Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-12-15
CAN SCIENCE ALTER CLIMATES

"Can science control meteorological
conditions? A man is only a speck on
the surface Of the EARTH but his brain
is significant in proportion to its quail
ity rather than in proportion to It's
size, and it is indubitable that there
have been notifications of climate due
to human activities says the Evening
Wisconsin.
For instance when a man-made
channel let water back into the long
sdried-up bed of the old SaltOn sea
there was observed a manifest alter
alton of the climate OF a considerable
district in the west, the effect of
evaporation from the vast surface
thus inundated causing vegetation to
flourish where all had been arid until
then. There are those who believe
that the effect of the inundatlon OF
this former sea-bed was more than
local-that it changed the air currents
OF the continent, causing storms and
cold waves to travel along other lines
of latitude than those which they had
followed before 1t is considered posi-
BILE that the flooding of the Salton sea
'exerted an influence upon the winter
climate of Milwaukee.
...The westward movement OF agricul-
tlre ii credited with an effect upon
the climate of considerable tract
west of the Mississippi river which on
old-time maps was denoted as the
Great American desert. The theory
Is that corn fields as well as forests
conserve moisture in the soil and
create atmospheric conditions favor
able to a. large rainfall-and the
theory may be true. Certain it
is that a large. part of Kansas
which was deserted by=its first settlers
Is now remarkable for fertility. not
only because grasshopper devastation
no LANCER occurs, but because there
seems to be less damage by drought
than there was in the period inlE,eai-
ately following the civil war. The
same improvement appears to have
been brought about in the Dakotas.
"Thirty years ago French scientists
proposed to dig canal from the Med
iterranean to the Desert of Sahara, for
the purpose of letting the water back
upon the sand wastes which once no
doubt were the bed of sea. When
the project had been discussed it was
decided not to carry it cut, for the
ICdSOu IHdI IuOu6h ~ ili5he AASAP
Africa there was danger that it might
injure Europe. Especially. it was
argued, it would threaten the prosper
ity of France, by depriving her of the
warm winds from the south which are
essential to the success Of her vine
yards. When this objection was put
forward the French scientists aban-.
doned their scheme.
Now comes an eminent English
scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, with plan
for altering the climate of the tight
little island" He says that if parlia-
ment will grant an appropriation of
one hundred thousands pounds sterling
only one half million dollars, be it
observed-he will venture to say that |
by the application of electricity plant
growth in England can be accelerated
and England can be transformed from
q country of frequent fogs to one of
prevailing sunshine. Who shall say
that Sir Oliver is wrong? The only
way of deciding the question will be
to give him an opportunity to put his
theory to the test. If some English
Rockefeller or. Carnegie would come
forward with the money the Lodge ex-
pertinent would be worth trying. and
If it succeeds the man who grub
staked'' it would gain immortal glory
as we'll as the man who proposed it.