Ice ages typically happen due to very low insolation or the ability of solar energy to reach the surface of our planet. Insolation is a term often used when describing how much energy a solar panel can create.

Right now we have a big problem with too many greenhouse gases, which exacerbate the insolation we already have. It is heating our oceans rapidly, thus causing the break up of ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica. At some point the oceans won't be able to absorb the heat we are receiving and air temperatures will begin to rise as well. Equilibrium. Hence Venus by Tuesday.

[–] match@pawb.social 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

(like how ice keeps your drink from heating up)

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

Narrator: ... Thus solving the problem once and for all.

Suzie: But--

Narrator: Once and for all!

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So maybeish, so there is the possibility that warming of the oceans will cause the large ocean currents to slow/stop. This will reduce the amount of mixing of ocean water. Causing greater salinity and temperature gradients in the oceans relative to latitude. Making the Arctic ocean colder and the tropical ocean warmer. This colder Arctic ocean would lead to lower Arctic temperatures and an increase in ice, increasing the albedo of earth. The higher albedo would reflect more sunlight cooling the planet into an ice age.

Having said all that it is important to note, first if this happens it will be on geologic time scales. So the planet will still get a lot hotter first. Second it is just a hypothesis, we don't know what is going to happen on a longer scale because this period of warming is unprecedented in earth's history. Yes it has been hotter and had higher CO2 levels, but not anywhere the speed of chance we have had in the last 100years. So using past trends to predict the current change will be vague at best.

TLDR: it is still going to get a lot hotter before any chance of getting colder.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this warm ocean leading to cold poles is one of the suspected mechanisms that cause repeated glacial/interglacial periods in ice ages, right?

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

That is my understanding, though I don't know the details of the process off the top of my head.

[–] psud@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

We are in an ice age, you can tell because there is an ice cap at both poles.

We are in an interglacial period, which if we fixed carbon pollution today would still continue for tens of thousands of years beyond it's expected end

There used to be a theory that this sort of weather reinforces the northern ice and glaciers and could start glaciation, but that's not supported by modern models