re: #246 cliffster

re: #247 BryanS

If you look at the Milankovitch cycles, and calculate them for now and the near future, the orbital changes of the Earth would lead to a slight cooling:

An often-cited 1980 study by Imbrie and Imbrie determined that, “Ignoring anthropogenic and other possible sources of variation acting at frequencies higher than one cycle per 19,000 years, this model predicts that the long-term cooling trend which began some 6,000 years ago will continue for the next 23,000 years.”[10]

More recent work by Berger and Loutre suggests that the current warm climate may last another 50,000 years.[11]

As far as I know, there are no other viable theories, outside of Milankovitch cycles, that can explain the onset and end of ice ages. The temporal match is very good, and the underlying basic physics of radiation and orbital mechanics is very well understood.