Barnes Ice Cap research suggests human activity halted next ice age

New research published in the journal Science indicates that human-driven climate change may have halted the onset of the next ice age. By studying the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island in Canada’s Nunavut territory, scientists observed that the ice cap, which had been steadily re-expanding for approximately 2,000 years, abruptly began to shrink around 1960.

This shrinkage coincides with rising summer temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Geochemist Nicolás Young of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory noted that the sudden reversal of glacial growth serves as a “very powerful example of how we have jolted the system.”

Researchers were able to track these historical changes by analyzing long-dead mosses entombed within the ice cap and testing nearby rocks for rare radioactive isotopes. The study suggests that human activity has significantly disrupted the natural cycles of glaciation driven by Earth’s orbital shifts.