Earth Not Likely to be Dried Up.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1914, Page 8

Earth Not Likely to be Dried Up.

CHANGE IN RAINFALL DTSTRI-

BUTTON MERELY LOCAL

DROUGHT AND MIGRATION

Combating the frequently-advanced theory that the earth is drying up,' Professor Gregory, at a (.'eographical Society's meeting lreld at Burlington House, said there was no real evidence of more than local changes in rainfall distribution. As an increased rainfall had been demonstrated for so many parts of the world, it was only natural to expect a compensating decrease in other districts. Prince Kropotkin had attributed the overthrow- of (the 'Roman Empire t'. the dwindling .rainfall" in Central Asia, which turned whole tribes into nomads owing to the repeated failures of their crops. I-fe further contended that if this desiccation of the earth was to go on it must lead to further great, political changes, forcing populations out of the centres into the continental margins. EFFECT OF TIIE , nnOlltfr-TT. Similarly, according to Professor Myres, the various invasions of I\g,\ pt were the results of droughts in Arabia and Libya. The moral and intellectual decay of the Creeks, as well as the later decajdence of Italy, had been ascribed to the fact that malaria became endemic through the rivers being reduced to mosquito-breeding pools. After giving these quotations, Professor Gregory showed, by lantern slides, that in parts of Central Asia, of North America, Australia, and Northern Africa lakes and rivers are drying up. Healing! with Nort hern and • NorthWestern Europe, no important change, in climate during the past I.MuO years has taken place. Archaeological and historical evidence also shows that Central Asia and the coasts of Persia had a veryarid climate in the earliest times of which records exist. Scandinavia, Germany, Hungary, Houmania, the Eastern and Southern parts of North America, and parts of Africa show an increased i humidity, and there is some evidence of the same change following a dry i post-glacial period in England.