Arctic Ice Cap Shrinkage May Have Paused Ice Age Start

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A shrinking ice cap in Arctic Canada suggests human-driven warming may have halted the start of a new ice age, according to a study published in Science and described by CNN. Researchers found the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island, the last remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, shrank to its smallest size about 3,000 years ago, began regrowing about 2,000 years ago, then abruptly started shrinking around 1960. An outside physicist disputes the conclusion, arguing that the next ice age was not expected for about 50,000 years. The findings trace changes spanning millennia through recent decades.  Disclosure: This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced using AI-assisted tools.

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00:00An ice cap in Arctic Canada may hold evidence that humans halted an ice age early.

00:05About 20,000 years ago, a giant ice sheet stretched from the Arctic as far south as Illinois.

00:11Today, all that's left is the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island, about the size of Delaware.

00:16Researchers found the ice shrank to its smallest about 3,000 years ago.

00:21Then, about 2,000 years ago, it started to grow again.

00:24The authors argue that regrowth marked the start of a new ice age.

00:28But around 1960, as summers warmed, the ice cap abruptly began shrinking.

00:34The team links that reversal to the surge in greenhouse gases.

00:37Not everyone agrees.

00:39One outside physicist argues the next ice age wasn't expected for about 50,000 years.

00:44The study was published in the journal Science.

00:47Either way, the ice shows a climate jolted off course.

00:50Disclosure.

00:51This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced, using AI-assisted tools.

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