History Main / GlacialApocalypse

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Narrowly avoided when the ponies defeat [[AnIcePerson The]] [[AnimalisticAbomination Windigos]] and put an end to their EndlessWinter before it gets ''too'' bad, but ponykind still escapes by the skin of their teeth

* ''Film/TheWanderingEarth'': The Earth entering a new ice age is the natural consequence of transforming it into a PlanetSpaceship and send it flying away from the Sun (to escape it becoming a red giant several billion years too early). The cold, which is capable of instantly killing a person if they are not protected, is one of the greatest threats in the journey to save the planet when it threatens to crash with Jupiter.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' the planet has seasons that last for years and the story starts as a prophetically harsh [[ArcWords winter is coming]]. And there's an undead army coming down from the north side of the kingdom's giant ice wall.

This is the other key aspect of glacial apocalypses -- there's usually little to nothing that can be done to prevent or undo them, at least on a global scale. Most other global disasters typically give the main characters an obvious target to deal with -- even a disease is a foe to fight against. This provides the heroes a means of undoing the end of the world and a discrete figure to serve as the narrative's antagonist. An ice age does not do this -- what are you supposed to strike against? The snow? The chilling air? The darkness? The lack of food? A specific villain may sometimes be responsible for these events, but the majority of the time global ice ages are the result of grand climatic, geologic or cosmic events happening beyond and in spite of humanity, and which are entirely beyond human civilization's ability to affect. When the ice age ''is'' caused by human action, it's typically the result of some kind of blunder -- nuclear winter is a common culprit, as are attempts to undo GlobalWarming GoneHorriblyRight -- that broke the global climate beyond repair.

In practical terms, the main perils of the ice age are hostile climate and resource scarcity. As the glaciation grinds on, more and more land becomes covered by snow and the advancing glaciers; this buries cities, freezes farmland and destroys forests, gradually starving civilization and the global ecosystem alike of food, resources and living space. The environment itself becomes the enemy, as survival becomes impossible outside of artificially warmed areas and every breath is painful.

Civilization must adapt or be destroyed, and survival will be hard. In early stages of these events, society often breaks down gradually. True collapses will begin in polar and then temperate areas, the first to freeze over, although warmer climes may experience their own issues with fleeing refugees and political disturbances even before feeling the first hints of chill themselves. Once the ice age has progressed further, sometimes to the point of turning the world into [[SingleBiomePlanet ice planet]], civilization will endure only in isolated pockets of survivors, usually huddling around or within artificially warmed areas, and food and resources will be scarce and extremely valuable for anyone who doesn't feel like BravingTheBlizzard to forage for whatever's left in the frozen ruins of civilization. Survival typically comes at a cost, and in extreme cases humanity will be ground into nonexistence no matter what it does. Prevailing feelings of hopelessness or despair are often present as civilization slowly recedes and pockets of survivors are snuffed out over time.

* ''Manga/FirePunch'': Earth's population has been almost completely wiped out by sudden EndlessWinter and chaos. By the start of the series there's not much hope left.
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': The 1990s anime has one of these to explain how [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas Crystal Tokyo]] of the 30th Century was formed with Usagi becoming Neo-Queen Serenity and ruler of Earth. As it was an addition to the anime and not part of Crystal Tokyo's backstory in [[Manga/SailorMoon the original manga]], little is known exactly about the event. The only tidbits are that sometime in the 20th[=/=]21th century Earth ended up in a new ice age, and humanity was sent into a deep slumber. It's only centuries later that Usagi, with the power of the Silver Crystal, was able to restore Earth and awaken the populace.

* ''Literature/MoonCrashSeries'': An asteroid impact sends the Moon closer to the Earth, causing it to exert a stronger gravitational pull that, in addition to powerful storms, extreme tides and tidal waves, causes increased volcanism worldwide. The immense quantities of ash and dust sent into the atmosphere cover much of the sky, dramatically lowering the Earth's temperature; frosts become common in August at the mid-latitudes and agriculture becomes effectively impossible, leading to widespread famine. The novels are told through the diaries of a number of teenagers caught in the cataclysm as they try to survive the lack of food, intense cold, gradual collapse of society and unpredictable weather extremes.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': In "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E5SmallWorlds Small Worlds]]", TheFairFolk threaten to create this if they don't get what they wnat.

* ''Franchise/TheWitcher'': The White Frost is an apocalyptic event that occurs throughout TheMultiverse in which the story takes place. No one knows if it's an EldritchAbomination, an ever-expanding EldritchLocation, some sort of DoomsdayDevice or just the inevitable NaturalEndOfTime, but it slowly creeps along different planes of the multiverse, and any plane currently in its grip suffers a slow and gradual icy doom. Finding a way to stop it is a priority of almost every major character, whether heroic or villainous. In one case, Geralt and an ally travel through a world that has been ravaged by the White Frost and reading the {{Apocalyptic Log}}s there give a horrific impression of what it's like to slowly realize that the snow piling outside your doors is ''never'' going to stop and that it'll just keep getting colder and colder...

** Father Llymic, one of the Elder Evils, aims to do this alongside TheNightThatNeverEnds. [[SealedEvilInACan Should he be released from his prison]], the Sun will start rising later and later and setting earlier and earlier every day, until it will cease appearing at all. This will come with a corresponding drop in temperature as the Sun's warmth vanishes, plunging the planet in an ever-worsening ice age. Should Father Llymic not be stopped, the world will become a lifeless ball of ice that will never know light or warmth again.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Ice Age was a period of Dominaria's history started in consequence of the Brothers' War, when Urza ignited the Golgothian Sylex, devastating a continent, annihilating Mishra's forces, igniting his own Planeswalker spark, and ushering in a period of plunging global temperatures. The period immediately following the blast, referred to as the Dark, saw four centuries of slowly cooling temperatures, dwindling resources and shrinking civilizations, as kingdoms fractured into scattered city-states, bandits and goblins haunted the roads and zealotry and despots rose to power to lead increasingly lost and frightened people. The Dark culminated in the Ice Age, which lasted over 2000 years and saw the gradual collapse of much of civilization as glaciers covered great swathes of land and primordial monsters such as dragons, mammoths and dinosaurs roamed the world. When the Ice Age eventually ended, however, the ensuing Thaw also proved incredibly destructive -- the rise in warmth and humidity fostered widespread plagues, while floods and rising sea levels spread further devastation and caused the continent of Terisiare to fragment into an archipelago of islands.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'': Auriga is a dying world doomed by a growing ice age. Every few months, it's plunged into abrupt winters that kill crops and production. As the game goes on, the winters become longer and longer until the world is plunged in an eternal ice age past turn 300. The eight empires of Auriga are trying to [[HomeworldEvacuation get the hell off their world]] before that happens. In ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'', a few centuries after the ending, Auriga is a lifeless ball of ice and rock, and only two of the factions are confirmed to have survived, one of them only partially.

* ''VideoGame/FrostPunk'': A series of massive volcanic eruptions [[spoiler:and also maybe a meteor knocking Earth out of its normal orbit]] cause global temperatures to drop precipitously and leave only a few isolated pockets of civilization huddling around generators. The player takes control of New London, and will have to carefully manage resource gathering and consumption in order to keep the little island of heat going in the cold. A central aspect of the game is the struggle against a hostile environment that humanity is not suited for, and the forced choice between morality and survival -- the player is presented with only two viable paths for survival, one leading to military despotism and the other to theocracy, and is left to figure out how much is too much and how much is justified to ensure that the city lives on.

* ''Videogame/SoulSeries'': This result is revealed to be the true goal of the [[UnholyHolySword Soul Calibur]]. The Calibur is [[NemesisWeapon opposed to]] its progenitor and counterpart, the [[EvilWeapon Soul Edge]]. Soul Edge seeks endless war, bloodshed, torment and chaos across the world while Soul Calibur wants peace, harmony and order. Its preferred method of attaining this, however, would be by [[WorldOfSilence freezing the whole world over]]. In certain [[ItsAWonderfulFailure bad endings]], we are shown such an apocalyptic scenario as ice envelops the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGeniusS1E6JimmyOnIceBattleOfTheBands Jimmy on Ice]]", Jimmy is hoping for a snow day and decides to cool off the atmosphere with a giant bottle of sunblock. After the kids play in the snow for a day, Jimmy wakes up to discover [[GoneHorriblyRight it's -30 degrees Fahrenheit outside]] and that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he caused a second ice age]]. The adults are leaving to go hunt for meat like they're nomadic cavemen, and the townsfolk think they need to sacrifice Jimmy to stop the snow.

* ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'': The Late Storm Age and much of the Great Darkness were dominated by plunging temperatures and worsening climates due to the rise in power of the ice god Valind and his covering vast portions of the northern lands beneath a massive glacier, the vanishing of celestial bodies, and the eventual breaking of the world by Chaos. The Later Storm Age itself saw the world plunge into an endless winter of cold storms and barren lands, where only monsters and hardy creatures survived and most nations and empires crumbled one by one. The Great Darkness saw the near-total extinction of conventional plants and animals, while the land was completely frozen over and scoured by killing winds and toxic gases and sapient races clung on only in scattered, desperate holdouts -- except for the darkness-loving trolls, who swarmed everywhere and preyed on everything. By the time the Sun rose again in the Dawn, almost everything in Glorantha had died.

-->Creator/RobertFrost, "Fire and Ice"

* ''[[Anime/AstraLostInSpace Astra Lost in Space]]:'' In an instance of 'ApocalypseHow,' [[spoiler: a meteorite hits Earth, causing it to wipe out all life on the planet. The debris from that impact blocked out enough sunlight that the whole world became completely encased in ice; this happens some time before the start of the story.]]

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Ice Age was a period of Dominaria's history started in consequence of the Brothers' War, when Urza ignited the Golgothian Sylex, devastating a continent, annihilating Mishra's forces, igniting his own Planeswalker spark, and ushering in a period of plunging global temperatures. The period immediately following the blast, referred to as the Dark, saw four centuries of slowly cooling temperatures, dwindling resources and shrinking civilizations, while zealotry and despots rose to power to lead increasingly lost and frightened people. The Dark culminated in the Ice Age, which lasted over 2000 years and saw the gradual collapse of much of civilization as glaciers covered great swathes of land and primordial monsters such as dragons, mammoths and dinosaurs roamed the world. When the Ice Age eventually ended, however, the ensuing Thaw also proved incredibly destructive -- the rise in warmth and humidity fostered widespread plagues, while floods and rising sea levels spread further devastation and caused the continent of Terisiare to fragment into an archipelago of islands.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Ice Age was a period of Dominaria's history started in consequence of the Brothers' War, when Urza ignited the Golgothian Sylex, devastating a continent, annihilating Mishra's forces, igniting his own Planeswalker spark, and ushering in a period of plunging global temperatures. The period immediately following the blast, referred to as the Dark, saw four centuries of slowly cooling temperatures, dwindling resources and shrinking civilizations, while zealotry and despots rose to power to lead increasingly lost and frightened people. The Dark culminated in the Ice Age, which lasted over 2000 years and saw the gradual collapse of much of civilization as glaciers covered great swathes of land and primordial monsters such as dragons, mammoths and dinosaurs roamed the world. When the Ice Age eventually ended, however, the ensuing Thaw also proved incredibly destructive -- the rise in warmth and humidity fostered widespread plagues, while floods and rising sea levels spread further devastation and caused the continent of Terisiare to fragment into an archipelago of islands.
[[/folder]]

* Kurt Vonnegut's ''Cat's Cradle'' famously [[spoiler: ends with one of these. There's a substance called ice-nine that instantly freezes all water it comes in contact with, spreading rapidly outward in a chain reaction... and someone drops it in the ocean.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'': In "Johnny Degrees Below Zero", Johnny and Dukey take a MagnetismManipulation gun too far and cause Earth to realign, making their hometown Porkbelly the new North Pole. As piles of snow start falling and Polar Bears moves in, they must urgently set out to restore Earth's alignment before the town freezes to death.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'': In "Johnny Degrees Below Zero", Johnny and Dukey take a MagnetismManipulation gun too far and cause Earth to realign, making their hometown Porkbelly the new North Pole. As piles of snow start falling and SantaClaus moves in, they must urgently set out to restore Earth's alignment before the town freezes to death.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGeniusS1E6JimmyOnIceBattleOfTheBands Jimmy on Ice]]", Jimmy is hoping for a snow day and decides to cool off the atmosphere with a giant bottle of sunblock. After the kids play in the snow for a day, Jimmy wakes up to discover it's -30 degrees Fahrenheit outside and that he caused a second ice age. The adults are leaving to go hunt for meat like they're nomadic cavemen, and the townsfolk think they need to sacrifice Jimmy to stop the snow.

* ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'': In an attempt to reverse a warming climate, the governments of the world released the cooling agent CW-7 into the skies to lower global temperatures. This worked all too well and sent global temperatures crashing, enveloping the planet in ice and killing nearly everyone on Earth. By the movie's time, the cold is so intense that survival outside the titular armored train is literally impossible, forcing all of humanity within to accept the despotic rule of the train's engineers.

* ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' ends with Earl's attempts to fix the environmental damage caused by WESAYSO backfiring and starting the Ice Age when attempts to create more rain to boost plant growth create volcanic cloud cover that will take thousands of years to dissipate. It eventually becomes clear that the snow is not going away, and that the dinosaurs will die out completely. The final scene of the series has news anchor Howard Handupme telling the audience "Good night... goodbye."

* The aptly-named episode "Ice Age" of ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' is about Dr. Wily using a super refrigerant to create artificial glaciers in order to freeze over the world's major cities and replace its officials with his robots.

* ''Film/TheColony'' revolves around a colony of people trying to survive a new Ice Age brought upon by weather manipulation machines trying to reduce global warning and [[GoneHorriblyRight working way too well at that]]. By the time the film starts people are losing their minds, and much to the horror of the protagonists a cannibalistic cult has found them.