1921 Shock News : The World Is Getting Hotter And Drier!

2 Responses to 1921 Shock News : The World Is Getting Hotter And Drier!

1. Grumpy Grampy ;) says:

   August 9, 2011 at 1:52 am

   I guess they had a lot to learn about historic climate in 1922. However our current team of climatologists appear to be just as ignorant of history.

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2. Blade says:

   August 9, 2011 at 8:33 am

   Entire text of the article …

   The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. Tuesday 20 December 1921)

   CLIMATIC CHANGES.

   IS THE WEATHER PERMANENTLY ALTERING?

   (By W. H. Clemes.)

   Dr. Griffith Taylor, in a paper recently published in the “Geographical Review” of New York, makes the following disquieting statement: —”We see that conditions in the South of Australia were probably much more arid than at present in the Pliocene summers. Possibly Australia south of the tropic received practically no rain all the year round except along the eastern coast. It is of interest to note that, as far as we can tell, all the present indications point to a temporary return to Pliocene conditions and to greater aridity in the South of Australia.” Mr. C. E. Brooks, of the Meteorological Office, Great Britain, also points out that the temperature of South-Eastern Australia and Tasmania is increasing and the rainfall decreasing. If these statements are correct it is certainly time that some adequate provision was being made, as they are not pessimistic conjectures, but are based on logical scientific knowledge derived from unimpeachable data. Geologists and allied scientists have conclusively proved that the climate of the world has been and is being governed by the cyclic law. There have been three major cycles since the dawn of the Cambrian, each approximately 100 million years in extent, and each ending in a period of intense glaciation, and having an interglacial period of a comparatively mild, warm character. Each glacial period was responsible for a great advance in the evolution of animal and vegetable forms, due to the strenuous fight for existence under severe climatic conditions, forms which were able to develop in the comparative calm of the succeeding interglacial. We find the rise of the invertebrates in the Cambrian, of the vertebrates after the Devonian, of the mammals after the Permian, and man in the Tertiary. Each of these major cycles had imposed on it a series of minor cycles, each about 200,000 years long. The last four minor cycles of the Pleistocene are responsible for the development and migrations of the four great races of man. The glaciation of these minor cycles was not as catastrophic as that of the major cycles but was severe enough to develop new types.

   Our present position in time and climate is in the 4th Interglacial of the Pleistocene, and there is every indication that we have not yet reached the middle of the period. The last glacial period left its traces on the Western mountains, the National-park, etc, and the accompanying dynamic changes have died away but the advancing temperature warns us of what may be in store for us in the future.

   The characteristic of the glacial period is the advance of the polar cold toward the Equator, bringing about a more advanced stage of zonal climate than we have at present, and shifting the tradewind deserts further towards the Equator and limiting the equatorial rain belt.

   The interglacial periods, on the other hand, are characterised by the advance polewards of tropical conditions, making for a more uniform climate over most of the world, and sending the tradewind deserts towards the poles. The tropical rainbelt then stretches further out to the north and south, and drives the anti-cyclone belts before it.

   A study of the Australian continent shows that at one time the interior was well watered, and was the home of huge, swamp-loving marsupials. This has been succeeded by the arid conditions of the past centuries, due to the advance north of the arid belt and its present retreat southward. This same change of condition has obtained in other parts of the world. The Egypt of the Pharoahs was a different place from the Egypt of today. The climate of Babylon, Carthage, Yucatan, centres of mighty empires, have grown too dry or too enervating. The climate of Tasmania, too, is changing as the arid belt advances into Southern Australia, bringing about a rise in temperature and a decrease in rainfall. This is no temporary change, but the steady advance, as in past ages, of tropical conditions. There may be variations in certain years, owing to various causes, which may appear to contradict the above conclusions, but we are living in a fool’s paradise if we neglect to make provision for what must eventually come. Dr. Taylor states that: “An increase in the temperature of the middle latitudes—which chiefly interest the white man—causes a poleward movement of the equatorial low-pressure rainbelt. This pushes the arid belt and the polar rainbelts away from the Equator, with tremendous results as regards the well-being of life in the belts affected.”

   This advance would suit Northern Australia and Canada, but will be disastrous to Southern Australia and Tasmania and the Mediterranean area.

   The whole may be summarised as follows:

   1. The world is at present passing through the Fourth Interglacial Period of the Pleistocene.

   2. Rising temperatures warn us that we have not yet reached the middle of the period.

   3. Hence the climatic belts are moving polewards from the Equator. The desert region is encroaching on the southern coasts of Australia, and affecting Tasmania, while the north coasts are getting wetter.

   4. Rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall warn us to set aside all temporary expedients, and work out a scheme that gives a reasonable promise of permanency.

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