Theoredically, we should already be in another ice age. According to current scientific knowledge, the Earth has undergone five big ice ages, which last for hundreds of millions of years. Smaller ice ages called glacials and interglacials (dependent upon Earth's temperature and the size of the polar ice caps) are know to occur within the big ice ages. The ice age cycles within the big ice age span 100,000 years. A cycle of 90,000 years of the polar ice caps growing with Earth's temperature dropping 5 degrees celsius and 10,000 years of the polar ice caps decreasing and the Earth's temperature rising up 5 degrees celsius. The last glacial ice age is calculated to have been 11,700 years ago. Four factors contribute to an ice age initiating, orbital tilt, orbital pth around the Sun, Earth's wobble, and carbon dioxide levels. The first three contribute to the amount of sunlight the Earth receives and are all in place for us to be in an ice age. The fourth, carbon dioxide, contributes to the Earth's temperature rising and falling 5 degrees celcius in and out of the ice age cycle, as well as the amount of ice on the polar caps. Carbon dioxide levels are currently 300ppm over antartica higher then they should be, thus preventing the Earth from cooling.
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