Burn Some Gas, Save the Planet

Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age'

Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists.

Cave girls and Mastodon

But what if we want the next ice age to come?  There'll be good skiing and, well, cave girls! And we'll bring the Pleistocene Megafauna back to life, right?

The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear.

Researchers used data on the Earth's orbit and other things to find the historical warm interglacial period that looks most like the current one.

In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but emissions have been so high that it will not.

Cave girl and Saber-Toothed Cat

As they say in the prospectus "Past performance is not proof of future performance.  But yes, in recent geological history, interglacials like the current one don't last long, and we're about due for another bout of sucky global weather for a long spell.

"At current levels of CO2, even if emissions stopped now we'd probably have a long interglacial duration determined by whatever long-term processes could kick in and bring [atmospheric] CO2 down," said Luke Skinner from Cambridge University.

Dr Skinner's group - which also included scientists from University College London, the University of Florida and Norway's Bergen University - calculates that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would have to fall below about 240 parts per million (ppm) before the glaciation could begin.

Cave girl and Wooly Rhinoceros.

That's assuming that CO2 is driving the glaciation and not following it, and at this point, I would rank that as an open question.  CO2 appears to follow climate changes rather than drive them, at least in time, although warmists argue that feedback then does the rest.

The current level is around 390ppm.

Other research groups have shown that even if emissions were shut off instantly, concentrations would remain elevated for at least 1,000 years, with enough heat stored in the oceans potentially to cause significant melting of polar ice and sea level rise.

I have my doubts.  The life time of CO2 in the atmosphere is quite short .  Half of the "new CO2" added to the atmosphere disappears immediately.  (Either that, or the numbers are all bogus).

I would have to  say, I think this hypothesis is quite speculative, but I think it is an interesting counter to global warming catastrophe theory.