Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that

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1. 1h ago

   Human Activity Interrupted the Start of a New Ice Age

   Scientific findings reveal that Earth began sliding into a new glacial period approximately 2,000 years ago, driven by a long-term cooling trend. Researchers studying the Barnes Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic determined that the remnants of the massive Laurentide Ice Sheet grew for centuries before reaching their greatest extent around 1960. However, human-caused greenhouse warming and modern climate change reversed this natural expansion, effectively halting the start of another ice age.

   Why it matters

   The Laurentide Ice Sheet once buried nearly 30 percent of North America during the Pleistocene epoch. Today, only a Delaware-sized ice cap on Baffin Island remains. Geochemists at the Columbia Climate School studied this surviving fragment to uncover how human industrial activity altered the planet's baseline glacial cycle.

   What is confirmed

   • The Barnes Ice Cap sits on the central plateau of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and is the last surviving fragment of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
   • Scientists found that the ice cap began to expand around 2,000 years ago, marking the start of a potential new glacial period.
   • Arctic ice had been expanding for centuries before reaching its greatest extent around 1960.
   • Human-caused greenhouse warming and modern climate change reversed the natural slide toward another ice age.

   What to watch next

   • Further publications from researchers at the Columbia Climate School and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory regarding the Barnes Ice Cap data
   • Additional peer-reviewed studies detailing the timeline of the Laurentide Ice Sheet remnant's growth and retreat
   Sources used for this update (14)

   1. arstechnica.com — Ars Technica - Serving the Technologist since 1998. News, reviews, and ...
   2. Ars Technica — Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that
   3. WIRED — A New Ice Age Was Beginning. Then Humans Started Burning Fossil Fuels
   4. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory — Climate Change Stopped the Next Ice Age
   5. University of Colorado Boulder — The failed ice age: Arctic ice was expanding for centuries before global warming stopped it
   6. la Repubblica — We are in a new ice age: here’s why global warming has halted it We are in a new ice age: here’s why global warming has halted it
   7. The Times of India — Arctic ice had been expanding for at least 1,000 years before reaching its greatest extent around 1960; researchers say greenhouse warming then reversed a natural slide toward another ice age
   8. arstechnica.com — Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that - Ars Technica
   9. nsaneforums.com — Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that - General News - Nsane Forums
   10. www.smithsonianmag.com — Two Thousand Years Ago, a New Ice Age Began—but Human-Caused ...
   11. scienmag.com — Human-Caused Warming Halted a Glacial Period That Began 2,000 ...
   12. knowridge.com — Global warming may have interrupted the start of another ice age
   confidence 100%