Roger Carr recently wrote in comments:
HELP WANTED: I am trying to purchase (or plunder) a full copy of this story, mentioned here on this forum:
A Washington, D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The Washington Post: Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.
The article mentions “great masses of ice have now been replaced by moraines of earth and stones,” and “at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared.”
The original source of the story resurfacing recently was from an Inside the Beltway column of August 14th, 2007. The newspaper article was located in the Library of Congress archives by James Lockwood.
Here is the text of the Washington Post (Associated Press) article:
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, he declared, 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 with as far north as 81 degrees 29 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Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.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.
UPDATE:
The source report of the Washington Post article on changes in the arctic has been found in the Monthly Weather Review for November 1922. It is much more detailed than the Washington Post (Associated Press) article. It seems the AP heaviliy relied on the report from Norway Consulate George Ifft, which is shown below. See the original MWR article below and click the newsprint copy for a complete artice or see the link to the original PDF below:
Click the article to see the full article changing-arctic_monthly_wx_review.png.
The PDF of that page exists here from NOAA’s archives. Thanks to Michael Ronayne for locating it and many other resources you can find in the comments section below.
If Yogi Berra were here to comment on the hullabaloo over the changes in the arctic today, I’m pretty sure he’d say. “It’s Deja Vu all over again”.
😉
UPDATE: If you like the work being presented here and the work of my nationwide project at www.surfacestations.org you may want to consider taking a look at this entry to lend a hand.
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RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THE ICE IS MELT…
What?
1922?
Really?
No way.
Come on, that’s not funny…
———————–
The more we learn the less we know, it seems.
“For example, during the previous 60 years (since the 1940s) arctic SAT trends are positive and are very large in the 1990s. However, arctic temperatures in the 1930-40s were exceptionally high, so trends calculated from the 1920s forward the data show a small but statistically significant cooling tendency.”
http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~igor/research/amplif/index.php
GISS doesn’t seem to have any Greenland data.
However, here is an Icelandic station:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=620040630003&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Notice the warm 1930-40 temps.
Another;
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=620040300000&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1
Does anyone know of any independent confirmation of this news report?
REPLY: The news article cites according to a report to the Commerce Department from Consul Geroge N. Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Somebody should be able to back track it.
My hat’s off.
I doubt any hockey sticks generated by creative bristlecone tree ring analysis will make this story go away.
Thank you Mr. Watts for this hot “news”. “in some places the seals are finding the waters too hot” – in 1922. Sounds very much like the autumn season – but 85 years later! And after a cold winter, the warmists now spotted a leak of warm air into the arctic region and just reported about drowning young seals in the Northern Baltic Sea because of thin ice. But they did not report about the record recovery of the rest of the arctic sea ice. Cherry picking? You bet!
The language similarities with today’s language are astonishing. One could easily change the date of this article to November 2, 2007.
Must be a tough job being a jounalist today – just dig up some old articles, digitalise them and change the dates!
The article is consistent with temperature records from northernmost weather stations.
I really would like to see an estimate of climate change based on records from known good weather stations.
In 2006 the BMI (Business and Media Institute) did an excellent Summary of Media reporting in the last 100 years or so. It cites many examples, which should be easy to follow-up as they reference dates and publications:
http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice/fireandice.asp
They did an update last year “150 Years of Global Warming and Cooling at the New York Times” :
http://newsbusters.org/node/11640
A quick extract. Both the above links have a wealth of references going back over 100 years.
Warming Arctic Climate Melting Glaciers Faster, Raising Ocean Level, Scientist Says
May 30, 1947, Friday
By GLADWIN HILLSpecial to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Page 23, 366 words
DISPLAYING FIRST PARAGRAPH – LOS ANGELES, May 29 — A mysterious warming of the climate is slowly manifesting itself in the Arctic, engendering a “serious international problem,” Dr. Hans Ahlmann, noted Swedish geophysicist, said today.
Of course, the alarmists will say that the melting of 1922 was due to natural causes, while the present one is anthropogenic!
The NWS needs to change from the antiquated system of 30 year climate averages to a more reasonable 100 year climate average. Almost all stations now have a 100 year history.
The New York Time (AKA: The Old Gray Lady), America’s Newspaper of Record, confirmed the story on Sunday February 25, 1923.
REPORT THE ARCTIC IS GETTING WARMER; Explorers and Fishermen Find Climate Moderating About Spitzbergen. FIRST NOTED ABOUT 1918 Old Glaciers Have Disappeared — Changes in Flora and Fauna.
February 25, 1923, Sunday
Section: EDITORIAL SECTION, Page E6, 696 words
The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers who sail the seas about Spitzbergen and the Eastern Arctic, all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard of temperatures in that part of the earth. Old glaciers have disappeared and land once covered with field ice is bare.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F13F7395516738DDDAC0A94DA405B838EF1D3
As one would expect from the National Newspaper of Record, additional details are provide including the fact that the changes were first observed in 1918. There are enough details that we may be able to located research papers by a Dr. Adolf Holt of the University of Christiana in Norway. The research was funded by the Norwegian Department of Commerce. Can a reader in Norway located papers published by Dr. Holt in the early 1920’s?
The report reads like a Greenpeace press release!
I have the PDF which I will Email to Anthony.
Mike
@Climatepatrol
I can confirm that you’ve said. German radio NDR1 and newspapers ran that story 2 days here.
That’s a great link to the NYT search engine, Michael. Wish I had a subscription to read the whole articles! Some of the first paragraphs have startling similarities to today’s headlines!
This one caugh my eye from 1930:
A NEW CHAPTER WRITTEN BY THE GLACIER
WORD comes from Switzerland that the Alpine glaciers are in full retreat. Out of 102 glaciers observed by Professor P.L. Mercanton of the University of Lausanne and his associates more than twothirds have been found to be shrinking.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B16FC3D5F11738DDDA80A94DA415B808FF1D3&scp=44&sq=warming+arctic&st=p
1935: Glaciers retreat at twice normal:
GLACIERS’ EBB SPED BY HOT ’34 SUMMER; Last Remnants of Ice Age Are Receding at Double-Time, Geologists Are Told.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C15F73B5D167A93CAAB178FD85F418385F9&scp=6&sq=glaciers&st=p
This searching is too addicitive! From September 1924:
MACMILLAN REPORTS SIGNS OF NEW ICE AGE; Explorer Brings Word of Unusual Movements of Greenland Glaciers — Coal Deposits Show Polar Climate Was Once Tropical. NATURE is in a strange mood beyond the Arctic Circle, Glaciers are moving from their age-old beds, pouring greater quantities of ice into the sea than recorded history has known. Broad areas of land are sinking to new levels. A number of islands have disappeared.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C14FB3C5B12738DDDA10A94D1405B848EF1D3&scp=10&sq=glaciers&st=p
How much of this stuff from the past lines up with PDO shifts?
REPLY: Good question, we’ll take a look
In my previous post there was a typo Dr. Adolf Hoel’s name which is corrected here.
The New York Times has additional storied on Dr. Adolf Hoel, including this one for September 13, 1923. From this story we learn the Dr. Hoel has been conducting artic research from about 1906.
SPITZBERGEN COAST SURVEY COMPLETED; Norwegian Scientist Finds Good Anchorages and New Navigable Waters on the Island.
September 13, 1923, Thursday
Section: FINANCIAL, Page 31, 334 words
CHRISTIANLA, Sept. 12. — Dr. Adolf Hoel of Christiania University, who every Summer for the last seventeen years has been engaged in the scientific exploration off Spitzbergen, has Just returned after a highly interesting voyage.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7061FF83D5D15738DDDAA0994D1405B838EF1D3
The New York Times appears to have a minimum of 12 reports on the artic research of Dr. Adolf Hoel and there may be more than that number.
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&daterange=period&query=%22Dr.+Adolf++Hoel%22&srchst=p&hdlquery=&bylquery=&mon1=09&day1=18&year1=1851&mon2=12&day2=31&year2=1980&submit.x=31&submit.y=10
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&daterange=period&query=%22Adolf++Hoel%22&srchst=p&hdlquery=&bylquery=&mon1=09&day1=18&year1=1851&mon2=12&day2=31&year2=1980&submit.x=34&submit.y=6
I will review the additional reports and forward a list to Anthony.
Mike
More from Dr. Adolf Hoel on polar ice and sun spots.
POLAR ICE-DRIFT AND SUN SPOTS.
By GEORGEN ICOLAISF FT, American Coned.
[Bergen, Norway, Dec. 6,1922.1
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-12-0631b.pdf
We need to get all of Dr. Hoel’s research papers! There are some in JStore which I can order.
Here is a partial list:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=active&q=%22Adolf+Hoel%22&btnG=Search
I am really starting to like Dr. Hoel!
Mike
Hoel’s work is mentioned in a November 1922 Monthly Weather Review article, linked here:
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf
This is very interesting. George Nicolas Ifft was the American consul in Bergen Norway. Amongst his responsibilities was to file reports with the State Department in Washington D.C., some of which were published in the Monthly Weather Review. In today terms, Mr. Ifft was a State Department Intelegance Officer.
THE CHANGING ARCTIC.
By George Nicolas Ifft
[Under data of October 10, 1922, the American consul at Bergen Norway, submitted the following report to the State Department, Washington, D.C.]
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf
The Washington Post story was published on November 2nd, 1922, so this October 10, 1922, State Department report is the most likely the un-attributed source of the Associated Press report. This could also have been a deliberate plant by the State Department.
Just as today’s nations north of the Arctic Circle have territorial ambitions in an ice free Arctic, Norway may have had ulterior motives for funding Dr. Adolf Hoel’s voyages of discovery. This would also explain the State Department’s interest in Dr. Adolf Hoel.
The report in Wikipedia on Adolf Hoel confirms these suspicions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hoel
There are other reports on the Internet which I am investigating, pertaining to Norway’s territorial ambitions in the Arctic.
Mike
Just for the record, as a sidebar, Yogi Berra is still very much alive and may very well be saying that very thing with which you credit him!
REPLY: When I meant “here today”, I meant on this blog reading about climate change. Sorry for the unintentional implication.
Of course, the Y2K error, pointed out by Steve McIntire last summer and which reorganised the warmest year chart for the USA, doesn’t apply to the rest of the world and MWP was a local event.
So the threat of climate catastrophe was used for political manipulation then as it is today.
Ya know, I’m not surprised:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2004/11/15/predictable-distortion/#more-21
😉
It appears that Dr. Adolf Hoel was involved with the Norwegian National Unity Party and was suspected of being a Nazi collaborator during World War II when he was accused of providing aid to infiltrate a German spy into Greenland. Dr. Adolf Noel was always a strong advocate of Norwegian territorial expansion and was very interested in acquiring Greenland for Norway.
Norwegian Arctic expansionism, Victoria Island (Russia) and the Bratvaag expedition
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic51-4-330.pdf
“A cursed affair”—how a Norwegian expedition to Greenland became the USA’s first maritime capture in World War II
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1751-8369.2007.00019.x
There is a picture of Dr. Adolf Noel on page 3 of this paper. So we have Norwegians, German Nazis, Americans, scientists, arctic explores and spies all over the place. This would make a great movie script!
Note that I have not verified the accuracy of any of the allegations.
Mike