CLIMATIC CHANGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26354, 8 January 1947, Page 4

CLIMATIC CHANGES

THE PUBLIC REACTION SUBJECT FOR PET THEORIES GUNS, CURRENTS, AND BYRD Although public opinion treats the majority of scientific subjects with scant interest, the weather is apparently regarded as being legitimately within the layman’s sphere of theorising. The weather is something which affects everybody, and therefore it is something upon which-everybody can .form whole private theories. Just how varied arid weird such theories are was discovered by a Daily Times reporter when he came to check up on public opinion concerning the increasingly tardy and attenuated summers. Scientific opinion seems to hold that weather travels in indeterminate, but recurrent, 35-year cycles connected, of course, with the sun. Apparently, we are at present at the wet stage of such a cycle. Such logic is, however, unsatisfactory to the public, and individual speculation on the cause for climatic changes ranges from the ingenious to the absurd. Amateur dabblers in meteorological cause and effect approximate to;, fact when they produce elaborate charts of weather periods. Most of-these seem to be somewhat pessimistic,. and their owners prophesy that, in the popular phrase, “ things will be a lot worse before they are better.” Unfortunately, their basically sound premises are handed on from person to person until they reach a garbled stage which suggests the; immediate construction of an ark might be a sound move towards personal insurance. . The Moving Pole Another popular school of thought tends towards the “ moving pole ” : theory. They contend that the whole of the Antarctic is on the move, and from the way they tell the story, residents of Invercargill would be well advised to keep their bags packed. The theory, of course, seems to overlook the fact that the Antarctic is a solid land mass, or possible two huge islands. The Arctic would be a better subject for any sych postulation. This concept is closely related to one which holds that the ocean currents are changing their courses. Just what sort of whim would persuade an ocean current to start flowing backwards is open to speculation. The best explanation which this school can offer is that the constant sub-oceanic' earthquakes have so distorted the surface of the sea floor that the urrents have been channelled into detours. ; ; ; ;' '’; ■ There are a few cheerful souls who content themselves with modest jests concerning the weather. They have not bothered to think out any explanation for its fickleness. “Nice day for ducks,” they greet one when it is raining. “What day is summer on this year? ” they, query with high hilarity. The answer, of course, is, \ “You’ve had it—it was on a Tuesday.” But they are the happy philosophers of this world, who take whatever fate may offer without seeking an explanation. Always the War Of course, no survey of the opinion on the weather would be complete without a glance at the effects of the war. That is a theory which has been in existence since the discovery of gunpowder, and is a sturdy meteorological corollary to any speculation pn the after-effects of war. Those who entertain this theory have a fair amount of somewhat generalised

evidence to produce. It is, they say, an established fact that bombardments have made rain fall. Pressed for more circumstantial details, they are inclined to be vague. They are, however, correct, and there are recorded instances when explosions have been utilised for producing rainfall, but they forget that on such occasions, there have had to be climatic conditions close to the natural pre-rainfall state. Of course, the atomi? bomb, which has been blamed for almost everything, past, present, and future, bears the brunt of such criticism. Dark are the prophecies of those who hold that •man should not dabble with such devastating scientific forms. Not only will they blow the weather all out of shape, they say. but it Will also be only a matter of time before they completely destroy the world (Hiroshima and Nagasaki papers please copy). i • Expeditions Blamed Specific as any theory is'one which was advanced to the Daily Times by a local resident. He blamed all the climatic upsets of to-day on Antarctic expeditions. His reason was ingenious. ‘'lf you yell out in the mountains,” he said, “you’ll probaoly start an avalanche. So you can imagine what happens when aircraft and ships and hundreds of men are operating in the Antarctic.” Judgment on this theory may as well be suspended until Admiral Byrd’s men get to yelling round th? South Pole, which should be almost any day now. It is possible that some more definite explanation of climatic changes may come out of Byrd’s investigations on the polar mass. It may be that the title of Eugene O’Neill’s latest play, “The Iceman Cometh}” will be found to hold a more disturbing world significance. This would be in line with the ideas of those who hold that the second Ice Age is ..creeping up on us. Or it may be that logical scientific explanations will be substantiated, which seems much more probable. Whatever may be the explanation for the distinct and unpleasant changes which have occurred in the anticipated climate, politicians are happy. It is one of the few popular bones of contention which cannot be blamed on the Government, no matter what happens '