If there was an Ice Age before...??

Question

Ok, We all know there was an Ice Age before. So what caused that one?
They definitly didnt have cars and industries, and there was still an ice age, I think no matter what scientists claim is causing global warming, I just think it was planned from the start...I dont know Im so confused...

Answer 1

Ice ages, and inter-glacial periods, are triggered by small changes in the Earth's orbit, which astronomers call Milankovitch cycles, and climatologists call "orbital forcing." Because Earth's orbit can be computed for thousands of years into the past and future, we know that orbital forcing peaked about 6000 years ago, and should be cooling the planet right now.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/4434/943

Answer 2

The fact that scientists don't know what caused past ice ages and warmings is not proof that they don't know what is causing global warming now. They are here now and taking measurements now. That can't do that for the past. The past has to be figured out from small clues left over and available today. That is MUCH harder than being there to take actual measurements at the time.

Answer 3

There have been several ice ages over the course of earth's history, not just the last one that came through. Scientists has predicted that there could still be one in our future. But with global warming, and the way we are destroying our atmosphere, it is going to be harder and harder for that to happen.

No, I do not believe global warming has been done on purpose to prevent another ice age from occurring. If another ice-age ever happened, it would not be for tens of thousands of years anyways. So why would we be worried about it now? More likely just the result of industrialization. Kept searching for ways to be better. Then we realized that better can be harmful. Now we are looking for better technology that is also better for the environment. Just the way the world works.

Answer 4

We know that the major ice ages have been triggered by the Milankovitch cycles along with solar fluctuations. The Earth won't see anything like that for thousands of years in the future, so it is of little relevance to this discussion. What does have relevance is the Little Ice Age that immediately preceded our current warming trend - ending, coincidentally, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

This cooling is not reflected in our current understanding of orbital forcing, and the solar fluctuations DO support some mild cooling. Many scientists believe that the Little Ice Age was triggered by a slowing down of the Thermohaline conveyor caused by melting of polar ice. The period prior to the LIA is known as the Medieval Warming Period, a warmer period than we are currently experiencing. Like now, scientists postulate that decreased Arctic ice back then was the mechanism for the disruption of the Thermohaline currents, thrusting the Earth into a significantly cool period with glacial advance lasting 100s of years (Those brutal winters you always hear in stories of early American settlers? Yep, it wasn't just an exaggeration.)

http://www.biocab.org/Discrepancies.html

Answer 5

Cars and industries and global warming have nothing to do with the ice age. Scientest can only speculate since it happend a long time ago. My guess is that something was blocking the sum, maybe a clowd of dust from an astoroid hitting the earth. All I know of this is that a great movie came out of it. ICE AGE.

Answer 6

The earth goes through cycles, the ice age was a cycle, global warming is a part of a cycle. We can not stop the cycles but we can slow them down.

Answer 7

There have been natural changes before, but the scientific data clearly shows that, about 40 years ago, Man took primary control of climate from nature. From the Source below,

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

Which is why there's vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

Note the key word "quantitative" in the quote below. Other reasons do not fit the data.

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know... Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point. You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

The data is why this is _not_ a liberals thing:

"Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich challenged fellow conservatives to stop resisting scientific evidence of global warming"

Good websites for more data and info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/
http://www.realclimate.org
"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 8

Ice ages may be caused by shifts in the Earth's orbit and orientation. There is a lot that is known about this stuff. Start here:

Answer 9

An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers ("glaciation"). Glaciologically, ice age is often used to mean a period of ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres; by this definition we are still in an ice age (because the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets still exist). More colloquially, when speaking of the last few million years, ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and Eurasian continents: in this sense, the most recent ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. This article will use the term ice age in the former, glaciological, sense; glacials for colder periods during ice ages; and interglacials for the warmer periods.

The idea that in the past glaciers had been far more extensive was folk knowledge in some alpine regions of Europe: Imbrie and Imbrie (1979) quote a woodcutter telling Jean de Charpentier of the former extent of the Swiss Grimsel glacier[1]. Macdougall (2004) claims the person was a Swiss engineer named Ignatz Venetz [2]. No single person invented the idea.[3] Between 1825 and 1833, Charpentier assembled evidence in support of the concept. In 1836 Charpentier and Venetz convinced Louis Agassiz of the theory, and Agassiz published it in his book Étude sur les glaciers (Study of Glaciers) of 1840. e. g.: North American review. / Volume 145, Issue 368, July 1887. According to Macdougall (2004), Charpentier and Venetz disapproved the ideas of Agassiz who extended their work claiming that most continents were once covered by ice.

At this early stage of knowledge, what was being studied were the glacial periods within the past few hundred thousand years, during the current ice age. The existence of ancient ice ages was as yet unsuspected.

Answer 10

nothing will stop it,, the earth has been going thru patterns for millions of years, humans cant control it,.. some of the hottest days were recorded over 50 years ago, thats when we found the massive great holes in the ozone layer,, now its been proven that the holes are closing up,, great that means the temp will drop, most countries will not be able to survive the below freezing winters,,
just like bacteria weve flourished in the warm weather and multiplied for thousands of years then when the ice age hits most humans and animals will die and alot of spiecies will become dormant(just like bacteria and germs in our freezers at home) and wher thawed out they will continue to grow,, i think we call it EVOLUTION<