Are warm oceans necessary for ice ages?

I think Shay is confusing Greenland with what happened during the Younger Dryas which is theorized to be caused by a massive amount of fresh water that entered the St. Lawrence Sea Way and potentially disrupted the Gulf Stream. There isn't much reason to believe that Greenland would melt in any significant way that would duplicate that effect.

I agree with you. It is counter intuitive and it wouldn't be a cause. Ice ages are caused by the Milankovitch cycles which involve the variations in the orbit around the sun and axis of rotation. That said, it might appear that warm water is a cause because in every interglacial, the water warms and then cools again but the causes of the warming and subsequent cooling are related to other factors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

Yes. Warm oceans are necessary for an ice age to occur

BECAUSE: the thermohaline current runs throughout the earth and brings heat up to the colder regions like Iceland (they have so much hot water they pay for cold water!). If there was a large mass of ice (like greenland) and the thermohaline current got messed up and all that warm water went up to Greenland, the warm water would melt the ice, causing a new ice age.