According to geologic science, we are in, and have been in, an ice age for a long time: "The current ice age, the Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation, started about 2.58 million years ago..... Since then, the world has seen cycles of glaciation with ice sheets advancing and retreating on 40,000- and 100,000-year time scales called glacial periods, glacials or glacial advances, and interglacial periods, interglacials or glacial retreats. The earth is currently in an interglacial." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age