Real Climate Records

Antarctic May Give Answer

ONE of the objects of the Norvel expedition to the Antarctic is to find out whether the climatic warming up known to be taking place in the Atlantic region is confirmed by similar phenomena in the Southern Hemisphere.

The expedition includes Norwegian, Swedish and British scientists led by the Norwegian meteorologist, Professor H. V. Sverdrup.

Stating this in an English journal recently Dr. J. Gordon Coot, a leading British meteorologist, says that weather scientists in Britain have no doubt whatever that the climates of Britain and other regions of the Northern Hemisphere are gradually but surely getting warmer.

“Factual evidence,” he says, “confirms that Britain’s climate is getting warmer, and this appears to be a part of a general softening of the climate in the northern latitudes of the Atlantic-European system.”

This opinion is not based on human judgment which, he says, is not to be relied upon in assess-

ing changes through the years. We forget very quickly. The year that has just gone by is likely to carry more weight in forming our opinion than the year of a decade or so ago.

Meteorologists have tried to rationalise weather cycles by analysis of climatic records. But they cannot reach any satisfactory conclusions on the regularity of climatic ups and downs.

One of the difficulties is the lack of facts.

Statistics do not go back far enough to take in any lengthy climatic cycles. We have to seek

more factual evidence; and we have to extend our investigations to cover much more of the earth than Britain itself.

Dr. Cook claims that one of the things we can rely on in following climatic variations is the timber line.

This is the boundary fixed by nature beyond which it is too cold for trees to grow. There is a tim-

ber line in northern Europe en- closing the polar region where the climate is too harsh to support tree growth.

There are similar timber lines on mountain ranges. “It has been shown quite definitely that the timber line in recent years has been moving further north and further up the mountain sides. Trees are growing in areas of northern Europe, and at high altitudes where they would not grow before,” he states.

ARCTIC ICE-CAP

Confirmation of this change is coming from the Arctic ice-cap.

The great slab of ice that covers the North Pole is melting much more rapidly than it is being re-

placed.

The same thing, he says, is happening to glaciers in mountains like the Alps. All are getting

smaller; some have disappeared.

One glacier in Lapland is 50 feet thinner than it was 20 years ago.

In Iceland, land that has been hidden from view for hundreds of years is now being uncovered by melting ice.

Greenland is thawing steadily.

So much for the land.

In the sea there has been a pronounced migration of staple fish—cod, herring, haddock and halibut.

The northern waters where fish are feeding in Arctic regions where previously the water has been too cold.

A graph of five-yearly mean temperatures for London discloses a slight but steady rise for more than 200 years.

The scientific study of ocean currents is carried out by the Admiralty. “Much of this work is

secret,” Dr. Cook says, “but I obtained official permission to study the information available with the co-operation of the Admiralty’s hydrographer, Dr. J. N. Carruthers.

Facts produced by the Admiralty’s oceanographers confirm that there has been a warming up of Atlantic waters.”

What is causing this warming up scientists cannot resolve.

When they have the results of the Norvel expedition they may know whether similar climatic changes have been taking place in the Antarctic and Australia!