[coalman]

I thought THE ice age was 10-11000 yrs ago?

[guitarplayer1953]

Ice age California? My God we really must be in global warming when was the last time it snowed in Southern California? /sarc

[Oztrich Boy]

THE Ice age has lasted about 2 million years, punctuated by brief warmer interglacial periods (the current interglacial appears to be peaking - some people are assuning a different explanation)

[gleeaikin]

Actually the problem is the misleading headline “Ice Age Sloth.” Further reading says that it has been buried since the Ice Age which began about a million years ago, not 1.8 million which is the age of the sloth. There have been from 4 to 6 major ice ages, depending on whose chronology you follow, and some more minor ones. They seem to come about once ever 100,000 to 150,000 years, with a brief warm spell in between. We are in one of those warm spells now.

The great quest is to understand what triggers the beginning and the end of those great climate shifts, and those of us who follow Catastrophism are very much concerned with understanding that question better. A lot of possibilities: supervolcanoes, giant boloids, sun energy changes, etc.