Ice Age

I just finished reading this article about how scientists now seem to have grasped why Ice Ages occur (roughly every 100,000 years, but then it "only" takes a thousand years for the ice caps to melt!).

As ice caps accumulate over the span of hundreds of thousands years, it's easy to imagine how it's very unlikely that a sudden catastrophe like the one depicted in The Day After Tomorrow could ever occur. Cities would not get flooded or covered in ice sheets within a few days, but still I had my imagination spinning.

With icecaps slowly building up, people would have plenty of time to slowly migrate southwards, leaving the frozen areas uninhabited. But what would they leave behind? Deserted towns, and even cities? Try to imagine a deserted Berlin, or Stockholm, or even Milan buried (or encased, I like the mental image I get if I use "encased") under a 3,000 meters thick ice layer. I don't know if you can see it too, but the mental picture I get is fascinating. Cities in ice. Wow.

Also imagine the consequences of a modern era Ice Age: how would global powers and cultures be affected by the slow migration? How many new cultural identities may be born? How would geography itself change, both as a discipline and as a matter of fact? And how would new nations and states be born, with what strains and what conflicts?

And then, as the ice caps begin to (relatively quickly) melt away, how would people and nations and powers and cultures deal with the new conditions in just the span of a millennia? Can you imagine the thrill of future-to-be archeologists travelling up north to (re)discover the ruins of what once were cities, and nations, and inhabitable lands? What would they do with what they found? Repopulate it? Build gigantic archeological reserves? People would surely get up north again, if population growth rates keep going. They would need more space!

Anyway. I guess I got carried away and excited in a very childlike way. And it feels good to work your imagination from time to time. Now I wish I could be around to witness the next Ice Age and post-Ice Age. :)