This development shoots in the head the
liberals
'global warming,' doesn't it? A new ice
age coming!
The Cooling World
Yup, shore does!
They just cain't
get things right,
can they?
> There are ominous signs that the Earth's
weather
> patterns have begun to change dramatically and
> that
these changes may portend a drastic decline
> in food production with
serious political
> implications for just about every nation on
>
Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite
> soon, perhaps only 10
years from now. The regions
> destined to feel its impact are the
great
> wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R.
> in the
North, along with a number of marginally
> self-sufficient tropical
areas parts of India,
> Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and
>
Indonesia where the growing season is dependent
> upon the rains
brought by the monsoon.
>
> The evidence in support of these
predictions has
> now begun to accumulate so massively that
>
meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with
> it. In England, farmers
have seen their growing
> season decline by about two weeks since
1950,
> with a resultant overall loss in grain production
>
estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During
> the same time, the
average temperature around
> the equator has risen by a fraction of
a
> degree a fraction that in some areas can mean
> drought
and desolation. Last April, in the most
> devastating outbreak of
tornadoes ever recorded,
> 148 twisters killed more than 300 people
and
> caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage
> in 13 U.S.
states.
>
> To scientists, these seemingly disparate
incidents
> represent the advance signs of fundamental changes
> in
the world's weather. Meteorologists disagree
> about the cause and extent
of the trend, as well
> as over its specific impact on local
weather
> conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the
> view
that the trend will reduce agricultural
> productivity for the rest of the
century. If the
> climatic change is as profound as some of the
>
pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be
> catastrophic. "A major
climatic change would force
> economic and social adjustments on a
worldwide
> scale," warns a recent report by the National
> Academy
of Sciences, "because the global patterns
> of food production and
population that have evolved
> are implicitly dependent on the climate
of
> the present century."
>
> A survey completed last year
by Dr. Murray Mitchell
> of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
> reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground
>
temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945
> and 1968. According
to George Kukla of Columbia
> University, satellite photos indicated a
sudden,
> large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in
> the
winter of 1971-72. And a study released last
> month by two NOAA
scientists notes that the amount
> of sunshine reaching the ground in the
continental
> U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972.
>
> To the layman, the relatively small changes in
> temperature and
sunshine can be highly misleading.
> Reid Bryson of the University of
Wisconsin points
> out that the Earth's average temperature during
the
> great Ice Ages was only about seven degrees lower
> than
during its warmest eras and that the present
> decline has taken the
planet about a sixth of the
> way toward the Ice Age average. Others
regard the
> cooling as a reversion to the "little ice age"
>
conditions that brought bitter winters to much of
> Europe and northern
America between 1600 and
> 1900 years when the Thames used to freeze
so
> solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice
> and when
iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost
> as far south as New York
City.
>
> Just what causes the onset of major and minor ice
>
ages remains a mystery. "Our knowledge of the
> mechanisms of climatic
change is at least as
> fragmentary as our data," concedes the
National
> Academy of Sciences report. "Not only are the basic
>
scientific questions largely unanswered, but in
> many cases we do not yet
know enough to pose
> the key questions."
>
> Meteorologists
think that they can forecast the
> short-term results of the return to the
norm of
> the last century. They begin by noting the slight
> drop
in overall temperature that produces large
> numbers of pressure centers
in the upper atmosphere.
> These break up the smooth flow of westerly
winds
> over temperate areas. The stagnant air produced
> in this
way causes an increase in extremes of
> local weather such as droughts,
floods, extended
> dry spells, long freezes, delayed monsoons and
>
even local temperature increases all of which
> have a direct impact
on food supplies.
>
> "The world's food-producing system," warns
Dr.
> James D. McQuigg of NOAA's Center for Climatic
> and
Environmental Assessment, "is much more
> sensitive to the weather
variable than it was
> even five years ago." Furthermore, the
growth
> of world population and creation of new national
>
boundaries make it impossible for starving peoples
> to migrate from their
devastated fields, as they
> did during past famines.
>
>
Climatologists are pessimistic that political
> leaders will take any
positive action to compensate
> for the climatic change, or even to allay
its
> effects. They concede that some of the more
> spectacular
solutions proposed, such as melting
> the Arctic ice cap by covering it
with black soot
> or diverting arctic rivers, might create
problems
> far greater than those they solve. But the
> scientists
see few signs that government leaders
> anywhere are even prepared to take
the simple
> measures of stockpiling food or of introducing
> the
variables of climatic uncertainty into
> economic projections of future
food supplies.
> The longer the planners delay, the more difficult
>
will they find it to cope with climatic change
> once the results become
grim reality.
>
> FROM Newsweek -- April 28, 1975
>
>