Future prospects

Abstract

The last ice age began to wane about 18,000 years ago. Path E in Figure 10.1 shows that there was a moderate increase in solar input to high northern latitudes starting about 18 kybp which could be interpreted as contributing to the end of the last ice age, although this increase in solar input was not as great as it was in several previous cycles, and these previous increases in solar input did not result in an interglacial. Solar input to high northern latitudes has been decreasing since about 11 kybp, but as yet there is no sign of any cooling effect. It remains far from clear whether and how much changes in solar input to high northern latitudes induce ice ages and interglacials. However, Stott et al. (2007) found evidence that the terminations of recent ice ages appear to have originated in the Southern Hemisphere. Ice age termination is discussed in Section 10.2.3.