AN ARCTIC WITHOUT ICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12720, 15 August 1919, Page 2

AN ARCTIC WITHOUT ICE.

WASTED WARMTH FOR ICEBOUND COAI3TS. Down the coast of Labrador (says a London paper) there sweeps « current only second to the Gulf Stream in power, but while the Gulf Stream is warm, this pours straight out of the north and bears with it the chill of the Arctic. It is owing to this current that all that coast from Newfoundland down to New York suffers from so severe a winter climate. The'cold' of tho Labrador current meeting; with tho Gulf stream causes the constant fogs, which are so great a danger to trans-Atlantic traffic. These two currents meet on the hanks Of Newfoundland, and the effect on the Gulf stfeam is disastrous. It is not only cooled,, but spread out fanwis©, so that;,it, loses, three-fourths of all its power fdr godd, It is'.soberly suggested'that, by building a jetty, 200 miles long across th© shoals,, which ' erfend;.eastward 'from Newfoundland*. the Labrador current Would be turned eastward into.. deep water, where “it would naturally .sink', and no longer interfere With the Gulf Stream.- ■ . ' , ' . i • , ... This warm, .blue river would then pass unchecked on its northward course and striking against tho Arctic ice fields would melt them away. The whole climate of the Arctic Circle would be changed, the British Isles and all Western Europe benefiting enormously, while at the same time . Eastern North America would no longer shiver under winter blizzards, and Labrador would blossom like a rose.