From Phys.org, 28 October 2021: “Scientists know the Earth has long alternated between ice ages and periods of warming — about one ice age every 100,000 years over the past million years.”

From Live Science: “This is how the 100,000-year cycle works: Ice sheets grow for about 90,000 years and then take about 10,000 years to collapse during warmer periods. Then, the process repeats itself.”

From climate scientist Dr. James Renwick: “The rate of warming has increased in recent decades, in line with the much more rapid rise in atmospheric greenhouse gases in recent decades. This aside though, the timing is right for the next ice age to come around soon.”

From Dr. Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London: “Without human interference, ice sheets should have been growing now, and the next glaciation would have happened sometime during the next 1000 years.”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Kylie Andrews asked palaeoclimatologist Dr. Steven Phipps what would happen if another ice age were to occur right now. This is what she learned:

“We may have delayed the onset of the next ice age for now, but if another one came it would have pretty big consequences for human civilisation.

Besides the fact it would be an awful lot colder, huge regions where hundreds of millions of people live would become completely uninhabitable. They’d be covered in thick ice sheets and subject to an inhospitable climate.

‘Assuming it was similar to the last one, then north America would be covered in ice, the whole of northern Europe, the whole of northern Asia would be covered in ice,’ Dr Phipps said.

There would be a lot less agricultural land available, so it would be very difficult to support the human population, Dr Phipps warned.

And the physical shape of the continents would look completely different across the whole planet.

A huge drop in sea level of up to 120 metres would close down marine channels – the Mediterranean Sea, Torres Strait, Bass Strait and Bering Strait – and create new areas of land that could be used for habitation or agriculture.

Ocean ports would no longer be on the ocean, and anyone wanting water views would need to relocate large distances.”

From EarthSky.org, 27 February 2021:

“When will the massive ice sheets once again advance toward the equator? They might not return on any schedule Milankovitch cycles would predict. The cycles have varying effects on global climate, some stronger than others. When atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeds 300 parts per million, the gas’s heat-retention ability is strong enough to overwhelm more subtle cycles. Atmospheric carbon dioxide now exceeds 400 parts per million, and because carbon dioxide is a long-lived gas, levels at least that high may persist for thousands of years. That doesn’t mean there will never be another ice age, but its onset may be delayed.”

So, it may be another 100,000 years before Humans once again hire sloths as babysitters.

Until then, Scrat will not have to worry about having enough nuts to eat.

Then again, Scrat is proof that you are what you eat.

Side Note: Considering how Human activity keeps putting carbon into the atmosphere, the start of another ice age is probably the least of Mankind’s problems. Mankind first has to survive the effects of man-made global warming.

Featured Image by Dan Pekol, National Science Foundation.