The Daily Journal from Fergus Falls, Minnesota • Page 9

Normal state of the weather is to be abnormal By ALTON BUKF.SLEIC AP Edllw WASHINGTON (AP) A psychiatrist called upon to Judge the behavior of world weather might term it neurotic. Meteorologists like Kobert Dickson and James Wagner put It this way: "The normal state of the weather is to be abnor- mal." That's an observation to keep In mind when unusual weather plants a suspicion that our cli- mate is changing unusual weather like the tremendous spring floods in the Mississippi Valley, and later floods in New England, the murderous droughts In Africa and India, the snow-free winter for New York and Washington, D.C., all against backgrounds that in- clude the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in (he Plains states, and the New York blizzard of 1888. This is not to say that world or local climate is not changing. Ice ages have come and gone, for reasons not clear. Weather scientists have measured recent warming and cooling periods worldwide affecting general climate.

Now in global cooperation they are beginning to gather "baseline" readings of ele- ments in the air, worldwide cir- culation of the air, more knowl- edge about ocean currents, to begin to detect or even foresee a change in climate, as con- trasted with vagaries of weath- er itself. One prime concern is what man is doing to weather and climate by polluting the air with carbon dioxide and soot and other particles, or by pav- ing huge areas of the land with asphalt and concrete in place of trees and vegetation which obeyed some different relation- ship to the air above it, perhaps affecting local weather, perhaps with influences ex- tending farther. Are man's civilized contribu- tions too puny to influence cli- mate? Or can slight contribu- tions trigger major changes? "We can't say the present cli- mate is changing until we have many more years of global measurements and observa- tions," said Dickson, deputy chief of the long-range pre- diction group of the National Weather Service in Suitland, Md. Wagner, meteorologist and researcher who with Dickson prepares 30-day weather fore- casts, said developments like earth satellites are adding, to knowledge of cloud cover over the earth, and thus to knowl- edge of atmospheric circula- tion. But, he added, no one yet knows what is "normal cloud cover," or can see very far into the future.

Unusual patterns in the glob- al air circulation are associated with weather anomalies like the Midwest springtime floods. But scientists are only beginning to understand relationships be- tween the earth's surface and lower and atmosphere, Hie upward transport of mois- ture, development of high or low pressure areas, the role of largely unobserved ocean circulations or events at sea where there are few weather reporting stations, and all the things tha ngs that influence tiie heat Iwlance between earth, sun and space. "It is all fluid. What happens in one part of the globe affects another," Dickson and Wagner said. "We can explain some of the distortions associated with drought or flood, but can't get down to first causes." In England, a high pressure ridge brought on a drought by shunting fsuie storms that ordinarily would bring rain.

Relief came this spring, but it may not continue. And Russia had a drought and crop failure in grain last summer due to a warm high pressure system similar to the one that brought on the 1930's Dust Bowl in this country, Wag- ner and Dickson said. A high pressure ridge in the upper atmosphere over the Rockies in the spring and the Great Plains in the summer hindered winds and moisture from coming up from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Plains during several years in the 1930s, thus bringing the parch- ing drought of the Dust Bowl. But this year a spring high pressure ridge formed farther west, with a trough in the Plains States, and the air circu- lation brought gulf moisture in heavy amounts to initiate floods. Such an extreme event might be expected to happen once every two or three cen- turies, by some statistical con- siderations, they said.

Drought can feed on drought, they added. Winds stir up dust from baked land, with many dust particles being so small and numerous that they com- pete to act as nuclei for any moisture in the air, and there- fore few are able to to form a raindrop. They are too small to be good "seeds" to form raindrops, or snowflakes. In the 1940s, precipitation re- turned to about normal in the Dust Bowl regions, said Wag- ner. The 1950s started out wet and rather cool, then drought conditions began developing, expecially in Texas and South- ern states.

Some scientists think the 1970s might see a re- turn of dry conditions. Scientists charged with tak- ing milch 1 weather and climate trends have detected worldwide fluc- tuations within the past 100 years, and are seeking ways of putting a finger on the pulse of climate, partly through the in- ternational program known in the United States as Geophysic- al Monitoring for Climatic Change. From the end of the 19th cen- tury until after World War II, the average world temperature rose about one degree, especially In northern latitudes, said Dr. Machta and Donald Pack, director and deputy director, respectively, of the Air Resources laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Then a cooling began, wiping out about half of the tempera- ture rise, and this seems to be continuing.

A one degree change in tem- perature can have profound ef- fects, the scientists explain. In Iceland, the wanning period extended the crop growing sea- son. Cooling brought on some crop failures, and more ice moved soujh to bother fish- eries. Are only natural causes in- volved in such fluctuations, things that are happening in the air circulation, in the oceans, in variations in solar energy perhaps? On a far longer time scale, could the drifting of continents have influenced climate? Can the closing or opening of channels through which oceans circulate affr't the atmosphere and weather? Scientists have theories as to why climate can change, and are putting them to test by making up mathematical mod- els of elements that may be in- volved, then liaving gigantic computers give predictions as to the results from altering some one or more elements, This work is in a beginning stage. Computers also are being called upon to predict what would happen from man- made attempts to alter the weather, as through cloud seed- ing, Ixjfore man plunges ahead to do some experiment that might produce locally benefi- cial results, but bring freezing, rain or drought somewhere else in the world.

So far as climate is con- cerned, there Is suspicion inan's activities might be in- fluential. Carbon dioxide is one sus- peti. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil gaso- line is shouting some billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. About half of il there, the rest is absorlwd Ijy ocean waters and vegetation. While it is only a liny fraction of the total in the atmosphere, the carbon dioxide is highly efficient as a trap to catch ami hold heat corning from the sun, resulting in a "greenhouse" warming effect.

On the Hawaiian volcano of Mauna lxa, a special U.S. ob- servatory has found a gradual increase of carbon dioxide in recent years in the clear at- mosphere there. Similar find- ings are reported from the more South Pole sta- tion. Man's increasing release of FAMILY ROOM- KITCHEN 23' I1'5" carbon dioxide would be ex- pected to produce a warming rather than a recent cooling trend. So another question is whether gases, smoke and solid particles in various forms of air pollution are perhaps pro- ducing a cooling influence by blocking our radiation from the sun.

When Mt. Agung in Bali shot huge amounts of dust into i air circulation, the Mauna Ixn observatory recorded a slight decrease in the sun's radiation at Ihe ground. After the vol- canic dust settled out, the radi- ation returned to normal. Detection of any changes re- quires observations over a long period of time. And human ac- tivities adversely affecting the climate should do so slowly enough to be recognized in time, to avoid having man con- tinue doing something destruc- tive to his climate, his home and the earth.

Shipping statistics disclosed Feigns Falls (Mn.) Joimal lily 24, 1973 9 Here's a review of price controls WHATEVER YOU LIKE best in a ranch plan is all here in under 1,500 square feet. Major rooms combine but are separate, bedrooms are large in a wing above, and excellent traffic patterns prevail throughout, whether the area is formal, informal or utility. Plan HA789C has 6Vi rooms, plus laundry and two baths. Design is by architect Lester Cohen, Room 505, 48 W. 48th New York, N.Y.

10036. Anyone interested in knowing the price of the blueprint may wrice to him. Enclose stamped envelope for reply. CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) Buoyed by shipping increases in grain and iron ore, bulk ship- ments on the Great last month reached to 19.1 million net tons, about 150,000 tons more than in June last year. The Carriers Associ- ation said the June figures brought 1973 shipping so far this season to 55.2 million gross tons, the highest since 1966.

The association said the in- creases in grain and iron ore offset decreasing coal cargoes, which fell to 4.9 million net tons for the month and 15.6 million net tons for the season. The June figure was the lowest recorded since 1944, the car- riers said. Iron-ore shipments totaled 9.7 million gross tons, up 700,000 tons from last June, while grain shipments rose to 3.4 million tons, about a increase and a June record. Grain shipments to date, 8.7 million tons, are also a record, the association said. 17 Chinese are killed HONG KONG (AP) Sev- enteen Chinese w.ere killed and 23 others were injured when a bus crowded with holidayers plunged 300 feet into a ravine on one of Hong Kong's outer islands.

A survivor said the bus went out of control on a steep moun- tain road and was traveling at 50 to 60 miles an hour when it left the road. The driver was seriously in- jured. A police inspector said it appeared that the brakes failed to hold on the steep road. WASHINGTON A From freeze to freeze, here is a recap of President Nixon's efforts to fight inflation with wage-price controls: Phase 1 The first freeze, imposed Aug. 15, 1971.

II cov- ered wages, prices and rents and lasted 90 days. Only raw agricultural products were ex- empted. Interest and dividends were uncontrolled. Phase 2 The thaw, started Nov. 14,1971.

It covered wages, prices and rents and lasted 14 months. Prices were allowed to rise to reflect business costs. Profit margins were restricted. Big companies had to clear price boosts with the govern- ment in advance. The wage guideline allowed for pay in- creases to average 5.5 per cent a year.

Phase 3 The self-policing control system, started Jan. 11, 1973. Basically the guidelines of Phase 2 were retained, but the enforcement system became largely voluntary. The govern- ment reserved the right to chal- lenge any wage or price in- crease. Rent regulations were abandoned.

Mandatory price rules remained in effect in the health, food and construction industries. Big businesses no longer had to clear price boosts with the government in ad- vance. This was changed to ap- ply to large companies that raised prices more than 1.5 per cent. On March 29, Nixon set ceilings on beef, pork and lamb prices. He also put special price rules into effect in the oil in- dustry.

Phase 2 The second freeze, imposed June 13. Nixon froze all prices for up to 60 days, but left wages unfrozen. Rents remained uncontrolled. The second freeze was tougher than the first in one respect, Only the first sale of raw agri- cultural products, that by the fanner, was exempt. This ef- fectively meant that all food prices were under government ceilings.

Hand jams a pistol RICHMOND, Va. A A 26-year-old policeman used his hand to jam a pistol aimed at him. The officer said he was chas- ing a man who stopped and pulled pistol Saturday night. The patrolman said his first re- action was to jam the skin IK- twecn his thumb and index fin- ger down on the pistol. He said the trigger was pulled but the hammer struck his skin instead of the firing pin.

The policeman's name was Patrolman John T. Quick. i PERSONALITY PLUS By Robin Adams Sloan Mailer: Neither a borrower nor her molting Burr: Doesn't gladly. suffer fools Is it true Norman Mailer actually stole another writer's work for use in his book on Marilyn Monroe? I can hardly believe this. N.E., New Bedford, Conn.

Mailer has had fist fights, stabbed one of his wives, and been drunk in public, but we don't think he is an out-and-out plagiarist. He asked Frederick Guiles, who wrote a book about Marilyn called "Norma Jean," for permission to use 28 specific quotes from that book. Guiles agreed. When the Mailer book appeared, it seems it had 255 sections lifted from Guiles' book, ranging from sentences to half pages of quotes. That's what all the legal fuss is about.

Or that's what that particular legal fuss is about. As we told you before, Mailer can expect more legal action from Liz Taylor, who is furious at being misquoted about Marilyn. NEXT BIG MOVIE STAR? It may well be Joan Hackett, who to date has gone unnoticed save by the critics and the in- telligentsia in a number of film NOW IN THE MINI MALL CITYSHOPPINGCENTER 122 West Cavour Fergus Falls (between Scotts and Iho new H8.LOK Hardware Store) same good neighbor. Here's my now Sl.iln Tarm ollir.o. wtmrn I cnn sorvo you with the bflsl in cut.

liomn. Mo lio.illh mswmico I irwilo you to call or diop in unylimo HAROLD ROVANG OFFICE: 734 MM HOME: 736 W8 roles. Group" and "Will Penny" for instance.) Ms. Hackett walked away with excellent reviews for the mystery thriller, "The of Sheila," and is now set to star opposite George Segal in "The Terminal Man." Hollywood insiders think she may be ready for the big push to gain power with the public. They note that the zany Joan just did something many actresses do right before they make it big shed her devoted, longtime husband, actor Richard Mulligan.

What can you lell us about Raymond Burr who plays Is he married? V.E., Newark, N.J. The TV star is 5fi years old and loves animals, orchids, his homes in Hollywood and the Fiji Islands. He is currently not married. His first wife was killed in a plane crash, his second marriage ended in divorce, his third wife died of cancer and Hurr had a son who dlod of leukemia at the ago of 10. Those tragedies make him a complex man with a violent temper and a low tolerance for stupidity.

Ho supports munl)er of foster children, I): I have an orlRin.il copy "Gono WHh Tho Wind." Is it worth anylhinu? K.P., I'mlornh, Ky. There were several editions of GWTW in 19.16. The one puhlislted in May of that year is the winner worth $100. Other millions nrc virtually worth- less. If you are interested in look read the "Short Course in Book-Scouting" (Gryphon Publications, Box 22101, San Francisco, or write "Antiquarian Bookman," Box 1100, Newark, N.J.

They list 7,000 "wanted" books a week.) John Unnon used to be my favorite performer, but now I think he has sold out. My girlfriend says he is just playing it straight In keep from being deported. G.W., Baltimore, Md. John and Yoko do want very much to stay in the U.S. and might account for Iheir fly- right recent behavior and the fact that they moved from Greenwich Village to the respectable Dakota apartment house on the upper west side of Manhattan.

The I.onnons are still threatened with depor- tation, though there is some hope they may'be reclassified as desirable aliens. So you can't blame tlicm for crossing their famous fingers. What happened In the for- tune left by the Arizona guy who offered it to anyone proving existence of the human soul after death? Did anyone gel the money? W.L., Niagara Falls, N.Y. You are talking of James Kidd's will leaving his con- siderable assets to "go to research or some scientific proof of a soul of the human Ixxly which leaves at death." An Arizona court received more than 100 claims for the money and after six years the Kidd bequest of $270,000 has Ixicn awarded to the American Society for Psychical Research. Money will be used on research projects including a study of deathbed ob- servations and changes in the process of dying.

(If you're interested, write to ASPR, 5 West 73 NYC, 10023. Kobin Adams Sloan welcomes questions from readers. While Sloan cannot provide individual answers, questions of general inslerest will be used in the column. Write to Robin Adams Sloan, car.c of this newspaper. No matter how you figure interest, we still pay the highest rate available for insured savings! Start with one of our Savings Plans now! FERGUS FALLS ASSOCIATION 325 West Cavour Phone 736-S67J Nilson Funeral Home 119 N.

UNION AVfNlll, TERGUS.fAUS, MINNESO'A PHONE 736-7834 FOR YOUR MEAT NEEDS SEE REHAB INDUSTRIES MEAT PROCESSING PLANT AND RETAIL MEATS Use Slate Hospital Drive Follow Signs to Rehab Acres Fergus Falls COME ON UP OR PHONE YOUR ORDER IN- PHONE 736 7016, AND YOUR ORDER WILL BE READY FOR YOU! OPEN MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY 8 A.M. TO 4:30 P.M. We offer Federally Inspected Beef and Pork plus the Finest Sausage and Hamburger available in Ihe Fergus Falls A a Plus FRONTS, SIDES AND LOINS AND CHOPS QUARTERS AND FRESH HAMS STEAKS 'SUMMER SAUSAGE ROUND ROASTS GROUND BEEF 'SLICED OR SLAB BACON LIVER ROASTS DRIED BEEF MEAT We Do Custom Slaughtering and Processing Also Smoking and Curing Call Us! Come Up and Go Through Our Modern Government Inspected Meat PUnt.