“SCIENCE
THE ICE AGE COMETH?
Last week’s big chill was a reminder that the earth’s climate can change at any time
JUST AS LAST WEEK’S TREMORS WERE destroying highways, buildings and lives in Southern California, an even deadlier natural disaster was advancing slowly but inexorably south from Canada into the U.S. By midweek a huge mass of frigid arctic air had practically paralyzed much of the Midwest and East.
Temperatures in dozens of cities dropped toall-time lows: -22°F in Pittsburgh; -25° in Akron, Ohio, and Clarksburg, West Virginia; -27° in Indianapolis, Indiana. Chicago schools closed because of cold weather for the first time in history, Federal Government offices shut down in Washington, and East Coast cities narrowly escaped widespread power outages as overburdened electric utilities struggled to keep homes heated. Hundreds of motorists in New Jersey had to be rescued by snowmobile from an impassably icy highway, and thousands of the homeless crammed into New York City’s shelters to avoid freezing. By week’s end the unprecedented cold wave had killed more than 130 people.What ever happened to global warming? Scientists have issued apocalyptic warnings for years, claiming that gases from cars, power plants and factories are creating a greenhouse effect that will boost the temperature dangerously over the next 75 years or so. But if last week is any indication of winters to come, it might be more to the point to start worrying about the next Ice Age instead. After all, human-induced warming is still largely theoretical, while ice ages are an established part of the planet’s history. The last one ended about 10,000 years ago; the next one—for there will be a next one—could start tens of thousands of years from now. Or tens of years.
Or it may have already started.”Time Magazine January 31, 1994
