The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-03-15
WEATHER WISDOM.

Ahe Philosophy of Our CIimate-We Can
Never Have Worse One Than We Have
at Present.
Prof. Shaler lectured in Boston the
other day on this subject Under eli
mate he included all conditions like at
mospheric changes, rainfall, etc. All
the different features of climate arise
from heat. We know that the heat Of
space is about 40 degrees below freez-
ing. The average temperature of space
Is brought up to $50 degrees by the heat
OF the fixed stars, which was rejected in
our computation All the heat that can
cause climate comes from the sun, and
enough comes in twenty-four hours to
melt 5000 cubic miles of ice. Some
heat comes from the interior of the
earth, but only enough to melt two or
three cubic miles per diem, and conse-
quently produces a scarcely perceptible
climatic effect. The first general cause
OF climatic change is the spherical form
OF the earth. A square mile of surface
at the equator receives 1000 parts of
heat, while a square mile at forty-five
degrees north Or south receives 735 parts
the same area at the poles receiving
only 554 parts. But this extreme varia-
ton is not found in nature. The mean
average temperature at the pole is about
81 deg. f., and at the equator about so
deg. T. Without seas life would be i'm
possible.
1t may not be very widely known that
Franklin discovered the gulf stream in
1773 or 1774, and did not publish it for
fear OF giving advantages to the British
marine, but by imparting the informa-
ton to American cruisers he perhaps
rendered material aid to the American
cause. By looking at the isothermal
map OF the North Atlantic and adjacent
continents, the western coast of Europe
is seen to be much warmer than the
American coast at similar ATTITUDES The
gulf stream sweeps around the coast of
the Gulf of Mexico, but when it passes
Florida it must leave the shore line on
account of it's inertia, and, impinging on
the coast of Europe, it affects the eli
mate of that continent more than it does
that of America. In the Pacific ocean
there is smaller stream, the Japan cur
rent, which is turned down upon the
west coast of North America on account
of Behring's straits being too narrow for
it to pass. But the mountains Of our
Western Territories shut off from the
interior the winds warmed by this cur
rent. Thus only our western coast is
affected by it, ....
Since the counter trade-winds move
northerly over the North Atlantic and Pa
citic, the return currents come down across
British America through the United
States, and our continent becomes to q
great extent the battle-ground of conflict
ing currents. This is the cause of our
present climate, but is it different from
the past? AS we go back through milt-
ions of years, we find that great changes
have taken place. On the western coast
of Greenland, as far up as latitude 78, we
find fossil vegetation of the tertiary pc
riod, which we find to-day in the central
portion of the Mississippi valley. Much
further back in the geological time, in the
carboniferous period, ferns grow on the
islands of British North America There
have been several theories advanced to
account for these changes. But no single
cause can be assigned for them. Ocean
currents must have had large share in
the work. If Alaska and the land oppo-
site were lowered SO as to let the Japan
current flow through the then widened
Behring's straits, the Arctic regions would
have mean annual temperature of fifty
five degrees Fahrenheit, and the Excess
sive heats of the tropics would be low
cred by eight or ten degrees. Such changes
Of coast lines are quite possible, and have
occurred in very recent geological times
The influence of glacial periods upon
animal life cannot be over estimated. The
history of any organic life On continent
is the history ofsuccessive migrations, and
these migrations result in variations. Dur
ing the ice period all animals were forced
south by the glacial sheet. The musk-ox
has thus ranged from Ohio to Greenland
The changes of climate are therefore i'm
portant agents in changing organic life.
We all believe, whether Darwinians ornot,
that in every struggle for existence the
fittest must survive, and that variation is
essential to improvement AS to our fu-
ture climate, will it be better or worse?
[ do not think that anything can make it
worse. If there should be any change in
the stream at Behring's straits, it would
benefit us, for any change that would in
f1uence climate must be one of enlarge
ment, and that must result in beneficial
change in our climate. We may regard
the climate at the present moment as the
very worst that can come.