From: siegel@acm.org   
      
   On Monday, October 6, 2014 1:53:01 PM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:   
   > On Monday, October 6, 2014 11:48:45 AM UTC-4, David E. Siegel    
   siegel@acm.org) wrote:   
   > > On Saturday, October 4, 2014 2:33:50 AM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:   
   > > > On Friday, October 3, 2014 10:33:22 PM UTC-4, bre...@sff.net wrote:   
   >    
   > > > > Weather is also an important part of worldbuilding. What would Hoth   
   be,    
   > > > > if it were not an ice planet?   
   >    
   > > > I don't quite remember if that book actually had a monolithic worldwide   
   climate.  I don't think that's really plausible for an Earthlike world.   
   >    
   > > Whether the Earth actually had an "Ice Ball" or "Slush Ball" or "White   
   Earth" climate  in the distant past is, I gather, much disputed. But it seems   
   that all   
   > >  the climate models indicate that such a thing is at least possible for a   
   more-or-less earth-like world. And of course an "ice world" in an SF story can   
   > >  be just that little bit farther from its sun, or the sun just slightly   
   cooler, making such a state more likely.   
   >    
   > > In such a case the planet might well have a relatively uniform climate   
   across the globe, at least one with far ;less variation than we presently have   
   on earth.   
   >    
   > The planet might well have NO climate.  What kind of climate does Callisto   
   and Europa have?   
   >    
      
   William Vetter who started this sub-thread, specified "an Earthlike world".   
   Would you put Callisto or Europa  into that category?    
   >    
   > So far as I can see, the snowball has some wind, but the albedo is high   
   enough that it doesn't absorb much energy to create much weather.   
   >    
   That is a climate, if not a varied or interesting one, I would think.   
   >    
   > > Whether it is plausible to have large land animals on an iceworld is   
   another question, and doubtless depends on the exact details, but many large   
   animals on   
   > >  Earth are basically browsers, and if you allow some vegetation, a browser   
   might be able to survive.    
   >    
   > Television leads me to understand that penguins in Antarctica don't browse.    
   They eat fish underwater, walk up on an ice shelf for two months to lay their   
   eggs and starve, hope to survive until they can walk back to the sea again.    
   My understanding is    
   that there is nothing to browse except dead penguins.   
      
   But will all iceworlds be precisely like Antarctica? Or might some have spare   
   but present vegetation present?   
      
   ObSF: I remember the YA SF novel _The Time of the Great Freeze_, by Silverberg   
   (or at least his name was on the cover, I gather that this didn't always mean   
   he actually wrote it). In that short novel, the earth has become if not an   
   iceball, at least much    
   more glaciated -- most of North America and all of the UK seem to be buried   
   under glacial ice sheets, but more tropical areas are not frozen.   
      
   -DES   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)