a larger number of suns collapsing due to interplanetary travel....

Answer 8

Of course man didn't cause the last one, and he won't cause this one. Global warming is a political buzz word. The earth just goes through these climate changes naturally, man just happens to be around for this one so people have to make it someone's fault.

Answer 9

Yeah, man was using too much natural oil and polluting the air prior to the last ice age. So these so called green people really have the rest of us pinned down. It's always man's fault. I'm waiting for the greenies to blame the occurance of hurricane katrina on Bush. From the new conspiracy theory, he farted while on vacation in Florida and it caused the hurricane.

Answer 10

No the last ice age was caused by mammoths. They drove really big cars because they were so big. These cars warmed the earth so much that it was soon covered in snow and ice. That's why the mammoths had to be killed off.