From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   On Monday, October 6, 2014 1:09:23 PM UTC-6, Michelle Bottorff wrote:   
   > J.Pascal  wrote:   
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   > > > Even Earth is believed to have once had such a climate by many    
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   > > > geologists, and one just like Hoth's at that.   
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   > > I think that all the proposed "slush-ball" Earths were before large   
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   > > animals existed.   
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   > My short story that got into the anthology _Polaris: A Celebration of   
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   > Solar Science_ (which won a science writing award), is set on an a   
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   > "slush-ball" planet.  There are large animals there.  The story features   
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   > one: a land-lving animal that hunts equatically. Ie, has an ecology   
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   > based on a polar bears.  The story was approved by a panel of "science   
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   > experts" -- apparently they didn't find the existence of polar-bear-like   
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   > creatures too implausible.   
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   > It might be possible to build a functional ecology for the creatures on   
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   > Hoth, too.  But I bet George didn't even think to try, and it's not my   
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   > job to fix his worldbuilding lapses.    
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   > I do have some ideas of my own for a true "ice world" ecology, but I   
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   > haven't found the right story to try them out on yet.   
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   One thing to keep in mind is where are the continents?  All land might be   
   mostly frozen making an Ice Planet because the continents are all at one or   
   the other of the poles, or some at each, with vast and relatively warm seas   
   around the equator.   
      
   Large animals survive in the tundra.   
      
   If deep ocean currents can go all the way around the planet without having to   
   detour north or south, that makes a difference, too. I think the result would   
   keep the poles frozen to a greater degree, but equatorial water would stay   
   warmer to greater    
   depths.... probably.  In any case, it makes a difference where the continents   
   are.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)