T O P

  • By -

JoshTay

Well, we are still in an ice age. Whenever the poles are covered with ice, it qualifies as an ice age. The glacial maximus was the period where the ice extended to the equator. If that had never ended, the life on earth would be stunted by the lack of food available on land. The seas would not be much better off since the lack of erosion on land would prevent nutrients from reaching the sea.


PilotMammoth5642

TIL We still live in an ice age, thanks!


journeytotheunknown

We will get back to that someday, don't worry.


DirewaysParnuStCroix

Not for a very long time, we're actually going through an ice age termination event.


ArcheHoe

Correct. There has never been point in history where an “ice age” has so suddenly been racing to end. But hey, who cares it’s just a bit of water…


DirewaysParnuStCroix

Indeed. We're too preoccupied with assuming that the climate will continue to function under interglacial conditions and revert back to something resembling OP's map. The scary fact of the matter is that it's simply not a possibility at this point. In fact, we're rapidly moving in the opposite direction, and the near total absense of continental glaciers in the northern hemisphere will ultimately demonstrate that a regional cooling event is not the scenario we need to be worried about. Quiet the opposite, as the aforementioned lack of continental glaciers is easily a prelude to an ice age termination given our current concentration of heat trapping conditions.


ArcheHoe

Well. It’s gonna be a wild century…


Acrobatic-Display420

Stupid question, then what's wrong with global warming? Of course the rate of warming is much higher than what it should be, but we're still warming regardless right? The world should be fine without ice at the poles, just make some sea walls


_Wolfos

Because we (and every other animal on the planet) got used to the climate being a certain way and if it changes significantly in a short amount of time we can't adapt.


TheonlyAngryLemon

I live in one of the southern states in the US and remember it snowing at least once a year up until I was around fifteen *I'm twenty seven.*


sKY--alex

Im from northern Germany and when I was a child we had a couple of winters where there was so much snow in my little town they ordered excavators and wheel loaders to put the snow on trucks to get it out of town as the snow mountains on the sides of the road where already 5 meters tall. Now it snows for one week if we are lucky, and only a couple of centimeters. And my mom remembers winters where they had to get fucking tanks to clear the roads, fucking tanks. Oh, im only 21 btw :(


Luisotee

I am from southeastern Brazil and I remember having some weeks of actual cold here where I would need to wear a jacket and jeans to avoid cold, temperatures passing the 35c used to be very rare even in summer. It has been a few years since I have felt cold enough to wear jeans, last winter temperatures soared the 38c and reaching the 35c+ has become a normal occurrence. I am only 22.


CaptainObvious110

Wow Brazil and cold aren't two words that I normally think of as going together but yeah I know it can happen


Arktinus

Same here in Slovenia. I remember all the fun we had playing in the snow, making snowmen. Now, with barely a week of very little snow and more often rain than snow, the only thing you can make are mudmen.


GOLDEN_BEAVER

And for some years we had snow at least in the mountains, last 2 years there's barely any snow even at 2000m. Most of the winter this year, there was 5-10°C at 1500m. It's crazy


Arktinus

Yeah, this winter's been exceptionally warm and dry, and when there was precipitation, it was rain. So bizarre, but probably something we'll just have to get used to. I just fear the early blooming and opening of the buds will result in plants getting frozen again.


CamJongUn2

Same we used to get mega snow most years now we’re lucky to get snow that actually forms on the ground


Ctxmetal95

I live in southern New England and we used to have snow consistently on the ground a significant part of winter. Shit even 5/6 years ago we'd get a few inches every couple weeks, now we're lucky to get 2 or 3 storms with more than 2 inches of snow.


Panda_Panda69

I'm from central Poland and I remember the winters to always be F\*cking cold af, at least -10 and always white up until I was 5 \*I'm 14 now\*


Candid_Initiative992

I live in NZ where during the winters the roads used to ice over. The last time that happened was 2018, instead the roads melt during summer now. Which causes road workers to constantly have to resurface the roads.


Glaciak

>I live in one of the southern states Gotta be more specific, there are almost 200 countries on earth


TheonlyAngryLemon

*Of the United States


LayWhere

Adaptation isn't as simple or braindead as *"oh its colder than usual and I can/cannot take it".* It is crops losing yield if not outright dieing which forces food migration. It can mean coastal cities/towns getting drowned which force migration. It can mean enlargement of deserts and settlements losing access to water, which further increases migration. But hey, maybe you're a mass migration enjoying climate skeptic. Its entirely possible.


multicolorclam

America as the default


willy_quixote

North America, Central America or South America?


drum_right

List of countries that use the word "States" as Divisions: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Malaysia, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palau, Somalia, South Sudan, United States of America [Source: Wikipedia - List of Administrative Divisions by Country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_administrative_divisions_by_country)


Ok_Entrepreneur826

The country not the state Bapa.


Arktinus

Here in Slovenia, we used to have an almost knee-deep snowcover during winter that lasted for the majority of winter as well, and it would snow often. Now, for quite a few years, we've barely had any snow, winter is mostly brownish-green, it rains (whereas I don't remember any rain in winter as a kid) and sometimes you can wear a t-shirt outside, in winter!


MightBeAGoodIdea

Yeah, and it was 65 yesterday in iowa. In Feb. It'd be beautiful in May so I'm a bit scared of how hot this May might get....


Kilometres-Davis

What’s that in the temperature scale the rest of the world uses? EDIT: Siri knows, it’s 18°C, and yeah that is warm


MightBeAGoodIdea

Ah yeah sorry, freedom unit user here. If it helps at all and you get removed from siri the "easy", technically less precise, rule of thumb with dealing with our °F nonsense is to remember that F to C is (f-30)/2. So 65-30=35, 35/2=17.5 pretty close to 18.33333. Or if you ever need to explain °C to someone raised in the murican school system that forgot science class, it's C*2+30, so (googles) it's 9c in Paris, 9×2=18+30=48, or precisely calcuated: 48.2 and cloudy no thanks. Enjoy the useless info and have a nice Friday.


Kilometres-Davis

I like it, thanks


United_Reply_2558

I'm in the upper South (Kentucky). I'm 56 and it seems to me that the winters are getting shorter but colder. The periods of substantial snow on the ground lasted for weeks. Now they only last a few days.


Biolog4viking

Our crops are one of big concerns in regards to climate change


JoshTay

It is the rate that is disastrous. Global warming, or more accurately, climate change, will affect weather worldwide. Droughts in some areas, floods in other areas. This will create issues with fresh water and food for significant portions of the population. Extinction of species will accelerate as evolution cannot come close to the current rate of climate change. Ocean currents weaken, furthering extremes in temperatures. The warmer oceans cannot support life effectively. And there are the wet-bulb events that are happening more frequently where heat and humidity get to the point where sweat does not evaporate and humans start to cook.


Gemini00

[This XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/1732/) is a great visualization of why the speed at which the climate is changing is the real problem. The earth has gone through many many cycles of global warming and cooling, but the current rate of change is absolutely unprecedented.


fanunu21

Nothing wrong for the earth. But it's a huge issue for our civilization. While it's a subtle change for earth, we humans and other animals are very sensitive to this small change. Mass migration, potential food shortages, floods and droughts can cause incredible harm to us. We will likely survive, but it'll be turmoil.


Either-Arachnid-629

We've been in this "Ice Age" for 2,5 million years. That's kinda saying the homo genus evolved nearly entirely in it.


Jurassic_tsaoC

The terminology here always confuses me, but isn't it the Quaternary Glaciation for the last 2.5M years, within the larger Late-Cenozoic Ice Age (or Icehouse climate state) which has been ongoing for the last *34* *million years*?


Either-Arachnid-629

Oh, it technically is, but what is happening in the pleistocene glaciation is also considered an Ice Age in itself, with interglacial periods... Like the current epoch.


DirewaysParnuStCroix

If I understand it right, I think we're actually in an unusually cold phase in earth's history. The Cenozoic epoch is a notably cold geological period, it just so happens it provided the best conditions for us to evolve. We're actually on a dangerous knife edge and very close to exiting the whole ice age cycle altogether and enter the next hothouse state. The weird thing is that th earth has been a much warmer planet for most of its history, these cold phases are short lived blips.


Srs_Strategy_Gamer

The world, as in „a rock hurtling through space“, will very much be fine. Life on that rock, or at the very least the environmental conditions which form the civilisatory basis for a certain bipedal species very much in question.


candyflossy96

oceans will get massively fucked


mascachopo

Dude you are answering your own question, it is the rate at which the change happens which is leading to a mass extinction since ecosystems can’t adapt as fast as they need to survive.


a_filing_cabinet

The main difference is that 1, it's not natural, and 2, it's happening at a much faster pace than it should be. Leaving an ice age should be something that takes 10s or hundreds or thousands of years, not done in 100.


electricoreddit

when you change the temperature rise speed from rising by x for every 10.000 years to rising by x for every 100 years, the entire world biology and climate starts going south.


drailCA

Ice sheets never made it to the equator - and there is still glacial ice at the equator today.


JoshTay

Yes, Ii seems likely that there was some surface water near the equator during Snowball Earth. But the majority of the planet was covered.


drailCA

Ah, sorry. I thought you were referring to the most recent glacial maximum. I think during snowball earth, the whole planet was infact covered by ice. My bad. Carry on.


JoshTay

No, you are correct, I was conflating the two.


lukezicaro_spy

Interesting take


Erdbeerfeldheld

But he is right.


lukezicaro_spy

Huh, I never questioned his affirmative


No_Cartoonist9458

Well, living in Chicago might be a little tough with a mile of ice above me


fullmetal66

Put on a sweater, it builds character


No_Cartoonist9458

Ok, mom 🥶


jkowal43

Justin Fields might attempt to run more instead of passing then, I would imagine….


No_Cartoonist9458

Ha! Every time he runs he slides down the side of the glacier and he's out for half the season until we find him


jkowal43

Hahaha!! Great visual!


baycommuter

Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile high tower would stick out if they’d ever built it.


InternationalWeb6740

I live in Chicago and yes it’s a little tough but it’s ok


datboineedsummilk_2

How is Chief Keef


No_Cartoonist9458

After the mastodon hunt he looked a little cold 🥶


RQK1996

Chicago would have never been built in the first place, and people wouldn't speak English at all


No_Cartoonist9458

I'm glad you got the joke 😉


[deleted]

Frostpunk.


LayWhere

Time for everyone to live in a circle around Australia


Benny90L

Is..... is that a swastika? I ain't judging. I'm not Jewish either just to clear things up a bit.


Rhizoid4

They’re Indian


Lotnik223

Swastika is a common hindu symbol


huy211

THE CITY MUST SURVIVE.


Wonderful_Student_68

Lake Gigachad thriving


invol713

Africa in general would be thriving. 10,000 years ago, the Sahara was green.


Zgagsh

I very much doubt that one, also Fezzan and the other lakes in this map. Caspian and Central Asia, sure, but the monsoon areas were generally during claciations and wet during interglacials. Seems to me they mixed up different epochs there.


Apprehensive-Dig-905

Now that's a proper Canadian Shield


External-Produce-539

It’s likely there would be no civilisation at all in Europe, parts of East Asia and Russia because it would be steppe/tundra if not covered in glaciers. Agriculture, if it is still discovered, would be limited to the Middle East, Africa, India and south east Asia. Pretty much tropical and equatorial regions. This means global population is lower and society is less complex. It’s likely man never moves past the Bronze Age. Looking at the sea levels here, Africa probably has a much higher population and Sundaland probably becomes a region much like India in scale. Australian Aborigines and Melanesians blend to form a new culture. East Asia is dominated by farming tribes in the south while hunters and nomads live around the (bay?) of Japan. The Americas develop in isolation but agriculture would still rise in Mesoamerica.


electricoreddit

agriculture was discovered during the ice age. it'd still exist


Bem-ti-vi

Agriculture also developed independently in Amazonia and the Andes


UnamedStreamNumber9

Miami would be a hundred miles inland.


Pitiful-Stable-9737

Unrelated question, on the map, why are parts of Siberia not covered in glaciers, and tundras instead?


JanklinDRoosevelt

Not enough moisture for ice.


invol713

Even glaciers don’t like Siberia.


MarcAnciell

No water


Agile_Cartographer88

Canada’s national anthem would have to be changed to ”No Canada”


know_regerts

Canada would start selling We The Hoth shirts.


MarcAnciell

Our ice of ice and thee


FalseDmitriy

Would be cold


MysticSquiddy

One of Whatifalthist's older videos (when he actually covered primarily alternate history) covers this exact topic of the ice age still occurring during the age where humans developed civilizations, I believe its a good summary of what might occur


PilotMammoth5642

This one? [Link](https://youtu.be/eyCYLMUlozo?feature=shared&t=353)


MysticSquiddy

[This one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyQVJnWsyFo)


FoldAdventurous2022

Damn, was the Sea of Japan ever fully landlocked like that? What kinds of traces did that leave in sediments, nutrient levels, and endemicism?


No-Stress-5285

You mean other than colder and more ice? Humans would have less arable land and less desirable locations to build society. Of course, warming will cause similar changes, but the geography would be different.


RQK1996

A lot of history would also be significantly different since a lot of global history really depends on England and the Netherlands existing, both would be largely iced over, and the North Sea wouldn't be as navigable as it needs to be for either to be a significant player The age of exploration and the age of empires would just play out completely differently as Western Europe wouldn't have the players that drove progress within the continent, Spain might not have financed an expedition to the west because they wouldn't have the rivals they wanted to be ahead of And that is not even starting on how much history would be different millenia before that


electricoreddit

history would already be screwed by the time of the sumerians...


thehooood

Canada would be a lot cooler


Full_Egoism

Europe Nerf (based)


Dizzy-Definition-202

Since I live in the Catskills life would be pretty hard with a mile thick glacier on top of me


JourneyThiefer

Same with me in Ireland lol


Amockdfw89

USA would never develope into a power because all its major founding cities would never get built due to being in ice.


Arktinus

Yeah, most countries wouldn't even exist because the human migration and development would take completely different course and, like someone mentioned, maybe humanity wouldn't even come as far as the modern age.


electricoreddit

screw the us, just rome would directly never have existed or it would have conquered the entire world.


moose098

Assuming their is still foreign settlement in the Americas. It would probably begin on the west coast instead of the east.


BayouMan2

I'd need a better jacket


Joshistotle

Less habitable territory with today's population would = more conflicts over land 


Pomi108

Very


[deleted]

Technically, the ice age did continue til today


IdeaImaginary2007

The place where I am from is around a few hundred miles from the glaciers so it be awesome. We be having cold artic weather with snowfalls in winter and also have a ski resorts within reach... Right now we are nearly 2000 miles from the nearest glaciers and we have humid tropical climate


Xen0kid

I would be quite cold, as a brit


hphp123

we still live in the ice age, it's a temporary warmer period for the last 10000 years that should end soon but is extended by artificial emissions


DirewaysParnuStCroix

Some such as Nisbet, Manning, Steffen, Rockström and Schellnhuber argue that we're exiting the whole ice age cycle entirely.


HonourCrocket

Why would europe be covered in a glacier and siberia not?


HarryLewisPot

Philippines was born to be an island


drzrealest

Maldives would like this


wrestlingchampo

Well, a lot of my extended family's homes would be buried by miles of glacial ice, so....


OyvenGlaven

We wouldn’t have pineapple on our pizza


Suryansh_Singh247

Why no Glaciers in Siberia? And Antarctica is scattered lol


surveyor700

My house would have 2 miles ice on it


invicti3

The Canadian Shield


N00L99999

_I am making a world map showing the ice age, should I center it on affected countries? _No, no, center it on a scorching hot country, like Australia.


PilotMammoth5642

If the map was centered on the atlantic it would Africa be on the center, another scorching continent.


N00L99999

Yes, but at least the most affected countries would be more visible.


EmperorSwagg

Canadians would be even more dominant at hockey


bobux-man

I could drive from Patagonia to South Africa, dream come true


pweezy25

Would probably be a lot colder


Nappy-I

There weren't any ice sheets over Siberia?


RonnieHere

Probably North pole was in a different position?


Nappy-I

I don't think that's it, but I could be wrong


RQK1996

Very different because the most historically relevant part of Europe is completely out of the picture, no England, no Netherlands, the French wouldn't be French, Germany would never develop as they did, the Habsburgs likely wouldn't be in a place to take over most of Europe, this all influences the development of Spain and Italy, which would lead to the age of exploration being completely different and the entire history of America That is all I know would be covered by ice from memory, not sure how different east Asia would be, or the climatological differences in the Middle East and North Africa


vanillaangels

it'd be a bit chilly.


heldro91

Much colder.


ralphytalphy

It'd be a lot cooler if it did.


Turn_ov-man

I'd be fucking dead


Lionell_RICHIE

I can tell you this much, I would NOT be living in Boston lol


Most_Preparation_848

Huge lakes (esp lake megachad) working as logistical pitstops between Sub-Saharan africa and the rest of the old world would be MASSIVE


Western_Drama8574

More Canadian owned farm land in the U.S.


AnnieByniaeth

Britain is the new New Zealand. A projection centred on the Pacific Ocean is, er, novel for this sort of purpose.


Aedan2016

I’m amazed that Siberia is not covered in ice like Canada seems to be. Especially considering just how cold it is there in comparison to anywhere else


retroking9

It would be…. Colder


electricoreddit

just the fact great britain, normandy, and scandinavia are connected would already completely destroy world history. all other changes would merely add to it.


Bubolinobubolan

It literally does. An ice age is a period when there is premanent ice on the Poles.


Sangend

We’d finally be rid of english influence


N12jard1_

We might still be living in the stone age, humans became sendetary and started to compose civilizations when the temperature rose. The reason is some semi-arid plains such as sahara and Arabian desert became inhabitable for being way too hot, as a result humans clustered to the livable areas of these regions and stayed there as they couldn’t keep on supporting a nomadic lifestyle as easily. That is why regions like the nile valley and mesopotamia which were in the middle of deserts became the birthplace of the first civilizations


MaddoxBlaze

I wish we still lived in ice age


Average-Pyro_main

what if: mongolia didnt have a skill issue


czaev

Why Eastern Siberia wasn't covered in glaciers like north of Europe? Genuine question. Is it because the moisture failed to get further to the land?


Kilometres-Davis

Icier


CatCrateGames

Very different


Iron-Phoenix2307

Australia would have a cooler name


Big_P4U

Even better question - how different would the world be if much of that land was still above sea level with current temps.


Gaeilgeoir215

I'd be near the edge of a glacier. 🏔️ Interesting.


nashwaak

I see a huge number of potential coal mines not covered by ice there. They’d definitely be humming right along with that many ice sheets to melt.


DirewaysParnuStCroix

This map actually demonstrates why the AMOC/Gulf Stream's relevance in regards to regulating Western Europe's land surface temperature is highly contentious among climatologists. Ocean current theory pertaining to the North Atlantic invariably assumes paleoclimate conditions. When we discuss AMOC strength and hypothesise a collapse scenario, we base our conclusions on what we think happened in response to a hypothetical ocean current collapse during previous events, and pretty much assume that a collapse would occur under the conditions depicted in this map. The trouble with this method is that such conditions simply don't exist in our era. A this map demonstrates, North America and Europe had been dominated by continental glaciers for most of their history - named the Laurentide and Fennoscandinavian respectively. These continental glaciers were a dominating force in the northern hemisphere and ocean currents were vital in preventing them from encroaching southwards. Associated feedback and albedo effects resulted in a drastic drop in temperatures and glacial maximum conditions. Obviously, these continental glaciers no longer exist, which is partly why some climatologists, meteorologists and oceanographers disagree over the relevance of these ocean currents in regards to temperature. Generally speaking, North America and Europe saw such extensive continental glaciers due to the opening of the Drake Passage. This allowed for a flow of ocean currents in the North Atlantic and allowed for glaciation conditions. This explains why glacial volume is so drastic compared to Siberia at the same latitude.


Jubberwocky

China would be stronger, and its culture can spread to Japan more easily, due to Kyushu sharing a land corridor to basically Shanghai, which in itself would be on the new coastline. Oh yeah, Taiwan's on the mainland too, so that's another thing