Is Europe losing its temperate identity to continental extremes?

“ The waters of the ocean are of very equal temperature, and have a tendency to moderate both heat and cold, wherever their influence extends. Thus when a cold wind passes over the sea, it becomes warmed, while a hot wind becomes cooled; and thus islands generally experience milder winters and more temperate summers than continents. Such countries are said to possess an insular climate. But when any region experiences great severity of cold in winter and a high degree of heat in summer, it is said to possess an extreme or excessive climate. ”

“ Being placed on the east side and forming part of the large continent of Asia, it is liable to extremes of temperature—to excessive heat in summer, and extreme cold in winter—which are unknown in many other parts of the world within the same parallels of latitude. ”

“ The Tartars think so; for the worst wish they can find for man, is that he may live in a house and work like a Russian. Now look at Europe. See what a small figure it makes on the surface of the globe as to size; and yet it has for many ages held the first place in knowledge, activity, civilization, and all the qualities that elevate man among his fellows. For this it is much indebted to that temperature of climate which calls forth all the faculties of man in order to render life comfortable, yet affords enough of the beauties of nature to warm the heart and exalt the imagination. ”

“ In Europe, the absence of mountain barriers across the course of these westerly winds from Norway to central Spain, and the unobstructed avenue offered to them by the Mediterranean Sea during fall and winter, enable all the Atlantic's mitigating influences of warmth and moisture to penetrate inland, and temper the climate of Europe as far east as St. ”

“ The monotonous heat of the tropics and the continued cold of the polar zones are both depressing. Their tendency is to operate against man's highest development. The seasonal changes of the temperate zones stimulate man to activity. They develop him physically and mentally. They encourage higher civilization. A cold, stormy winter necessitates forethought in the preparation of clothing, food and shelter during the summer. Carefully planned, steady, hard labor is the price of living in these zones. Development must result from such conditions. In the warm, moist tropics, life is too easy. ”

“ Temperatures are naturally lower than in the Mediterranean basin, and winter frost plays an important part in determining the choice of cultivated plants. As the figures which we have already quoted for London and Paris suggest, the winter cold increases on passing eastward. Paris is colder in winter than London, though it lies south of it. Vienna is again colder than Paris. But the increase in winter cold is compensated for by an increase in the summer heat. In other words, as the distance from the sea increases in Europe the climate becomes drier and more extreme. ”

“ There is no more beautiful mechanism in nature than that which keeps man's internal heat always about 98° day and night, summer and winter, in the Arctic regions or in the tropics; but even that most wonderful of all self-adapting pieces of mechanism, if it be taxed too much, as by extremes of day and night temperature, will get out of gear ”

“ The human organism inherits so delicate an adjustment to climate that, in spite of man's boasted ability to live anywhere, the strain of the frozen North eliminates the more nervous and active types of mind. ”

“ To those whose constitution has been hereditarily adapted to a temperate or cold climate, the enfeebling effect of hot countries depends much more on the constant continuance of a high temperature than on its amount. A place with a mean temperature of 80° Fahr., which varies little above or below that point, is far more injurious to a European than one where intervals of great heat alternate with periods of cooler weather. Still more important, perhaps, is the effect of a hot climate in places where the air is habitually nearly saturated with aqueous vapour. ”

“ It mainly consists of a range of handsome villas facing the sea, each with a charming garden, and, in this season, must be a delightful residence. But it is generally admitted that the climate of Rio is debilitating to European constitutions. As compared with most coast stations in the tropics the heat is not excessive—the mean temperature of the warmest month (February) is not quite 80° Fahr., and that of the coldest (July) about 70°; but most Europeans, and especially those of Germanic stock, require to be braced by intervals of cold, if they are to endure a hot climate with impunity. ”

“ The peculiar conditions of the British Islands illustrate the fact that climate does not depend upon latitude alone, but may be greatly modified by local conditions, especially by the distribution of land and water, and the direction of the wind.
Let us now sum up what has been said in regard to the main types of climate found in Europe. Round the Mediterranean basin we have an area with mild winters and warm summers, where the rain tends to fall during the winter season, making summer a period of drought. ”

“ Mr Sanderson, in a very clever and amusing work, which I recommend to every one, called “Sketches of Paris,” says: “Our climate is noted for three eminent qualities—extreme heat and cold, and extreme suddenness of change. If a lady has bad teeth, or a bad complexion, she lays them conveniently to the climate; if her beauty, like a tender flower, fades before noon, it is the climate; if she has a bad temper, or a snub nose; still it is the climate. But our climate is active and intellectual, especially in winter, and in all seasons more pure and transparent than the inking skies of Europe. ”

“ A sharp transition in geological formation and therefore in soil, a difference of climate, rainfall, drainage system, of flora or fauna, serve greatly to emphasize the lack of community of interests with the continental interior, and therefore produce an inevitable diversity of historical development.785 Hence, many peninsulas insulate their people as completely as islands. ”

“ When one type of climate extends monotonously over a vast area, as in Russia. Siberia, Central Asia or immense tracts of Africa, the differences of temperature which prick and stimulate national endeavor in small climatic districts here lose much of their force. Their effects flatten out into insignificance, overwhelmed by the encounter with too large a territory. All the southern continents are handicapped by the monotony of their zonal location. ”

“ The control of the climate of Europe by the American Gulf Stream is a myth. As a matter of fact the European climate is controlled by the great currents of circulation referred to these centers of action.
More generally, warm masses of air find their way from the tropics into the temperate zones by very irregular paths, and cold masses find their way from the northern latitudes into the temperate zones by very irregular paths. ”

“ It is a curious fact that masses of warm and cold air having any size are exceedingly reluctant to mix with one another; that is to say, the interchange of heat is a molecular process which naturally goes on slowly, and in accomplishing it, in the atmosphere, a great deal of energy must be expended. The great masses are first torn into shreds along their edges, and are gradually fritted away in the local cyclonic circulation. The energy that is felt in storms of any kind is merely an illustration of this thermodynamic process of interchanging temperature. ”

“ It is a foible of our human nature that when we have an extremely unpleasant experience, it gives up a peculiar satisfaction if it is "the biggest" of its disagreeable kind that has happened since the world began. During a heat wave, for instance, we are very pleased if the papers announce that it is "the highest temperature reached since the year 1881," and we feel a little resentment towards the year 1881 for having gone us one better. Or if our ears are frozen till all the skin peels off, it fills us with a certain happiness to learn that "it was the hardest frost recorded since 1786." ”

“ What Meteorological Records show.—As concerns the popular impression regarding change of climate, it is clear at the start that no definite answer can be given on the basis of tradition, or of general impression, or even of the memory of the 'oldest inhabitant.' Human memories are very unreliable things, and there are many reasons for their being particularly untrustworthy in matters of this kind. The only answer of real value must be based on what the instrumental records of temperature, and of rain and snowfall show. ”

“ Much information was, however, available concerning the dates of harvest, of the formation and breaking up202 of ice in rivers and harbors, and other events dependent upon the weather, which, if anybody had taken the trouble to collect and analyze it, would have dispelled the universal belief that marked changes of climate had recently taken place. Nowadays it is much easier to refute the common assertion that the climate has changed within the memory of living men. ”

“ When one plots the seasonal or the annual temperatures or snowfalls, or any other elements of climate, using reliable records as far back as they are available, it is apparent that the curves show no appreciable change of climate within the life of any man now living. ”

“ After a sketch of what has been done in glacial investigation in Europe and the United States, showing the great extension of ice over these regions in ancient times, he continued as follows: “When the polar half of both hemispheres was covered by such an ice shroud, the climate of the whole earth must have been different from what it is now. The limits of the ancient glaciers give us some estimate of this difference, though of course only an approximate one. A degree of temperature in the annual average of any given locality corresponds to a degree of latitude ”

“ It would seem, however, as if the extensive accumulation of drift all around the northern pole in Europe, Asia, and America was of the same age as the erratic of the Alps. The climatic circumstances capable of accumulating such large masses of ice around the north pole, having no doubt extended their influence over the temperate zone, and probably produced, in high mountain chains, as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Black Forest, and the Vosges, such accumulations of snow and ice as may have produced the erratic phenomena of those districts. ”

“ When the high excentricity passed away the glacial epoch also passed away in the Temperate zone; but it persists in the Arctic zone, where during the Miocene there were mild climates, and this is due to the persistence of the changed geographical conditions. The present Arctic climate is itself a comparatively new and abnormal state of things due to geographical modification. ”

“ It is then argued that the changes of climate every 10,500 years during the numerous periods of high excentricity have acted as a motive power in hastening on both geological and biological change. By raising and lowering the snow-line in all mountain ranges it has caused increased denudation; while the same changes have caused much migration and disturbance in the organic world, and have thus tended to the more rapid modification of species. The present epoch being a period of very low excentricity, the earth is in a phase of exceptional stability both physical and organic ”

“ As to causes, variations in solar activity are naturally receiving attention, and the results thus far are promising. But climate is a great complex, and complete and satisfactory explanations of all the facts will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to reach. At present, indeed, the facts which call for explanation are still in most cases but poorly determined, and the processes at work are insufficiently understood. Climate is not absolutely a constant. ”

“ The earth is an inseparable whole. Each country or sea is physically and historically intelligible only as a portion of that whole. Currents and wind-systems of the oceans modify the climate of the nearby continents, and direct the first daring navigations of their peoples. The alternating monsoons of the Indian Ocean guided Arab merchantmen from ancient times back and forth between the Red Sea and the Malabar coast of India.33 The Equatorial Current and the northeast trade-wind carried the timid ships of Columbus across the Atlantic to America. ”