The last Ice Age was one that profoundly shaped Earth’s history. It was a period of dramatic climate shifts, resulting in vast ice sheets, and a world that was dominated by megafauna. Thankfully for our particular species, our homosapien ancestors were able to devise the tools needed to survive the harsh and long mega winter.
But, how different would things be now… if this intense era of cold had never come to fruition? This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if the ice age never happened? Do you need the big questions answered?
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An ice age is defined as a period of significantly reduced temperatures on our planet’s surface and in its atmosphere. They have the potential to last for millions of years at a time. In total, there have been at least five major ice ages in Earth’s past… which, coincidentally, is the same number of blockbuster movies there are in the main series of the animated “Ice Age” franchise.
But, perhaps it’s best not to use those films as a reliable source on what really happened. In order, the five major ice ages in reality were the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, the Karoo, and the Pleistocene. The Huronian (the first) happened from roughly 2.
4 to 2. 1 billion years ago. At this stage, only single-celled life existed on the planet.
Things could just about photosynthesize… but, other than that, there wasn’t much going on. Earth was a cold but also quiet place during a time that, for context, was roughly 2 billion years before the first dinosaurs appeared. The Cryogenian (the second ice age) is thought to have been by far the most extreme.
So much so that it’s commonly referred to as the “Snowball Earth” period. This was between 720 to 635 million years ago, and it was so intensely cold back then that the globe’s entire surface may have been covered in ice. There is debate as to exactly what the conditions were, with some scientists preferring to term it the “Slushball Earth”, believing that there was at least a thin layer of liquid water in places.
But, either way, there’s no doubt that the Cryogenian was brutal… especially as it arrived following a long period of tectonic and climate stability on Earth, an era that’s colloquially known as the “boring billion”, between 1. 8 and 0. 8 billion years ago.
More often than not, though, whenever we speak of the ice age, we mean the Pleistocene, or the last ice age. And this is the one that we’re going to focus on with today’s title question. What if the Pleistocene, in particular, had never happened?
Again, it comes fifth on the timeline of major ice age events (and is the most recent), starting 2. 6 million years ago and ending only 11,700 years ago. We know that the very earliest humans came into existence roughly two million years ago, which means that the majority of our species’ lifetime has played out during the Pleistocene.
It’s a stretch of time that’s often misunderstood, however. For one, Earth wasn’t always a complete frozen wasteland for the two-and-a-half million years that it lasted. Instead, the Pleistocene (as with many ice ages) was characterized by repeated glaciations, with warmer interglacial periods in between.
Heating and cooling was a global cycle and climate pattern. At the height of the glaciations, though, we know that vast ice sheets certainly did appear. The Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM, happened around 20,000 years ago.
Temperatures worldwide were approximately 11 degrees Fahrenheit below today’s average, and ice covered most of North America, Europe, and Asia. Significantly, the shifting conditions - including lower sea levels - created land bridges, which allowed humans at the time to migrate across the world map. The Bering Land Bridge linked Europe and Asia to the Americas.
Another was Doggerland, a landmass that once connected the British Isles to the European Continent. In general, the layout of Earth was significantly different. Clearly, then, the last ice age was a part of Earth’s story that played a crucial role in our species’ evolution, largely because it enabled global migration and travel.
Before the ice of that time melted and the waters rose, there were various key geographical connections that are now lost. But, nevertheless, those connections were crucial in how we were able to spread and settle as we did. Alongside this, our ancient ancestors constantly needed to adapt to the diverse environments of the time, which also had an impact on how we developed.
The advent and widespread use of clothing for warmth; learning to utilize fire; changing our diets in response to the conditions; building complex shelters to protect against the elements… these were all social, cultural and technological innovations that came about thanks to the last ice age. With the world then being dominated by megafauna, such as mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses, we had to develop new tools and weapons for hunting, as well. This was another important chapter that, in time, led to humans ascending the food chain and gaining mastery over (and territory from) other animals.
Significant cultural developments were also made, with cave art, sculptures, and symbolic objects being widely crafted for the first time in history. This kind of artistic, abstract expression indicates, too, that important steps were being made during the ice age with regards to the development of language and to the establishment of culturally unique societies. It’s no exaggeration to say, then, that without the last ice age… today’s world would look very different.
Our climate would no doubt have shifted in other ways, and it would potentially be significantly warmer right now. Although they are melting, our polar regions and high-altitude areas are still icy at present, but had we skipped the Pleistocene then those kinds of landscapes probably wouldn’t exist. Sea levels would also indeed be higher.
The land upon which the coastal cities of today stand… wouldn’t be there. Many of modern Earth’s islands… would be covered into nothingness by the ocean. Clearly, then, those bridges that have already disappeared below the water… would never have existed, either.
Which means that humans would never have traveled across them, and perhaps would never have arrived in the Americas, for instance, at all. The same could be said for Britain, parts of southeast Asia and Japan, for Australia and parts of Oceania… all of which were also, at one time, connected up differently thanks to bridges made possible by the ice age. Different routes would need to have been taken to reach all of them, which may have significantly delayed the human story.
Elsewhere, temperate and polar species (in general) would likely be less common, too, were the ice age to be removed. Tropical and subtropical species would dominate, instead, in a world without the many restrictions of extreme cold. Large mammals - including the likes of mammoths, wooly rhinoceroses, and saber-toothed cats - may never have existed.
Different kinds of megafauna will have evolved to fill their ecological roles and gaps. You can also switch the icy and rocky tundras of now… for forests and grasslands. We already have evidence that this is what happens, via fossils discovered in Antarctica which indicate that it was a lush forest before the last ice age took hold.
Perhaps, then, while humans may have struggled to make it to the Americas without the ice age, we would have found it easier to venture into Antarctica - which is another example of how intertwined with the ice age our history is. All of which means that we know we have a lot to thank the last ice age for. Or, at least, there’s a lot about us (and our world) that we can explain in light of how the ice age unfolded.
From our cultural spread to our technological growth, from our reliance on shelter to our wearing of clothes, it’s all rooted in that last, great glacial stretch. Then again, it might be argued that the ice age only really served to slow us down. For example, agricultural development only really began to happen during the warm period at the end of (and after) the ice age.
This could mean that, without the Pleistocene, we may have transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farming societies at a much earlier point. Which, in turn, could mean that our towns and cities - while advanced today - may have moved at an even greater pace, had humans evolved to settle in one place at an earlier time. Ultimately, without a time machine to go back, and without some other kind of mythical, mystical, impossible contraption to stop the ice age from happening when we get there… there’s no telling exactly how this alternate history would have taken shape.
But it’s a sure bet that the trajectory of humankind (and of life in general) would have veered off in all new directions. Which means that every single one of us may have turned out completely differently, as well. What do you think?
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