"We're well on our way into the next ice age," says this video from the National Geographic. "One of our major challenges will be how to keep us from killing each other." (I agree.)

"We are hardwired at a genetic level to seek survival at almost any cost," says Dr. Irwin Redlener of Columbia University. Our base survival instincts will kick in as the food chain collapses, says Redlener, an expert at the National Cdnter for Disaster Preparedness. Civilization as we know it will change forever. We could see deadly competition for food, for water, and for power, as civilization collapses. (I agree.)

"Global sea levels could drop 400 feet as water is locked up in ice. Billions of people could perish as ice sheets two-miles-thick cover the land. Cities like London and New York may be buried beneath thousands of feet of ice." . (I agree.)

Video Commentary From Robert

I agree with all of the above, and even though the video contains some misleading statements, I think it's worth watching just for the special effects.

The video contains the statement that we could plunge into an ice age "within 30,000 years," which is ludicrous. I have no idea how they came up with such a number. It also has a graphic showing the entire globe turning white, a most unlikely scenario.

And finally, the video says that humans will survive in a few green belts of agriculture on both sides of the equator. I think there will be many, many areas where agriculture will thrive and humans will survive, because it doesn't really get all that much colder during an ice age - it's just that we get more precipitation in the winter.

During the last ice age, for example, Seattle was buried beneath 4,000 feet of ice. But when scientists look at the kinds of plants that grew just a couple of hundred miles south of the ice sheets, they find that temperatures were only about seven degrees colder than today. We can easily survive a seven-degree drop in temperatures.

The problem will be food. I agree with Redlener. We'll be killing each other for a handful of biscuits and - oh, how I hate saying this - cannibalism will be rampant. (Remember Donner Pass?)