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The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

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4*<br />

EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST<br />

the parent assumption, that is, the assumption <strong>of</strong> the lower-<br />

ing <strong>of</strong> global temperatures during ice ages, which assumption<br />

is, as already pointed out, in conflict with the laws <strong>of</strong> physics.<br />

If it is true that the fundamental assumption underlying<br />

most <strong>of</strong> the theories produced to explain ice ages is in error,<br />

we should expect that these theories, despite their many<br />

differences, would have a common quality <strong>of</strong> futility, and so<br />

it turns out. It is interesting to list the kinds <strong>of</strong> hypothetical<br />

causes that have been suggested to explain ice ages on the<br />

assumption <strong>of</strong> a world-wide lowering <strong>of</strong> temperature. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

are as follows:<br />

a. Variations in the quantity <strong>of</strong> particle emission and <strong>of</strong><br />

the radiant heat given <strong>of</strong>f <strong>by</strong> the sun.<br />

b. Interception <strong>of</strong> part <strong>of</strong> the sun's radiation <strong>by</strong> clouds<br />

<strong>of</strong> interstellar gas or dust.<br />

c. Variations in the heat <strong>of</strong> space; that is, the temperature<br />

<strong>of</strong> particles floating in space which, entering the earth's<br />

atmosphere, might affect its temperature.<br />

d. Variations in the quantities <strong>of</strong> dust particles in the at-<br />

mosphere, from volcanic eruptions or other causes, or<br />

variations in proportion <strong>of</strong> carbon dioxide in the at-<br />

mosphere.<br />

<strong>The</strong> objections to these suggestions are all very cogent. So<br />

far as the variation <strong>of</strong> the sun's radiation is concerned, it is<br />

known that it varies slightly over short periods, but there is<br />

no evidence that it has ever varied enough, or for a long<br />

enough time, to cause an ice age. Evidence for the second and<br />

third suggestions is entirely lacking. <strong>The</strong> fourth suggestion is<br />

deprived <strong>of</strong> value because, on the one hand, no causes can<br />

be suggested for long-term changes in the number <strong>of</strong> erup-<br />

tions or in the atmospheric proportion <strong>of</strong> carbon dioxide,<br />

and, on the other, there is insufficient evidence to show that<br />

the changes ever occurred.<br />

I should make one reservation with regard to the fourth<br />

suggestion. <strong>The</strong>re is one event that would provide an ade-<br />

quate cause for an increase in the atmosphere <strong>of</strong> both vol-

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