Abstract
Atmospheric Changes and Climate.—Dr. R. T. A. Innes contributes a paper on this subject to Scientia for January. He points out that the former presence of glaciers in many places that are now too hot for them indicates secular changes of climate. He considers that changes in the amount of solar radiation would be compensated by increased cloud formation, and would not greatly affect the surface temperature. He assigns more weight to small changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, especially to the percentage of carbon dioxide in it; the large amount of coal, etc., that is now burnt would have some slight effect on this percentage; Dr. Innes thinks that some gas may have been introduced into the atmosphere by collisions with comets. The density of the coma? of comets is known to be very low, so a very long period of time would be necessary for the introduction of any appreciable amount of gas from this source.
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Astronomical Topics. Nature 129, 368 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129368a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129368a0