We may turn into an ice cube.
That may have been a reason (or the reason or one of the reasons) that the earth turned into an ice cube before. But, it came out of that state and we are where we are now.
For all I know, this sort of thing with the sunspot magnetic fields could have been going on for a long time. It could have been part of the reason for the Maunder Minimum and may have been part of the reason for the last ice age.
The thing is, I don't know if it had any part in those events, but we do know that those events happened in the past and we came out of them, as we are here now.
So, as I said, it's way too speculative to attach some kind of significance and/or connection of these sunspot magnetic fields to what is going on now and say that we are going to "drop off a cliff" or something like that.
We just don't know -- but the earth continues "being here" nonetheless, regardless of how much we know or don't know... :-)
Yes the earth may be here.
My point is that what we don’t know may indicate that we are just spinning our wheels in God’s Sandbox.
“..but the earth continues “being here” nonetheless, regardless of how much we know or don’t know... :-)”
Very true - but civilization may not be. A real “ice age” (not some puny Maunder Minimum) would put a real crimp in our style. Crops (and eating) primarily.
The last time we had an “interglatial warm period” it lasted about 15,000 years IIRC (120,000 years ago).
We are now about 13,000 years (IIRC) into “our” warm period. Interesting how civilizations are just about the same age. (We like it warm!)
I imagine that there will be mass migrations to the southern latitudes with no doubt lots of territorial fighting. Perhaps a market for large domes and self-sufficient communities in the middle latitudes.