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Quote by: EnragedParrot  That isn't what I'm asking. You're saying that global warming is occurring because we are exiting an ice age. I want to know what exactly you think, "exiting an ice age" means. |
I am saying that we are exiting an ice age because we are still in an ice age. An ice age is characterized by a period in which the average mean temperature of the earth is cooler than the norm and ice caps form at the poles and expand towards the equator. In the time just before an ice age begins, there is no ice at one, or both of the poles. As the earth enters the ice age, ice caps form at the poles and as the ice age deepens, the ice caps expand southward, and northward respectively. How far they expand north and south is dependent upon the depth of the ice age.
As the earth exits an ice age, the ice caps receede northward and southward. The exit from an ice age, as with any natural cycle, is not a smooth line. There are periods when the ice melts back, and periods when some ground (ice) is gained back. The overall trend, however, is for the earth to warm, and the ice to melt until there is no ice to be found at one, or both of the poles.
Maybe you were under the impression that the earth enters an ice age overnight and suddenly, glaciers extend over much of the northern and southern hemispheres and it ends at some specific time with residual ice remaining at the poles. Here is a simple (but accurate) chart that shows the temperature cycles of the earth for the past 600 million years or so. Clearly, the earth is in a cool period, and clearly, ice still exists over vast areas of the earth. Therefore, we are still in an ice age. Exiting it, but still in it. As you can see, when the earth reaches its norm, it will be too warm to support any appreciable amount of ice, anywhere.
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Quote by: EnragedParrot Would you also say that temperatures go up in the Spring and Summer because we're, "exiting Winter?" |
Have you ever noticed that when we exit winter, the temperatures warm up for a while, then fall, then warm, then fall. Ice melts, then perhaps it snows some more, but the warming trend continues until winter is over. The exit from an ice age follows the same pattern. The overall temperature trend is up until it gets warm. The end of winter doesn't happen on a particular date as suggested by the calender. That is nothing more than our own invention. The end of winter happens when there is no more winter weather, and the ice age ends, when no appreciable amount of ice remains, ANYWHERE.
If we were beings that lived for ages, we would be looking out our windows, after a particularly long winter (ice age) looking forward to the summer to come.