Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), Monday 16 April 1923, page 2


THE NORTH POLE

CAUSES OF CHANGE OF CLIMATE.

Is the North Pole going to melt en-tirely? Are the Arctic regions warming up, with prospect of a great climatic change in that part of the world? Science (says "Popular Science") is asking these questions. Reports from fish-

ermen, seal hunters, and explorers who sail the seas around Spitzbergen and the eastern Arctic all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, with hitherto un-heard-of high temperatures on that part of the earth's surface. Observations to that effect have covered the last five years during which the warmth has been steadily increasing. In August of this year the Norwegian De-partment of Commerce sent an expedition to Spitzbergen and Bear Island under the leadership of Dr. Adolf Hoel, professor of geology in the University of Christiania, the object in view being to survey and chart areas productive of coal and other minerals. The expedition sailed as far north as 81deg. 20min. N. latitude in ice free water. Such a thing, hitherto, would have been deemed impossible. The United States Consul at Bergen, Norway, Mr. Ifft, also reports the recent extraordinary warmth in the Arctic. He quotes incidentally the statements of Cap-tain Martin Ingebrigtsen, a mariner who has sailed those seas for 54 years. The captain says that he first noted an unusual warmth in 1918; and since then tempera-tures have risen steadily higher. To-day the eastern Arctic is "hardly recognisable as the same region of 1869 to 1917." Many of the old landmarks are greatly altered, or no longer exist. Where for-merly there were great masses of ice, these have melted away, leaving behind them accumulations of earth and stones such as geologists call "moraines." At many points where glaciers extended far into the sea half a dozen years ago they have now entirely disappeared. The change in temperature has brought great changes in the plant and animal life of the Arctic. Formerly vast shoals of whitefish were found in the waters round Spitzbergen, but last summer the fisher-men sought them in vain. Seals, which used to be plentiful in those seas, have almost entirely disappeared. It would seem as if the ocean must have become uncomfortably warm for some of its deni-zens which formerly frequented those la-titudes, causing them to flock northward towards the Pole. On the other hand, other kinds of fishes, hitherto unknown so far north, have made their appearance. Shoals of smelt have arrived, and immense schools of herring are reported by fishermen along the west coast of Spitzenbergen. Formerly the waters about Spitzbergen have held an even summer temperature in their neighborhood of 5 deg. above freez-ing point. This year it rose as high as 28. deg. Last winter the ocean did not freeze over even on the north coast of Spitzenbergen. This is on the authority of Dr. Hoel. This state of affairs is a cause of much surprise and even astonishment of scien-tists, who wonder whether the change is merely temporary or the beginning of a great alteration of climatic conditions in the Arctic, with consequent melting of the polar ice sheet. An evidence of how great the change is that has come over the climate in the Arc-tic regions may be best understood by the struggles of the early explorers to dis-cover the north west passage, or the open body of water existing around North Ame-rica, leading eventually to India, The pas-sage wag first undertaken by way of Spitz-bergen, but the thick ice repeatedly beat back the ships of the explorers. From exploits to discover the north-west passage many of the trips for the conquest of the North Pole were eventu-ally undertaken. Parry, the great British explorer, was first to negotiate the open passage be-tween Greenland and Bering Sea, reaching half-way across the top of North America before he was hedged in by the ice, and, with supplies becoming low, dared go no further. He was first to discover the north mag-netic pole, and to report the astonishing fact that the needle of his compass turn-ed and pointed directly south. Unquestion-ably his conquests in the frozen Arctic led to the actual penetrating of the north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pa-cific by McClure, Collinson, and Amund-sen later on. From the difficulties besetting these great Arctic adventures some idea of the tremendous thickness of the ice may be had. Even at the very spot north of Spitzbergen where open water was seen this summer, such well-known explorers as Hudson and Phipps had great difficulties in penetrating on account of the thickness of the ice, and in spite of their equipment none of them could, go even as far over the ice at the spot where the open water showed a few months ago. Not only are the seals and polar bears finding the climate unpleasantly warm for them, but it is said that the Eskimos in some localities are complaining and are finding their fur clothes too warm for them. The region about the North Pole is cov-ered by an ice cap which, toward the east, extends over nearly the whole of Green-land to what is practically a single enor-mous glacier. To cross this great glacier has been the quest of many adventurous spirits. On account of the severity of the winds that sweep over the immense slow-ly moving cake of ice, it was never suc-cessfully accomplished until Nansen man-aged to go from the east coast of Green-land across the top of the ice barrier to the west coast at about the sixty-fourth parallel of latitude. Nansen and his five companions reached a height of 8,922 feet at the top of the barrier, showing how thick the ice had be-come through ages of freezing. Later on Peary and Astrup crossed the island much further north, and had to climb a solid hill of ice about 8,000 feet high. But there was not always an ice cap. In time long gone by the region about the North Pole had a warm climate, and all of Greenland was covered with a luxuriant tropical vegetation. This is positively known, because fossil remains of palms, breadfruit trees, and other plants properly belonging to warm latitudes have been dug up there in quantities. It seems at least possible that the ex-traordinary warmth in the Arctic during the last few years marks a step in a re-turn to this condition. Such a change as that suggested cannot be suddenly or even rapidly accomplished; but if there shall come a time when the North Polar ice cap is entirely melted, and Greenland inciden-tally freed of the ice sheet which covers it, other latitudes will also experience a won-derful climatic alteration, and climates all over the world may become steadily and gradually warmer.