Question

Is global warming simply part of a long-term climatic cycle which includes periodic ice ages as well?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

Explanation:

Global warming is part of a long term climatic cycle normally, however, the sun is currently in a low sunspot activity part of it's cycle, meaning there is less solar radiation emitted and less reaching the Earth.

Now this drop in solar activity only results in a change of about 0.1% in the amount of energy from the sun but that should be enough for the Earth to be slightly cooler than normal. In fact there are some scientists that think we are do for or should be in a little ice age. So if the Earth should actually be in a cooler part of it's long-term climatic cycle and we are in fact warming, then you can see why scientists are very concerned about global warming.