What If We Entered a New Ice Age?

You should start preparing now since another ice age is going to commence; the world has seen at least five significant ice ages in its history.

How, fictitiously, might a new ice age alter the planet as we know it? What could you be able to accomplish on a freezing world to survive? And how are we preventing another ice age already?

Global temperatures fell well below freezing during every ice age in Earth's history, and it wasn't only due to a few frigid journeys around the sun. The thawing out of the planet can take hundreds of millions of years.

The Quaternary epoch began approximately 2.6 million years ago with the most recent ice age. In a technical sense, we are still in it.

Our world can undergo significant change as a result of ice ages. They reshape the environment. They build fresh rivers and lakes. Animals and plants struggle to survive, either adapting or going extinct. What would be the timeline for the demise of our civilization if a new ice age started today?

A few thousand years would pass before the start of our sixth big ice age. Additionally, it would start with the earth's axis tilt going through its cycle of adjustments. less solar energy would be emitted if our orbit around the sun had an unstable tilt and a small wobble.

On the northern hemisphere, you would first notice the impacts of this. The once-pleasant summertime temperatures would begin to fall each year. They would soon be unable to reach above freezing. and the snowfall would start to intensify at that point. That snow would eventually harden into ice sheets. These glaciers would begin in locations like as Canada's far north, Scandinavia, and Russia. and from there, they would spread. On dry soil, the ice would primarily form. this is due to the ice being blocked from simply growing by the waterways surrounding it.

At the moment, ice covers 10% of the earth's land area. You might see that increase to roughly 25% as our current ice age continues.

Europe, including the British Isles and Siberia, would be covered in ice. The Asian continent would be invaded by Himalayan ice sheets. Moreover, an ice sheet would extend from the southern tip of Patagonia all the way up to the Andes Mountains, even though the southern hemisphere would not be as frigid.

Ice would not be the only alteration, though.

There is a possibility that sea levels will fall 120 meters below current levels. This might cut off access between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Rainfall and glacial melt would fill bodies of water in areas that aren't frozen over if they had nowhere else to go. Some rivers would also alter their typical flow patterns, creating brand-new lakes. Land bridges would reappear as a result of all these changes in sea level around the world. The islands of Indonesia would now be connected to the continent of Southeast Asia, and russia would now have access to Alaska. The borders would shift, bringing numerous nations together. Or completely new nations might be created, giving you more options for where to move.

And you would have to.

It would be virtually impossible to live in areas that you and hundreds of millions of other people once called home. Moving away from the iciest regions of North America and Eurasia would be necessary to survive the cold. But neither would the rest of the globe be particularly hospitable. It would become quite dry. The remnant tropical woods close to the equator would serve as a haven for the majority of the plant and animal species on the world as tundras and deserts would grow.

What about us, though?

In fact, our species evolved during the most recent ice period. The climate caused us to adapt with new tools and clothing, and the land bridges allowed people to disperse over the globe. Then we began farming when the earth warmed up. We probably wouldn't survive a new cold age as well. least not straight away. We would lose practically all of our agricultural land.Inhospitable regions would experience instability and unrest due to such extreme congestion. Prepare yourself for fierce competition for the necessities of existence.

I do, however, have some happy news to allay your fears regarding this icy apocalypse scenario!

According to the state of climate research now and the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, the next likely ice age may have been delayed by around 500,000 years. Furthermore, if we continue to release greenhouse gases, it's feasible that we'll have not only delayed it but also made it impossible. That simply implies that we will all overheat, which is better than being frozen, I suppose.

The melting of the world's ice may be more of a cause for concern than the earth freezing over.