It is all downhill from here
Jim Thompson
By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
Now that we have passed the summer solstice, it is six months until I can cheer up, at least from an astronomical standpoint. In six months, the days will start getting longer again.
In the meantime, we watch the daylight shrink day by day.
In another month, it will be noticeable. By Labor Day, it will be very noticeable. That is here in the mid-latitudes. At the equator, daylight is a near-perfect sine wave. At the poles, it is quite distorted from a sine wave. Here in Atlanta, we go from 9.9 hours of daylight at the winter solstice to 14.4 hours at the summer solstice. Going from daylight savings time to standard time exacerbates the effect in the evening.
Atlanta is 34 degrees north. Many years ago, as you may recall, I lived in Helsinki, Finland. The latitude there is 60 degrees north, approximately the same as Anchorage, Alaska. In Helsinki, there are 5 hours and 59 minutes of daylight at the winter solstice and 18 hours and 56 minutes of daylight at the summer solstice. Because of twilight, the summer experience is really more like 24 hours.
This affects the human body. In Finland, late February/early March is the peak in suicides. This has been determined to be a lack of sunlight. Nowadays, many people have special wavelength lights to bask under in the winter. Overall, this seems to have reduced the suicide rate.
There are artificial ways to mess up the human body, too. Think of underground miners for coal, diamonds and other minerals. If they are on the day shift, they are working in the dark and have the same issues with lack of sunlight.
In the meantime, enjoy the summer. Combining wheat, putting up straw and hay, raising a garden. Better yet, go to your local Amish or Mennonite farm stands. I know they raise better tomatoes than I ever could. And pick up some cookies for me, too!
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.
SAI
RE: "This affects the human body. In Finland, late February/early March is the peak in suicides. This has been determined to be a lack of sunlight. Nowadays, many people have special wavelength lights to bask under in the winter. Overall, this seems to have reduced the suicide rate." Current 24/7 worldwide stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI): injecting coal ash particles into the upper atmosphere to increase the scatter of sunlight back to space. Hmm... when I doubt my sanity I just remind myself that there are billions of people thinking the jets toxic spraying (look up) are just real clouds.