Ice Age

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One of the things I like to do as an author is to try and get my facts straight. Even in a piece of fantasy work. If I am asking myself questions on a particular subject, then surely a reader somewhere will be asking the same question.

Such as, how long is a generation? How many generations since the ice started to retreat?

That led me to Ice Age research. Interesting fact. Scientists conclude that we are still in the latest Ice Age. This science is much older and more researched than the current global warming research.

The Glacial advance stopped around 25,000 years ago in the latest Ice Age. At that point virtually all of Canada was under an ice sheet up to two kilometres thick in places. The ice started its steady retreat until the 1300’s when a Little Ice Age occurred and the ice advanced again. The latest Glacial advance lasted until the early 1800’s, when the ice began to retreat once again. During that time the Thames River, in the UK, routinely froze over.

The causes of Glacial advance are many. Sun Spot activity, the Earths elliptical orbit around the sun, the slight wobble of the Earths rotation, volcanic activity and El Niño in the right combination are the biggest contributors to climate change. Simple physics can also explain how fast ice retreats. The greater the surface of ice free land and ocean, the more solar radiation will heat up the land and water. It has also been shown that the ice comes a lot faster than it goes away.

So, I try to put things into perspective. With the right circumstances and life choices, I may live to be a hundred years old in this day and age. During the height of the last Glacial event, 25,000 years ago, the area where I am writing this was under two kilometers of ice. That means, 250 of my life times ago, my ancestors were huddling together somewhere in the Caucasus area, operating as a hunter gatherer society. Maybe.

My life expectancy would be around 30 years. Maybe, depending on how fast I was and how available game and edible plants were.

What could cause another Glacial event? Something as simple as some delusional world leader launching a nuclear attack on another country. The resulting dust and smoke from the explosions and massive fires would block out the radiation coming from the sun leading to snow not melting and a cooling escalation. Even without that type of event. Scientists have been studying the Suns patterns for centuries. The next low solar radiation cycle is predicted to occur in 2050.

So, for me, the worry for my descendants is not global warming. It is global cooling. People in my end of the world know what it’s like to be cold. To only have five hours of sunlight per day in the winter, to only have four months of natural heat a year. We will be coming the rest of you in warmer climates. We will have no choice.

At least a billion of us will be coming. Get ready, because the ice comes a whole lot faster than it goes away.