WORLD GROWING WARMER

Evening Star, Issue 16778, 5 July 1918, Page 5

WORLD GROWING WARMER

Antarctic exploration baa established thb fact that *tho cap of ice over the smith polo ia shrinking. This moans, ive cro told by Dr Marsdcn Munson, of San Francisco, writing in 1 Science ’ (New York), that the gradual disappearance ; of tho Au;e of lco is still going on, the polar, ics-oaps liking too existing remnant ox the groat i co-shoot that once covered a largo part of the earth’s habitable surface. If this is true, the forces that caused the Ice Age to disappear are still at work, end explanations of that disappearance invoking come sp'-cial force or some great catastrophe must be incorrect. It is also evident that if the antarctic continent is being slowly uncovered, a now habitable:* region will ultimately bo offered to the human race. The Importance of this to tho world’s future can .scarcely bo cver-osthaatodTno retreat of the glaciers and snow-lines in our own latitudes is also uncovering land that may prove usable. Says Dr Matison : “Recant antarctic explorations and researches have yielded significant evidence regarding the problems of the Ice Age and of tiro similarity of the succession of geological climates in polar regions with those in other latitudes. “The data, secured by these expeditious arc aiono suillccnb to establish tho following promises;— “1. That antarctic ice, although covering ultras several times larger than all other iec-covered areas, is slowly decreasing in extent and deptn, “ y. That tho same succession of geological climates lias prevailed in antarctic as in other latitudes. . > . “ This imorcssjvc dence is corroborated by tha greater and still more impressive evidences of tha comparatively recent uncovering of tomnoraio land areas, and the progressive retreat of tho snow-line to higher elevations in temperate and tropical latitudes and toward the poles at sea-level, being far greater in arctic than in antarctic regions. Yv o aro therefore confronted with tho conclusions : “1. That the disappearance of tho lco Ago is an active present process and must l ba accounted for by activities and energies now at work, and that the use of assumptions and hypotheses is not permissible. “2. That the rates and lines of retreat arc and have boon determined by exposure to solar energy and tha teraooraiurcs established thereby; and by the difference in the specific heat ol the lard and water hemispheres. “ 3. That the lines of tho disappearance of ice are not conformable with those of its deposition, and mark a distinctly different exposure and climatic control from that which_ prevailed prior to the culmination of the Joo Age. “ 4. This retreat also marks a rise in mean surface temperature along these now lines, manifestly duo to recently inaugurated exposure to solar radiation and also tho inauguration of tho trapping of heat derived from such exposure which process is cumulative and has a maximum not yet reached. “The researches under the direction of Captain Scott and Sir Ernest SWklcton have therefore ....

pointed out witih unerring accuracy the vital conclusion that the same energies which have but- recently converted the glacial lake bods of panada into the most nroductive grain-fields of the world will in time convert tho tundras ot to-day into tho gruin-lioicl.i of tv-r.iorrovv. “The bearing cf this conclusion upon the ultimate development of the unman race is so far-reaching in _ its consequences that tin? great sacrifice of life attendant upou the prosecution of these researches stands forever as a memorial iu tho correction oi t*ho erroneous and wide-spread conception that tho earth is in a period of refrigeration, desiccation, and decay ; and establishes tho conclusion that it is in the springtime of a new climatic control daring which the areas lifted for man’s uses are being extended and that the moss of polar wastes will be replaced by ryo and wheat. *’