EARTH TREMORS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1931, Page 2

EARTH TREMORS

EFFECT ON CLIMATE. LONDON, June 8. Is this quake but another sign that our world is “cracking up”? The recent series of earthquakes in various parts of the world has led a number of scientists to suggest that a gigantic crack is developing in the surface of the earth. The interior of our world is undergoing a process of change which in time may have its effect on the outer world as we know it. Such an event may have remarkable consequences on our national habits and even on our characters. Many years ago it was thought that our climate was something fixed and permanent, that its. last change was in the glacial epoch, and that no further change was probable for thousands of years to come. CHANGING CONDITIONS. Recent study has taught us different. Conditions in many parts of the world have changed and. are still •changing. The old Vijking sailing route from Iceland to the east coast of Greenland and thence to Cape Farewell is no longer praticable to day. Within recent times parts of Greenland where settlers raised sheep and cattle hove become barren of vegetation and deserted by the reindeer Where there were lake- dwellings in Central Europe is now dry land, ,

These changes are due to alterations In climate which in turn are the result of disturbances in the earth's crust. When, a few years ago, Kraknto seruped there were abnormal conditions jii Europe for many years after. The diversion of the Gulf Stream by only a few miles would completely alter the climatic conditions of these islands. If the crack which is believed to be circling the earth diverts the warm and cold ocean currents or affects the circulatory system of the sea the whole of our climatic conditions would be upset. Oily a slight drop in the average temperature of the earth—some two or three degrees—would be sufficient to bring back glacial conditions in Europe. An increase of a few diegrees would melt the whole Polar ice sheet. We are only a few degrees removed from tropical heat or Ice Age conditions. How does this effect habits? An authority declared recently that the vicissitudes of the Roman Empire can be related to changing climatic conditions. The theory may be exaggerated, but it cannot he ignored.

CLIMATE AND HABIT.

The morbid Russian temperament is not wholly unrelated to the cold, bitter and unrelenting climate of that land. The easygoing, pleasure-loving people of the Mediterranean are moulded by their warm, sunny climate, And hard, grey weather, as Kingsley sang, breeds hardy Englishmen, It is beyond possibility, therefore, that a- crack in the surface of the earth's crust may in the course of time have a revolutionary effect 0 n our climate and, as a consequence, on the thoughts, habits and outlook of the people of these islands?