Susan Edelman. age 13 of Rochester NY.

Will there ever be another Ice Age?

There have been a number of Ice Ages in the long history of the old earth. We are not certain what caused them. Most likely there were a number of reasons why the climate of the world cooled off for a spell„ We do know that they came, lasted for thousands of years and then went away. At their worst, the temperate regions were held in a grip of year‑round winter.

We know that there have been four Ice Ages in the past million years or so, The icy glaciers have left their footsteps over the continents, The last of these Ice Ages did not begin to retreat until a few thousands of years ago. Less than twenty thousand years ago the massive glaciers were still clinging to Northern Europe. Perhaps the polar ice caps are the remains of this last long winter,

In any case, we are now living in the springtime climate following an Ice Age. There were periods of such springtime and summer‑climates between the last four Ice Ages ‑ only to be followed again by long, cold winters. There are signs that our world climate is getting warmer. It may well be that we are in for an age‑long spell of summery climate, And this balmy climate may well end in another Ice Age far in the future, Since we are not sure of the causes of, an Ice Age we cannot predict them. We can only say that because they have happened so often in the past then they are likely to happen again in the future.