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

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

#51

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

heidar wrote: post #38

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,…

Usually countries stop burning coal and use something that emits less CO2 as they develop. Except the US. It's still burning the most coal per capita, by far. Getting rid of coal is a great place to start.

Countries get rid of it by burning it, then they stop burning it because its gone. Britain didn't intentionally start lowering production in 1910, they literally burned it all, then had to find something else.

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

#52

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

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #11

flubert wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I live in one of those "Record Warmest" boxes, it really was hot during the past year. You can sense a 0.23 degree F average temperature difference? Or maybe you are unhelpfully confusing weather with climate?

Or, he could be observing that there were noticeably more noticeably hotter days last summer.

Let's say summer is 100 days, and "normally" there are 10 days of 90-degree highs (the hot days) and 90 days of 70-degree highs. That's an average high of 72 degrees.

Now, if you have a summer with one additional hot day, the average high is 72.2 degrees, which is about the 0.23 degree average increase observed.

Obviously these numbers are made up, but could you really just casually notice only one more hot day than normal? It seems like you'd need to be keeping count to have any sort of confidence that this summer was hotter than normal.

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

#53

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

pfarnsworth wrote: post #35

There is a 10F difference in temperature between my upstairs and downstairs without any heat turned on. There is a 4F difference in temperature between the front of the house and the back of my house. There are so many factors as to how temperature is calculated, how exactly can we take a temperature today and compare it to values from years ago? I'll buy that satellite imaging will produce values that are useful ove…

Especially after climate gate where it was revealed that a warming factor was applied to the raw data, forcing a hockey stick....

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

#54

Post by vectorjohn » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:52 PM UTC

pfarnsworth wrote: post #35

There is a 10F difference in temperature between my upstairs and downstairs without any heat turned on. There is a 4F difference in temperature between the front of the house and the back of my house. There are so many factors as to how temperature is calculated, how exactly can we take a temperature today and compare it to values from years ago? I'll buy that satellite imaging will produce values that are useful ove…

Do you think people have systematically moved the locations of thermometers to warmer places? There's a thing called averages, medians, and other statistics that can remove or put error bars on that kind of uncertainty.

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

#55

Post by morsch » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:53 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.

All the more reason to improve those capabilities now.

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

#56

Post by drinchev » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:53 PM UTC

My home country is suffering enormous climate anomalies, that are becoming usual for the population. We have big floods, forest fires, enormous heat waves and huge snow storms.

This is so obvious that people are having hard time to talk about it. First years this happened it was "just a nature glitch", but recently it is becoming more and more "climate has changed".

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

#57

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:54 PM UTC

jupiter90000 wrote: post #40

Is anyone aware if there is reliable data prior to say 1880? [1] Is there any possibility that large scale climate trends could be outside of the observed window of time available? For instance, some large scale natural state-shifting appears to occur on the order of hundreds of years (reference is about earthquakes, but maybe relevant?) [2]. Based on everything I've heard/read/etc about this, it seems unlikely that…

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by scottkduncan » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:54 PM UTC

vectorjohn wrote: post #46

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.

Wind works at night. :)

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

#59

Post by rayiner » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:54 PM UTC

jupiter90000 wrote: post #40

Is anyone aware if there is reliable data prior to say 1880? [1] Is there any possibility that large scale climate trends could be outside of the observed window of time available? For instance, some large scale natural state-shifting appears to occur on the order of hundreds of years (reference is about earthquakes, but maybe relevant?) [2]. Based on everything I've heard/read/etc about this, it seems unlikely that…

> but I get concerned I'm hearing lots of motivated agendas about it rather than facts.

What motivation does anyone have to predict disaster?

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

#60

Post by yongjik » Wed, Jan 20, 2016, 10:55 PM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #39

yongjik wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Total CO2 emissions by countries, 2014: US 5.3 Gt China 10.5 Gt India 2.3 Gt Yeah, China and India are totally relevant to global CO2 emissions. The global climate doesn't give a damn about how many people are responsible for a given quantity of emissions, it's completely and utterly uncaring.

So, if China decides to divide itself into ten countries, each with 1.05 Gt emission, the earth will be so much better?

The global climate doesn't give a damn about national borders, either.

Of course China is important, because decisions made by its government can affect a billion people, but the same can be said for the US. (Good luck persuading Chinese people to reduce their emission, if the US doesn't commit itself to do the same.)