Paul Stockholm, age 11, of Cumberland Center

Will there ever be another Ice Age?

The earliest known Ice Age left its claw marks on the face of the earth more than 500 million years ago. Its footprints are older than the oldest fossil. Its mighty glaciers came and went when the ancient Killarney Mountains lifted their lofty peaks in what is now Wisconsin, Minnesota and central Canada, These old mountains have long since worn down to gentle rounded hills.

Around 200 million years ago, equatorial regions of India, Africa and Australia were in the frozen grip of a• cruel Ice Age, The wide waist of the world was girdled with glaciers. Elsewhere, giant salamanders were leaving muddy footprints on the shoRres and the small ancestors of the dinosaurs were beginning to grow bigger. Palms and pines were rooted firmly on the land, California was swamped by shallow seas and the southern arm of the massive Appalachians was lifting up to the clouds,

The Pleistocene epoch of the past million years may be called the glacial ages, for during this period the massive ice sheets came and went four times. They came from the north, covering much of North America, Asia and Europe. The last ice sheets began to withdraw some 40,000 years ago and Sweden was freed from theircruel grip only about 13,000 years ago,

Ice Ages have occurred at various times throughout earths long history, though not at regular intervals. At present, the world is enjoying an age‑long springtime after an age‑long winter of glaciers. This may be one of those long mild spells of world climate which occurred between each of the glacial invasions of the past million years. Or it may be that the recenw, series of cruel Ice Ages is over, in which case the outlook for the world climate for the next 100 million years or so is warm and mild.

In order for Ice Age glaciers to form, the world climate need only fall six to eight degrees. The summers would then be too cool to melt the winter snowfall.. This has, we know, happened several times in the past. Volcanic dust and carbon dioxide could cut off wane of the sums heat. Ice tends to form and spread down from the crowns of lofty young mountains4 The past Ice Ages were all periods of mountain‑making and volcanic activity.

The cool spells which cause an Ice Age may also be caused by the sun. The sunspot cycles tell us that the heat poured cut by Old Sol varies. There may have been long periods of short sunshine rations. Changes in circulation in the atmosphere may also cause long cool spells. Maybe a combination of these and other factors is necessary to cause an Ice Age,

In any case, Ice Ages seem to be part of earths history and hence we can expect that whatever caused them will occur again. Since we are not sure what these factors are, we cannot predict the next one. In the past they have been few and far between, Let’s hope that the old earth can look forward to a balmy summer of, say, 200 million years,