The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some
places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to
the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway.
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical
change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the
Arctic zone.
Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far
north as 81 degrees 9 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed
the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by
moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points
well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white
fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and
smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being
encountered in the old seal fishing grounds. Within a few years it is
predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal
cities uninhabitable.
I'm sorry, I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2,
1922 as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post.
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