“JUNE 25, 1947.
WORLD.CLIMATE GETTING WARMER,
Scientist Claims Glaciers: Melting Fast
New York (UP)}—The world’s cli- mate is gradually getting warmer, |according to’ Prof, Hans Ahlman, Swedish geographer and glaciologist of the University of Stockholm, who is now on a lecture tour of the United States.
The glaciers of the Arctic, he points out, are melting more rap- idly, which means the water is getting warmer. That, in turn, makes many kinds of fish migrate further north than hitherto—among them sed. The drift ice does not spread over as large a territory as in years ‘past.
Thus the shipping season of coal from the Spitzbergen fields bas in- creased from 95 days at the beginning of the century to 200 days.
This improvement in the climate has also resulted in the growth of forests in areas which earlier were treeless. Barley has now reached as far north as Norway, and craps are in general more abundant in parts where they were poor before. |
The tropics, too, have been subject to change in the last 15 to 20 years, though the increase in heat is less noticeable there. But Prof. Ahlman sounded a warning note about the growing speed at which the glaciers are melting. If it continues unabated, he fears it may mean vast inundations of inhabited coasts and low-lying country in many parts of the world.”
