What that means is the last Glacial Period was probably so much colder than those that preceded it that the oceans cooled down enough to retard the sort of increase in evaporation we would normally have had.
That would, in turn, delay a return to the normal Glacial Period.
Our planet has been in the grip of an Ice Age for the last 2.5 million years. The 20 or so cycles reflected in the Antarctic Ice Sheet reveals that the trend has been colder and colder.
In short, we are in a sort of "drought". Interesting that Hansen did say we were about 1 degree C short of the temperature achieved in the last interglacial (the 10,000 year long warm period between each 100,000 year long period of glaciation).
Today's massive ice storm beating down on Greenland (check your Intellicast.com global infrared map) may well TIP us over to more ice formation, with less warming ~ and a return to a normal condition.
[ In short, we are in a sort of “drought”. Interesting that Hansen did say we were about 1 degree C short of the temperature achieved in the last interglacial (the 10,000 year long warm period between each 100,000 year long period of glaciation). ]
Never let the facts get in the way of a vested agenda....
Yeah, for most of the last 300 million years Earth has had Ice Free polar regions. So Wouldn’t both caps melting be a “return to normalcy”? That is of course ignoring the fact the planet is a dynamic system and there is such thing as “climate normalcy”
Well actually the SHAPE of the continents has a lot more to do with WHY we have ice caps vs trace atmospehric gasses.
The south pole has a land mass that covers the entire south polar region, and the north pole is pretty much a sea that is surrounded by landmasses. Both regions are thermically isolated and this is what prevents warm air/water from warming these areas up. Water moves more heat since it is more dense, so while the north cap may melt it will take a LOT more to melt the Southern Cap as it is isolated from the water flow.
Continenetial drift has moved them into this configuration in the last 60 million years, this is most likely why we have been having polar intiated “ice ages” since then.
If the continent of antarctica didn’t exist and there was a southern ocean in it’s place it would most likely be ice free or mostly ice free and there would be less restriction to water flow than the northern hemisphere has.