Climate Change fears in the Nineteenth Century

Climate Change fears in the 19th Century

From "Memoirs and Reminiscences" written by the Reverend Casper Schaeffer, M.D. in 1855 
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(Pages 67 and 68):

"Formerly the snows fell much deeper and the winters were more severe in this country than in late years. I have heard my father say that in the winter of 1780-81 that the depth of snow was such that in traveling they did not confine themselves to the road, but drove over fences and across fields, the snow being sufficiently hard to bear them, since which period the weather at that season has been gradually growing milder; so much so that some winters will pass with scarcely snow enough for any sleighing. Is is now a very rare thing for the Delaware to be frozen over, whereas formerly this was an ordinary occurrence. Evidently our climate is ameliorating and becoming similar in temperature to the same degree of latitude on the European continent. Now as to the cause of this change various opinions are entertained, some assigning one cause and some another. My own long-cherished opinion is that it is owing principally to two things: first, to the clearing away the forests and opening up the swamps, whereby the surface of the ground being exposed to the action of the sun and the accumulated moisture being evaporated, the ground becomes dryer and consequently warmer. A second cause contributing, I think, in no small degree to the same effect, is the cultivation of the soil; the action of the plow, in turning up the sub-soil, thus loosening the ground and exposing a greater surface to the action of the sun, consequently also producing increased dryness and warmth. With the increased heat of the ground, the temperature of the atmosphere is likewise increased, consequently less snow falls and is sooner melted. These several causes continuing to act, the probability is that in the course of time, our climate will assimilate to the mildness of the same latitudes in western Europe. The gulf stream, however, exercises a benign influence upon that country which is experienced in a much less degree in our own country."

From Nature magazine 1883:

A recent correspondent of Nature is very much worried about the earth's atmosphere, which, he says, has become so polluted by the hurning of coal that in the year 1900 all animal life upon the globe will cease, killed by carbonic dioxide. Another correspondent joining this prophet of evil, shows that while most of the gas is washed out of the air by rain, some products of combustion (or rather incomplete combustion), as hydrogen and the hydrocarbons remain. Of these unburned gases 100,000,000 tons have escaped into the air within thirty years. What will be the result of this
accumulation? According to Professor Tyndall hydrogen, marsh gas and ethylene have the property in a very high degree of absorbing and radiating heat. From this we may conclude, says the correspondent, that the increasing pollution of the atmosphere will have a marked influence on the climate of the world. The mountainous regions will be colder, the Arctic regions will be colder, the tropics will be warmer and throughout the world the night will be colder and the days warmer. In the temperate zone winter will be colder and winds, storms and rain-fall greater.

Pollution of the Atmosphere, from Nature Dec. 7, 1882

There was a letter in Nature some time since, calling attention to the pollution of the atmosphere by the burning of coal; and it was calculated that in the year 1900, all animal life would cease, from the amount of carbonic dioxide; but the author had overlooked the fact that the rain is continually cleansing the atmosphere of this, and the fall of this rain on the ground, and the combination of this with various salts; besides, the oceans alone would absorb their own bulk at normal pressure, but at an increased pressure of, say half a mile deep, would dissolve more than we are likely to need for hundreds of years.

But there are other products of combustion, or rather of incomplete combustion, that are not brought down in this manner by rain, as hydrogen and the hydrocarbons, chiefly marsh-gas and ethylene. The latter has, I believe, been  observed by the spectroscope on the Alps, and was supposed to have come from space.

Since the year 1854 (as near as I can estimate) there has been burnt 10,000 million tons of coal; and if we say (in its consumption by household grates, leakage by gas-pipes, &c.) 1/100th escapes, then 100 million tons of hydrogen and hydrocarbons are floating in the atmosphere, or 1/10,000,000th part in bulk; if we say the average proportion of hydrogen to be '45, and of marsh gas '35, and of ethylene '4, we have '84 per cent, of gases that are lighter than air, and it is more than probable that the law of diffusion of gases, as demonstrated with jars, does not apply to the atmosphere. The cases are not parallel: in the air we have unconfined space, pressure, and temperature diminishing infinitely, conditions favourable to the lighter and the gas with the greater amount of specific heat rising and maintaining its elevation, especially as we know that in large halls carbonic dioxide is found in larger quantities on the floor. According to Prof. Tyndall's researches, hydrogen, marsh gas, and ethylene have the property in a very high degree of absorbing and radiating heat, and so much so that a very small proportion, of only say one thousandth part, had very great effect. From this we may conclude that the increasing pollution of the atmosphere will have a marked influence on the climate of the world. The mountainous regions will be colder, the Arctic regions will be colder, the tropics will be warmer, and throughout the world the nights will be colder, and the days warmer. In the Temperate Zone winter will be colder, and generally differences will be greater, winds, storms, rainfall greater. H. A. Phillips Tanton House, Stokesley, November 23

From The New Century, January 11, 1903

Future Glacial Periods

THE New York American and Journal has been Collecting the opinions of a number of scientific authorities as to whether another Ice Age is due. Geological records show such ages to have been periodical and recurrent in the past, and astronomers have endeavored to link them with changes in the earth's bearings.

This agrees with the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, and the former discusses and quotes many scientific utterances, showing where they are wrong and indicating the true explanation and the true figures.

From the Journal article we gather that Prof. W. O. Crosby thinks our climate is becoming refrigerated, because so many fossil mollusks and shells have been dug up in Boston harbor and the Charles river, which represent forms that now live only in more southern waters. He also says that Greenland a thousand years ago had flourishing colonies of Norsemen all along its shores, while now the Eskimos are the only inhabitants; and that Iceland was much milder when settled upon by the Norsemen in 874.

The United States Geological Survey is studying the question, and the International Congress of Geologists has appointed a committee to investigate it.

Prof. W. L. Elkin is reported as saying that the changes in the inclination of the earth's axis make long astronomical summers and winters of 10,500 years each; and that about 600 years ago we entered on one of the winters (in the northern hemisphere).

There is much evidence to show that Northern climates have been growing colder since the last Ice Age. Part of New England was called by the early Scandinavian explorers "Vinland," on account of the vines there. There is much to indicate that the American continent has grown colder since its occupation by Europeans. Dr. Edward Everett Hale points out that foreign grapes and subtropical plants ripened around Boston 100 years ago. In Northern Europe and Asia historical testimony points the same way. H. P. Blavatsky says on this subject:

"Glacial Periods" were numerous, and so were the "Deluges," for various reasons. Stockwell and Croll enumerate some half-dozen Glacial Periods and subsequent Deluges — the earliest of all being dated by them 850,000 years ago.

All this goes to show that the semi-universal deluge known to Geology — the first Glacial Period — must have occurred just at the time allotted to it by the Secret Doctrine: namely, 200,000 years, in round numbers, after the commencement of our Fifth Race, or about the time assigned by Messrs. Croll and Stockwell for the first Glacial Period: i.e., about 850,000 years ago. All such cataclysms are periodical and cyclical.