2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record • Hacker News Board

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#41

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:47 PM UTC

yongjik wrote: post #27

at-fates-hands wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> It's just nuts, really, something is terribly wrong with our world, and we need to fix it. You should probably start with developing countries like China and India. The US has been actively reducing its carbon footprint for a while now: Energy related carbon emissions in the United States declined by 12% between 2005 and 2012, back to a level not seen since 1994. Per capita emissions fell 17% over the same period,…

Per-capita CO2 emissions by countries, 2011: US 17.0t China 6.7t India 1.7t Yeah, we should totally talk to China and India. Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?order=wba...

[deleted]

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#42

Post by mahouse » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:48 PM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #26

If this keeps up, I have no idea how countries are going to deal with displaced migrants. We barely have the capability right now to properly deal with Syrians and African refugees.

It's not like we are forced to deal with them.

They can also be relocated to cold but uninhabited places such as Siberia.

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#43

Post by josu » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

oolongCat wrote: post #6

I live in one of those "Record Warmest" boxes, it really was hot during the past year. Its funny how people you would consider uneducated and poor in my country would understand that there is clearly something going wrong with the world around us, while some people with lots of money, influence and education choose to believe that this is all a conspiracy by a foreign government. It's just nuts, really, something is…

One cold morning, with a very clear sky, no clouds in sight, I overheard two old ladies discussing how when they were young the sky was bluer, they both agreed. This was in Salamanca, Spain, not Beijing, so no smog to account for.

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#44

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #18

oolongCat wrote: post #6

I live in one of those "Record Warmest" boxes, it really was hot during the past year. Its funny how people you would consider uneducated and poor in my country would understand that there is clearly something going wrong with the world around us, while some people with lots of money, influence and education choose to believe that this is all a conspiracy by a foreign government. It's just nuts, really, something is…

>> It's just nuts, really, something is terribly wrong with our world, and we need to fix it. You should probably start with developing countries like China and India. The US has been actively reducing its carbon footprint for a while now: Energy related carbon emissions in the United States declined by 12% between 2005 and 2012, back to a level not seen since 1994. Per capita emissions fell 17% over the same period,…

[deleted]

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#45

Post by jokoon » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

I wonder if there is a planned study of the melting of the permafrost, since I've seen on Cosmos that it will be one of the "irreversible" side effects of global warming.

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#46

Post by vectorjohn » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:50 PM UTC

ps4fanboy wrote: post #32

Nuclear Power, until those who care about the environment accept that the only clean at scale power solution for base load is nuclear power we will get no where. "Renewables" are great and should be in the mix but they are not an at scale solution. http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/images/ghgemissions/source... By going mostly electric for our transportation and nuclear for power generation we could really make a den…

Lots of people keep saying this, but I really don't think it's true. Solar and wind work fine at scale. There is nothing un-scalable about them. What they don't do is work at night, and in that case nuclear is a fine option. Although batteries that can run a house overnight aren't that expensive.

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#47

Post by monochromatic » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:50 PM UTC

> "But this record, we literally smashed. It was over a quarter of a degree Fahrenheit, and that’s a lot for the global temperature.”

We literally smashed it Thomas? Literally? The record is broken into pieces and scattered around the literal floor?

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#48

Post by nostromo » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

ps4fanboy wrote: post #32

Nuclear Power, until those who care about the environment accept that the only clean at scale power solution for base load is nuclear power we will get no where. "Renewables" are great and should be in the mix but they are not an at scale solution. http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/images/ghgemissions/source... By going mostly electric for our transportation and nuclear for power generation we could really make a den…

Earth has a set amount of uranium that is destroyed when creating energy.

Currently we have about 200 years of uranium available for economical extraction. But if we tried to replace all fossil fuels with nuclear, we would be out within a few decades. Then we'd need to move to other non-renewable materials (thorium?) or start mining astroids.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-will-glob...

And the mining of uranium looks awfully similar to the mining of coal. (Of course you need far fewer uranium mines for the same amount of energy.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining#/media/File:Ara...

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#49

Post by JBReefer » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

flubert wrote: post #24

Afforess wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Earth can only "gain" heat through #3, solar radiation. The other 3 items you list can store and release heat at a later time, but they can not generate more heat than they already possess now. (This is not strictly true, conversion of mass to energy, e=mc^2, means that nuclear and fusion energy could create new heat at the expense of matter, but we generally assume that on planets, this is negligible.) So if peo…

>Geothermal energy was stored back during the formation of the planet "Nuclear Fission Confirmed as Source of More than Half of Earth's Heat" http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/nuclear-fis...

That's talking about radioactive decay, not fission. The article doesn't do a great job distinguishing between the two, but it's _not_ talking about the process of splitting atoms.

>The new measurements suggest radioactive decay provides more than half of Earth's total heat, estimated at roughly 44 terawatts based on temperatures found at the bottom of deep boreholes into the planet's crust.

Re: 2015 “smashed” 2014’s global temperature record

#50

Post by AngrySkillzz » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #31

Ah yes, an El Nino "this proves global warming" versus a La Nina "weather is not climate" year. I hate that this is the narrative. Can people just ... stop doing this? Maybe? If you try to use the "record breaking heat, it was warm this one year" argument to argue for acceptance of theories of climate change you are only going to be hoist by your own petard a few years later when natural weather cycles result in reco…

It's not that it was warm "this one year," it's another data point in the pattern of record-breakingly warm years over the past few decades. Checkout the animation in this Bloomberg report if you want a better idea.[1]

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-01-20/2015-was-t...