HIMRers. I woke up this morning and climbed out of my igloo. The temperature was a balmy -18 and no one wants to know the wind temperature. The thing is, we are actually in a warming trend. I hear the South and NorthEast are once again hit with Winter storms. All this while the weatherman and our President talk about global warming --- again.
Just a little historical note for those with an open mind on such things. Scientist discovered around the 1940s that weather happens in cycles that typically last for about 40 years each. During these cycles, one can experience warm temperatures, very warm temperatures, cold temperatures, and very cold temperatures. Also, some cycles have no discernable difference from the cycle just before. The Earth experiences global warming on a regular basis, and global cooling just as often. In the 1940s, North America was so warm that ships once again attempted to traverse the Northwest Passage. Of course, the following years we experienced some of the coldest temperatures the modern world has ever known. Since many have never studied history, and those who did were probably told it was not important, here is a little background.
The Northwest Passage is the hi storical sea passage of the North American continent, representing centuries of effort to find a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic archipelago of what today is known as Canada . One of the world’s severest maritime challenges, the actual route (yes, it does exist) is located 500 miles (800 km) north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,200 miles (1,930 km) from the North Pole. The passage consists of a series of deep channels through Canada’s Arctic Islands , extending about 900 miles (1,450 km) east to west, from north of Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea, above Alaska. To reach the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic requires a hazardous voyage through a stream of about 50,000 giant icebergs , up to 300 feet in height, constantly drifting south between Greenland and Baffin Island. The exit to the Pacific is equally formidable, because the polar ice cap presses down on Alaska’s shallow north coast much of the year and also funnels masses of ice into the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Siberia.
