Forum:Effect of an Ice Age
From Alternative History
The Nexus: Index > Effect of an Ice Age
If the majority of the central latitudes in Europe were to become tundra (and northern Europe becoming glaciated), how much of a population of 830 million would have to be evacuated in order for a comfortable living standard to be sustained by the minimized amount of resources they could produce? Would 60% be enough?--TEAKAY 14:29, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
- It would cause a dramatic shift, because not only would that affect Europe, it would affect the steppes of Russia, all of Canada, and would most likely drop sea-levels significantly. This would affect the polar caps, and the ice-shelfs of Antarctica. It would also change the weather patterns of the world dramatically. I think that 60% is an optimistic number.
- At the same time, having so much of change climate wise would mean that new land would open up; much of the continental shelf would be available for colonization; the Mediterranean and Black Seas may well become fresh water seas, as the salinity pours off and into the now shrunken Atlantic. (That and there'd be a killer "Kodak Moment" by the newly formed Gibraltar Falls.)
- The Red Sea and Persian Gulf would cease to be seas, same for San Francisco Bay and the Gulf of California. If it drops low enough the Gulf of Mexico could become a very large valley. The Red Sea and Persian Gulf would return to their status as rift valleys, largely. With such a dramatic shift in weather patterns, the Sahara and Sahel might diminish and become farmable. It's conceivable that the Europeans would again colonize North Africa to take advantage of this change. This would of course take time, and really mean that chaos would reign for the better part of a century until everything settled out. Louisiannan 18:09, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
- Would 80% evacuation be more reasonable? I also should have mentioned that the % is for the tundra and the glaciated areas are completely abandoned.
- What I was planning was that Greenland's ice sheets went into the ocean, causing 20 years of high sea levels, then the ice age sucked up all the gains and more to cause the map below (of course land gains elsewhere too).
- So it would cause the whole of the Mexican gulf to dry up too? I expected the Persian and Californian Gulfs and Red Sea to but I wasn't expecting the Mexican Gulf to as well. It was because I kind of imagined that all the ice from Greenland would just move to northern Europe and that not much more water was needed. The stopping of the Atlantic's current added more though. With Canada on the other side of the current, I thought it wouldn't experience as massive a drop in temperatures.
- The colonisation of the Sahara was already being enacted while the world was still flooded with the expectation that they would become more habitable but with an ice age, wouldn't the central regions of all the continents get even dryer? It will cause catastrophic back to back droughts and floods in China though.--TEAKAY 23:44, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
