Researchers say the next ice age will be late. An ice age is a long period of freezing temperatures. There is a huge increase in the amount of ice at the North and South Pole. In addition, mountain glaciers become bigger. The researchers are from Cardiff University. They believe the next ice age should arrive in 10,000 years from now. However, the researchers think the next ice age could be delayed because of human activity. A member of the research team said climate change could delay it. She said global warming could make it "very unlikely" that the next freeze will arrive on time.

The scientists said melting ice in the North and South Poles will push back the ice age. Researcher Professor Stephen Barker studied how past ice ages happened. He looked at one million years of climate data. He found relationships between changes in the Earth's axis, global temperatures, and the size of Antarctica and the Arctic. When the amount of ice was stable, ice ages happened at regular intervals. However, Professor Barker said less ice means a longer gap between ice ages. He said Earth's climate is "an interconnected system of complex processes".