RESEARCH ON WEATHER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28823, 18 February 1959, Page 11

RESEARCH ON WEATHER

“World Growing Warmer”

(N.Z Press Asioewtton-CoDvrtoM)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17.

New information gathered in the Antarctic tends to confirm the belief of weather-men that " the world is in the midst of a longterm warming trend. This was reported today by United States Weather Bureau scientists. They said the temperature rise all over the world was estimated at no more than two or three degrees every one hundred years. During the Internatonal Geophysical Year, Weather Bureau meteorologists collected extensive records on' the Antarctic Continent. They intend to do so as long as the present United States Antarctic programme ' lasts. Previously, only sporadic figures had been gathered by polar experts. Dr. H„ E. Landsberg, director of the bureau's Office of Climatology, said that while the new Antarctic temperature data was not conclusive, it was consistent with the hypothesis that the entire world was slowly getting warmeri The present trend dated from about the beginning of this 'Jhe cause? “Wjl don’t know,” Dr. Landsberg said. "We know only the effect. One theory is that the change is man-made, that a blanket of carbon dioxide given off by the burning of coal and oil 'retards the radiation of heat by the eafth. “Another possible explanation is an increase in the sun’s radiation.” .

Dr. Landsberg said that for nine-tenths of its Jife of between 3,000,000,000 and 6,000,000,000 years the earth has been relatively warm—with the long warm eras occasionally disrupted by ice ages. He said the world was just now recovering from the last ice age —with the recovery occurring in spurts, with ups and downs of temperature. Referring to the Antarctic temperature research, Dr. Landsberg said:' “What comparable figures we do have do not contradict the idea of a general (temperature)* uptrend in the Antarctic. Our information as to what is happening pear the other (north) pole is much more conclusive. Besides temperature figures, we have physical evidence.'! ■ Dr. Landsberg said: “In Alaska, glaciers are retreating . . . the ice in the Arctic Ocean is only/ about as half as thick as it was in the late nineteenth century . . . the harbour of Spitsbergen is open twice as long each year as it was in 1812.”

The. weather expert said that there bad been "a spectacular warming trend” in the last two or three years along the Pacific coast, from California to British Columbia.