From: mdhangton@gmail.com

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?

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.
>  
> 
> 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.

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