Geologically, we are living in an ice age right now.
Why this sounds fake
Ice ages feel like extinct mammoth weather, not the geologic label for the world outside today.
“Ice Age” sounds like mammoths, glaciers over cities, and a frozen past. In geology, the label is broader. NOAA describes Earth as being in the Holocene, an interglacial period within the Quaternary. Britannica describes the Quaternary as a period characterized by repeated glaciations. Because Earth still has major ice sheets, geologists can describe the larger ice-age system as ongoing even though we live in a warmer interglacial. The trick is that everyday speech uses “ice age” for the coldest chapters, while geology uses it for the whole ice-sheet era.
The geological 'Ice Age' band started 2.6 million years ago and hasn't ended — today is just a warm pulse inside it.
1 discovery explored
