Baltic Sea experiment on climatic change
Thesis
The Baltic Sea, an almost fully enclosed sea, and so
far in the North that it receives very little sun during winter, is an
ideal candidate for the experiment on what it needs to change climate
by anthropogenic means.
The biggest experiment over a short period yet were the naval
activities during WW II in the Baltic and North Sea that catapulted the
region back in the Little Ice Age in three successive winters 1939-40,
1940-41, and 1941-42. The specific impact of the Baltic Sea is
significantly relevant in conjunction with sea war activities in autumn
1939 and autumn 1941.
Facts
From a military viewpoint the naval activities in the
Baltic Sea may be regarded as not so forcefully as in the North Sea or
elsewhere, but the severity of the winter followed closely the
intensity of the use of military means, as indicated in the following:
- The taking of Gdansk and Hela (Poland) by the
German Navy and the heavy mining of the western Baltic in September
1939 were followed by a record winter in North Germany.
- The Russian attack on Finland with fighting in the
Gulf of Finland and its heavy mining resulted in an extraordinary
contrasting December 1939 and winter 1939/40 in Finland.
- The year 1940 was without major naval combat
activities in the Baltic, the following winter 1940/41 was in the
Baltic Sea little less severe than 1939/40 and 1941/42.
- The experiment was ‘crowned’ with ‘Barbarossa’ when
Germany attacked Russia by sea in the Baltic from June to December 1941
in the biggest military operations the sea had ever seen, immediately
followed by the most dramatic deviation of mean temperature between
summer and winter, that had not even occurred during the Little Ice
Age. The winter of 1941/42 was a record breaker for Sweden (presumably
also for other Baltic countries, for which data was not available), and
for other countries, like Denmark and Holland, as well.
Evidence
The three arctic winters have no parallel in the
Northern Hemisphere at that time, occupying only Northern Europe, and
by conditions, and on conditions even any recent major earthquake, or
volcano, like Krakatoa 1883, had not managed on modifying a winter over
a short period of time, or in succession of three winters, while
leaving the corresponding summers to occur on normal climatic
conditions. The contrast between summer and winter temperature was so
great that there is presumably no parallel throughout the last several
hundred years.
Conclusion and further reading
The cause of the arctic war winters in North Europe
1939-40, 1940-41 and 1941-42 has not yet been determined. This
investigation attributes them to the war at sea in the North and Baltic
Sea. Three-years-package 1939-42 (3_31),
and Plunged into arctic conditions 1939-40 (2_11),
and Finland invaded by Russia (2_41), and
Stockholm’s record (3_23).
|