History Main / GlacialApocalypse

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': ZigZagged in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E75TheMidnightSun The Midnight Sun]]". Most of the story is focused on the Earth getting hotter and hotter because it is moving closer and closer to the sun, with the ever-increasing and unbearable heat slowly killing off Earthly life and humanity with it. But it turns out it's AllJustADream -- in reality, the Earth is getting colder and colder because it's moving away from the sun, and will eventually become an uninhabitable ball of ice.

* ''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]]; he patterned the sunblock after the notoriously delicate Carl's own, and [[DidntThinkThisThrough he hadn't bothered to check]] just how strong ''that'' was. 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.

* In ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'' Thanos' daughter shows Ben Grimm a planet that's a solid ball of ice as sign of the destruction Thanos is capable of. She explains that they're actually standing on the solidified ''upper atmosphere'', as Thanos reduced the planet's temperature to below zero.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The last geologic period in Serina's history, the Ultimocene, is marked by drastic global cooling caused by the halting of volcanic activity (and thus of the main means by which carbon in the deep crust is released into the atmosphere) and by the locking of large quantities of carbon dioxide into the soil by earlier eras' flourishing plant life. This loss of natural greenhouse gases leads to the onset of runaway ice age conditions, as glaciers creep down from the poles and winters grow harsher and harsher. The tropical biomes are the first to collapse under the strain of cooling weather and refugee species fleeing from the temperate areas, the southern continent becomes entirely encased in ice, and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity generally ensues. Life manages to survive and thrive despite these conditions, for a time -- a holdout of the temperate forests endures for a long time on the northern continent's southern coast, and numerous plant and animal species adapt to thrive in the bitter tundra further north -- but as the glaciation continues the temperate refugium is eventually snuffed out and even the cold-adapted species slowly go extinct, as the world slowly becomes too cold and barren for any kind of life to survive.

* Website/TaerelSetting: As of the year 4E 250, such an end is incoming, the effects already starting to show in some regions. It set to starve many of the inhabits of Taerel and possbly end what civilisation is rebuilding.

Consequently, a core element of these stories is the overwhelming presence of a hostile and unpersonal world -- something too diffuse to rail against or hate even in effigy, as humanity is brought to its knees by the uncaring clockwork of the universe. Characters may be able to ensure their own survival or those of others, perhaps even establish a community of survivors, but very rarely will they be able to preserve more than a fragment of civilization in a cold and barren world.

** In ''ComicBook/TheSuperRevengeOfLexLuthor'', the eponymous villain builds a weather-altering machine, ushering in a new glacial period.

'''ComicBook/LexLuthor:''' ''"Ha, Ha! I've started a new Ice Age. Those advancing glaciers will panic the city and we'll be able to loot to our hearts' content!"''
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfLuthor'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} visits a planet whose atmosphere was crystalized during a war eons ago.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story arc ''ComicBook/TheSuperRevengeOfLexLuthor'', the eponymous villain builds a weather-altering machine, ushering in a new glacial period.
-->'''Henchmen:''' ''"Your dyno-frost machine is terrific, Luthor! It's altering the climate for hundreds of square miles!"''\\

* So far, this has known to have happened only twice in recorded prehistory. The first being the Snowball Earth extinction that took place a billion years ago which nearly wiped out all life, and the previous Ice Age just a few tens of thousands of years ago. The ice age, while obviously far less severe in comparison to Snowball Earth, still resulted in the extinction of most known large Cenozoic mammals that didn't have a thick, insulated coat of fur (or wearing very thick clothes in our case).

* ''Anime/AstraLostInSpace'': Once the characters reach [[spoiler:the end of their journey and find the Earth]], they find that it was hit by a meteorite that wiped out all life on the planet. The debris from that impact blocked out enough sunlight that the whole planet became completely encased in ice.
* ''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.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheSuperRevengeOfLexLuthor'', the eponymous villain builds a weather-altering machine, ushering in a new glacial period.

* ''Literature/CatsCradle'' 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.]]

* ''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[=/=]21st 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.

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.

* ''Fanfic/PurpleDays'': In this ''Literature/AsongOfIceAndFire'' fanfiction, this is what will occur if the Long Night wins. The Others will cover the world in ice and snow whilst systematically exterminating all sentient and semi-sentient life, then the Long Night will depart the world [[EternalRecurrence and wait for life to recover before it starts the extinction event all over again]].

* In ''Videogame/EvilGenius2'', the goal of DLC character Polar is to plunge the world into a new ice age through a DoomsdayDevice capable of freezing the planet.

* ''The World in Winter'' by Creator/JohnChristopher. Britain is covered by an ice age forcing refugees to pour into Africa where--in a historical irony--they become second class citizens.

* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'': Discussed in [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/29/savor-the-savior one strip]] where Gabe asks about the Wii under its codename of the "Nintendo Revolution" with Jesus, who mistakes his inquiry as being about the cyber-ape revolution of 2014 that would bring about one of these.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Discussed in [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/29/savor-the-savior one]] ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' strip when Gabe asks about the Wii under its codename of the "Nintendo Revolution" with Jesus, who mistakes his inquiry as being about the cyber-ape revolution of 2014 that would bring about one of these.