Will global warming end the ice age we are in?

Question

According to Wikipedia we are still in an ice age:

"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)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age

Do you think that the trends in global warming will finally get us out of the ice age and free up more land in the northern and southern hemispheres to use to produce more food and biofuels? Will there be another explosion in plant and animal wildlife that typically happens after an ice age? Plants love the sun, rain, and CO2 that comes with global warming. Should we be concerned that rain forests and and animal life will invade our cities?

Answer 1

Global Warming has already ended our ice age.  How else do you explain the reduction in the population of Polar Bears from almost 5,000 15 year ago to only 25,000 now?  I am sure that Polar Bears live off of ice, because that is what I am told.  No Ice, No Bears!

Why, I remember when I was a boy and the snow would always reach the roof of my house, but now I barely see any.  The fact that I have moved 300 miles further south should not make any difference.  After all, we can only concentrate on one variable at a time.

***sarcasm off***

It amazes me that I have heard for years that we should save the rain forests.  Wouldn't a real end to our ice age do just that?

Answer 2

Much of the land is already "free", and melting the last few cubic miles of ice may come at the expense of deserts elsewhere, flooded fertile coastal plains, and much reduced biodiversity; not to mention turning the oceans into lifeless soda-pop.

Answer 3

Losing the rest of these pieces of the last ice age could be deadly to wildlife and humans, not good. Water doesn't just appear out of nowhere, it's part of a cycle that needs the snow and ice. If we lose that, we can't keep getting the water we need when there is already a shortage for some civilizations. If the ice doesn't melt in it's normal cycle, then it won't freeze over again. If it doesn't freeze over again, then the rivers won't be coming down the mountains and the animals that depend on that water won't get it.

Answer 4

I didn't realize we were in an Ice Age...

Answer 5

You are correct, we are technically in an ice age (glaciers covering antarctica and greenland), but in an "interglacial epoch" where the glaciers have receded.

No one knows why we are in an ice age to start with, or the factors that control extent of glaciation.  All we know is that there are cycles of glaciation.

Since we are at the end of the current warming cycle (based on past cycles), it is likely the earth will cool and glaciers advance so new york city is once again under a mile of ice.

That is why the "return to ice age" scenario popular 30 years ago was so frightening, geologists already saw the glaciation cycles and we are at the end of the current one.   The odds this will occur is high, much more likely than all the wild-a**ed guesses about what damage further global warming might do.

Telling people the world is coming to an end because folks won't be shoveling as much snow 200 years hence ... just doesn't resonate with anyone.

Answer 6

To your initial question, will global warming end the ice age? My answer is no. Global warming is accelerating the coming of an ice age. Because of the high specific heat of water it will change its temperature less when it absorbs or loses a given amount of heat. Water has a specific heat of 1cal/g/degC (calorie or cal, is the amount of heat energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1degC).

A large body of water can absorb and store a huge amount of heat from the sun in the daytime and during summer, while warming up only a few degrees. At night and during the winter, the gradually cooling water can warm the air.

Therefore as the glaciers and polar caps melt into the oceans, it takes more heat from the sun to keep the temperatures on earth mild (because a larger body of water can absorb more heat than a small body). All the heat from the sun would be absorbed by the oceans ( which would have gotten larger from the melted ice) and there would be little to eventually no heat for the mainland.

Thus an ice age.

Answer 7

I had never realized that ....

Answer 8

Oracle is right.  We are in an interglacial period of the ice age as opposed to the glacial.  When the continents moved toward the north pole, providing a trap for ice to form, and when the Isthmus of Panama formed, and the subcontinent of India hit the Asian continent, weather patterns turned to an ice age.  The Milankovitch cycle that were present before but not noticed as much created a cycle of about 100,000 years where there would be a long period of ice and then a period of warming.  Fortunately, we are now in a period of warming based on past trends and we are near the peak warm period.  Human emissions of CO2 probably have increased the temperature moderately but has not significantly changed the climate in my opinion, nor will it.  It is likely that a new period of glaciation will begin in the next few thousand years but perhaps by then we will have the technology to avert it.

Answer 9

Wikipedia is not a good source for science information.  It is fair for biographies and things like that.  If that is what they said it's simply wrong.  Even Lowell Ponte, the father of the DENIER/skeptic movement placed us at a point just past the warming peak after the last ice age, where temperatures should have continued to trend downward if there were no  Global Warming.  Ponte's data was based on not one but dozens of glacial advances and retreats over geologic time.  Events like the "little Ice Age" followed by the "Medieval Warming Period" barely show up on the graph in his book.