Topic N8 ("The Weather and Climate Fluctuations")
'Funny weather we are having' is a statment of the obvious we
have used for generations as a greeting. When the deep cold lasts
long and heavy snow and blizzards give us the shivers we replace
"funny" with something stronger, such as "terrible", "ghastly".
At times like these people ask what is happening to the weather.
So we go to the experts, who tells us, in language appropriate to
the subject, what happened yesterday, what is happening today,
and what might happen in the next few years. Weather and climate
specialists all over the world have ammassed a vast quanity of
information. They can describe what is happening around us. With
satellites they can forecast more accurately what might happen in
the immediate future. Their research has produced evidence of why
past climatic changes took place.
There have been many climate fluctuations ovver th 10,000
years since Britain was last covered with an ice sheet. Advances
and retreats of ice in the northern hemisphere during the past
500,000 years can be accounted for by changes in the warmth from
the Sun.
This was caused by alterations in the Earth's orbit at
periods of 96,000, 40,000 and 20,000 years.
Although that theory is widley accepted as a possible
explanations for ice ages, it has not been proved. More than 50
theories have been put forward, but only a few have not been
completely dismissed.
Not long ago a new theory was published in the science
journal "Nature". According to Dr. Garry Hunt, of University
College, intense radiations from the nuclear explosion of a
nearby supernova - a star - could cause the destruction of part
or all of the ozone layer and in this way trigger an ice age.
As for me, i like Autumn best of all. The days become
shorter and the nights longer. It isn't so hot in the day-time.
The trees are covered with yellow and red leaves. At the end of
summer apples, pears, plums and other fruit become ripe. In the
South there are many oranges, peaches and tangerines. Autumn is
plesant when it does not rain. General Autumn is a rainy season
of the year. When it rains the weather is nasty. The sky is
covered with heavy clouds. It drizzles. It is muddy and wet.
‡ A *.FRM *.MAC