What is an ice age? The term ice age refers to a period when the earth’s temperatures remain below freezing long enough to form ice sheets like those at the north and south poles. As long as those ice sheets remain in any form, we are still technically in an ice age. When those ice sheets disappear, the ice age is over.

What many people really fear is something that geologists say has happened only once in all of earth’s history. That is the snowball earth theory. In the snowball earth scenario, the entire planet is covered by ice and no land is visible. If the theory is correct, this event would have been the most devastating to life on earth, in whatever form that may have been. When people today think of an ice age, what they really fear is a snowball earth.

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Wait a minute. China is already the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases and expects to triple its liquefied natural gas demand over the next 10 years, but also claims to be working to reduce carbon emissions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair seems convinced that China is committed to reducing carbon emissions beginning in 2011.

PM Blair told news agencies that he believes reduced carbon emissions are at the heart of the Chinese economic growth plans. All of this in the shadow of a recently approved deal for ExxonMobil and PetroChina to export Australian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to China in record-setting amounts.

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Deforestation is the permanent loss of forests and woodlands. Tree farms are not included in this definition, since they are farmed rather than naturally occurring. Naturally occurring forests and woodlands cover about 21% of the earth’s land mass. Unfortunately, about 1.8 million square feet of natural forest is being destroyed every minute!

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Permafrost is defined as soil that has remained at or below 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) for two years or more. There does not need to be ice or snow present to identify permafrost. Most permafrost is located near the North and South Poles and dates back millions of years. The area of the Earth covered by permafrost is constantly shrinking and global warming is credited with the loss of large amounts of ancient permafrost.

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