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kavien t1_j3kvi0a wrote

Reply to comment by South5 in Deep overturning circulation collapses with strong warming, which could cause a "disaster" in the world's oceans. by sibti

So, a return to the Middle Ages? Wasn’t there a mini Ice Age during that time?

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Guugglehupf t1_j3kvobt wrote

The Middle Ages where a really long time. There have been cold and warm phases. No real ice age, though.

Last cold spell that lasted a while was in the middle to late 1800s.

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kavien t1_j3l2bi8 wrote

Thanks! I am too lazy to Google sometimes.

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ExtensionNoise9000 t1_j3lahg4 wrote

Last ice age was about 10k years ago if I am not mistaken.

And the last Ice Age animation came out about 7 years ago.

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UniversalMomentum t1_j3lqq3v wrote

We are currently in a ice age I believe it's less than about 2.5 million years.

The easiest definition for an ice age is just whenever there's ice at the poles year round.

We are at the warm cycle of an ice age but also in a hundred thousand year warming and cooling cycle which you can look up as the 100,000-year cycle or the interglacial cycle.

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UniversalMomentum t1_j3lqgzm wrote

More like worse than anything in recorded human history, but also with 2 to 3 times the greenhouse gas levels to spice things up.

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CornucopiaOfDystopia t1_j3lxg7y wrote

Yes, you’re probably thinking of the Little Ice Age, which inundated Europe starting during the Renaissance period:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

It was theorized to have been caused by a similar reduction in Atlantic currents, though perhaps not nearly as complete as we may be facing ahead. So get some good blankets, Euros.

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philomathie t1_j3l4tig wrote

Probably you are thinking of the maunder minimum, where the sun output less energy. The collapse of the gulf stream would probably be much worse.

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