Jakarta \u2014 Nature had already begun preparing. Around 2,000 years ago,\npolar ice sheets began to grow again, a sign that Earth was heading\ntowards its next ice age. But scientists now say that this did not\nhappen\u2014not because of a celestial object or a volcano, but because of\nhumans themselves.<\/p>\n
Technically, Earth is still in an ice age that began 34 million years\nago, because the ice in Antarctica and Greenland has never melted\ncompletely. During that period, the planet has repeatedly shifted\nbetween cold phases that freeze the land and warmer phases that melt\nit.<\/p>\n
Humans are now living through a warm phase that began around 11,700\nyears ago.<\/p>\n
But signs have begun to change. Recent research indicates that\nancient ice sheets in North America had shrunk to their smallest extent\naround 3,000 years ago, before beginning to grow again 2,000 years ago.\nThe process was following a pattern that had repeated for millions of\nyears\u2014until it suddenly stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process had just begun; everything was normal, the next ice age\nwas on its way, and then it suddenly stopped,\u201d said Nicol\u00e1s Young, a\nresearcher at Columbia University who led the study, as quoted by IFL\nScience on Thursday (29 October 2026).<\/p>\n
Evidence from the remains of ice sheets in Canada shows that the ice\ncontinued to grow until around 60 years ago. Then temperatures rose and\nits growth came to an abrupt halt. Human-driven warming was sufficient\nto counter the cooling that would otherwise have taken place.<\/p>\n
The impact is not merely a delay. Professor Shaun Marcott estimates\nthat human-caused climate change could postpone the next ice age by\nhundreds of thousands of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumans have now become a geological force capable of disrupting a\nnatural cycle that has lasted millions of years and changing Earth\u2019s\nclimate far into the future,\u201d the research team wrote in the journal\nScience.<\/p>\n
This change does not simply mean that ice will not expand. The loss\nof the ice-age cycle would affect Earth\u2019s biological and physical\nsystems, which have evolved alongside it over the past two million\nyears. Could Earth return to its cycle if carbon emissions were reduced?\nScientists say that remains possible, but the outcome is uncertain.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/human-activity-has-halted-earths-million-year-cycle-1793281833", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }