Issues & Insights (I&I) describes a new study which claimed that human burning of fossil fuels may have prevented an ice age, and suggests that, if it’s true, then modern warming should be celebrated. This perspective makes sense considering the dangers of glacial periods, and because human life struggled in past cold periods like the Little Ice Age. Meanwhile, amid the past century of modest warming, human life has flourished.
The post, “Study Finds ‘Climate Change’ Stopped The Next Ice Age — Why Aren’t We Celebrating?” describes the study and points out how mainstream media alarmists are already trying to do damage control.
The study was published in Science, under the title “Late Holocene reexpansion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.” It directly asked the question of whether “anthropogenic” or human-caused global warming prevented a new glacial cycle which would have thrust the planet into tens of thousands of years of cold. The researchers focused on the extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, noting that it began to grow again about 2,000 years ago, with suggests that a cooling period was setting in. After the 1960s, the trend reversed, which the Editor’s Summary says is “evidence that humans caused the termination of the next glaciation.”
I&I points out that long term geologic history “shows that ice ages are a recurring phenomenon that last far longer than “interglacial” periods like the one we are in right now (80,000 years vs. 10,000 years, roughly). And global temperatures during previous interglacial periods were far higher than today’s “hottest year on record.”
The chart they reference is reposted below.
I&I goes on to point out that scientists are very aware that another ice age would lead to the shrinkage of land area that could be used for crops, and could lead to mass starvation.
They’re spot on in that assessment, and it doesn’t even take a full, thousands-of-years-long ice age to do so.
As discussed in a Climate Realism post from last year, “Human extinction is a baseless climate scare, Slate,” the Little Ice Age, which lasted from about 1300 to the 1850s, saw widespread disease and famine. This was the time of the bubonic plague in Europe. Across the Atlantic, shortly before Europeans showed up in Mesoamerica, cold weather and drought decimated the Aztecs’ maize crops and led to famine. Cold weather led to multiple crop failures across Ireland in 1740, for example, killing almost a million people by starvation. Then, because of short growing seasons and cold weather which potatoes tolerate better than other staple crops, the Irish became very dependent on them. When potato blight struck in 1845, it led to another severe famine, known today as the Great Famine or Potato Famine.
Granted, technology was very limited in the Little Ice Age, humanity has come a long way with regards to agricultural techniques and equipment, as well as things like greenhouses and artificial lighting that were not available before. It’s reasonable to expect that, if we were to enter another ice age, humans would adapt, just as we adapt to other bad weather conditions.
Still, history shows that cooling isn’t good for crop production. Warming, more atmospheric carbon dioxide for plant food, and recent gains in precipitation are, though, as demonstrated alongside technological innovation. Staple crops such as cereals (rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize) have seen an increase in yield of over 52 percent since just 1990, and a 60 percent increase in overall production. The most recent all-time production and yield record occurred in 2023, according to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data, which goes to 2024. (See figure below)
While I&I did not explicitly point to these data, they ask a very good question, assuming that human emissions of carbon dioxide are primarily responsible for averting the ice age: “Shouldn’t this be cause for celebration? And shouldn’t we be encouraging everyone to keep burning as much fossil fuel as possible for as long as possible?”
One would think it would be good news for the media to report on, but, adding an update to the story, I&I notes that “as we suspected, this new study is being dismissed. Here’s CNN’s headline from Oct. 29: “Humans accidentally canceled the next ice age — but it’s no reason to celebrate, scientists say“”
The mainstream media is not interested in honestly reporting on good news, it must all be spun into alarmism. If human activity was causing cooling, that would also be called catastrophic, although in that case they might be more correct.
Regardless of whether human use of oil, gas, and coal are primarily responsible for modern warming, there is no doubt that it is better than what appears to be the alternative, plunging into thousands of years of global cold.
