How did we manage before we plunged into an ice age?
When we have ice at the poles we are in an ice age it is just that right now our ice age is benefitting from an interglacial period. For the last 420,000 years we have cycled between glacial and interglacial periods every 100,000 years or so.
This graph, based on ice core data from Vostok shows the cycle. Note: the timescale is backwards, present is on the left and past is on the right.
If the pattern repeats one more time we will be plunged into a glacial period some time soon and the ice sheets will be covering North America and north Europe once again.
One important detail about that graph: The CO2 changes lag the temperature changes by 600 years or more. That means that the temperature is causing the CO2 to change and not the other way round. Most of the earth's CO2 is in the oceans and when they warm they release CO2 - just like a bottle of beer when it is opened!
How did we manage before we plunged into an ice age?
When we have ice at the poles we are in an ice age it is just that right now our ice age is benefitting from an interglacial period. For the last 420,000 years we have cycled between glacial and interglacial periods every 100,000 years or so.
This graph, based on ice core data from Vostok shows the cycle. Note: the timescale is backwards, present is on the left and past is on the right.
If the pattern repeats one more time we will be plunged into a glacial period some time soon and the ice sheets will be covering North America and north Europe once again.
One important detail about that graph: The CO2 changes lag the temperature changes by 600 years or more. That means that the temperature is causing the CO2 to change and not the other way round. Most of the earth's CO2 is in the oceans and when they warm they release CO2 - just like a bottle of beer when it is opened!