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India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

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Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#131

Post by wongarsu »

noir_lord wrote: post #116
wongarsu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If some of the worse projections become true and large stretches of land become uninhabitable or very inhospitable my money is on the US deploying semi-automated machine gun turrets along the border wall: the turrets will have automated target aquisition and tracking but a minimum-wage border patrol agent in an office in Austin will have to confirm the kill decision. It will be about as controversial as the drone pro…

Those automated machine guns already exist, a Korean company was developing them over a decade ago for the DMZ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGR-A1

It even comes with full automation, the operator can get up and fetch coffee without worrying about anyone slipping through. How convenient.

I just hope nobody tells Trump these exist.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#132

Post by jjuhl »

ss248 wrote: post #122
jjuhl wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on your view of the world I guess. In my view, humans are not special. We have no inherent right to live on this planet compared to other animals. Why should we not die off and let other creatures live? Only selfishness (and our cognitive ability to have it), enables; I want to live. Humans are not special (except for currently being at the top of the food-chain). We have reached our biological population…

Humans are actually special. We are smarter than any other animal on earth and have culture. Human brain is the most complex structure in the known universe, so even on that scale we are pretty special. And it simply makes no sense to just throw away millions of years of evolution. Your nihilistic worldview is very naive.

Nihilistic it may be. But please don't equate nihilism and nativity.

"And it simply makes no sense to just throw away millions of years of evolution" - Why not?

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#133

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

wongarsu wrote: post #102
noir_lord wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading a sci-fi story back in the 80's (damn I wish I could remember the name) where that basically happened, Europe and the US fortified their borders (massive walls/fences, automated weapon systems, usual sci-fi fare) and left the rest of the world to it's own devices. I was only a kid and I remember thinking "I can't imagine that ever happening" then I look at the refugee camps in EU states (Greece par…

If some of the worse projections become true and large stretches of land become uninhabitable or very inhospitable my money is on the US deploying semi-automated machine gun turrets along the border wall: the turrets will have automated target aquisition and tracking but a minimum-wage border patrol agent in an office in Austin will have to confirm the kill decision. It will be about as controversial as the drone pro…

> The only real winner will be Russia: they can just absorb all the refugees from South Asia

Ethnic Russians are already concerned about plunging birthrates. It is not at all unusual to hear elected Russian officials talk about “the future of the white race”. Furthermore, Russians are aware that a decline in the ethnic Russian population means that the local Muslim minorities gain a correspondingly higher share of the country. Thus, the topic is already a very pressing and sensitive one, and it would be silly to suggest that Russia is open to admitting masses of Muslim (or Hindu) refugees.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#134

Post by jjuhl »

vbezhenar wrote: post #53
lotsofpulp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming they can afford the air conditioners and electricity and electric grid.

Affording air conditioner probably the same like affording warm house in cold climate.

Affording that would likely equate several years of income to the average poor Indian. If even obtainable in a lifetime.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#135

Post by [deleted] »

arnaudsm wrote: post #48
jessriedel wrote: post #38

The 50 C number was observed in a desert. Death Valley, California, also a desert, spend 5 consecutive days above 54 C in 1913, the year it set the temperature record of 56.7 C.

"The thermometer hit 50.6 degrees [...] in the Rajasthan desert city of Churu." Churu has 120k inhabitants, you can call that a population center.

[deleted]

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#136

Post by inflatableDodo »

jjuhl wrote: post #127
inflatableDodo wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a purely practical standpoint, I don't think a die-off will help very much. Say we had a 85% die off, we would be back to around the population level of 1800, the time that Malthus published his prophecy. And along the way we would have had the most collossal wars imaginable and would be ekeing out a living on a much reduced habitable area. Basically, although it is an unpopular vision these days, I suspect that…

"We might as well be deer" - and what tells you that in the grand, global, universe-scale sense, we are not? In my eyes, we very much are .

>what tells you that in the grand, global, universe-scale sense, we are not?

If we were deer, then Malthus would have been right by now. We are fairly uniquely placed as a species to be able to avoid being this dumb.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#137

Post by hedora »

noir_lord wrote: post #45
CydeWeys wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are mobile. What would actually happen would be the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen. Imagine tens of millions of climate refugees at the border of many different countries, and the choice is to let them in and take care of them or let them die right there. It's not a good situation to be in. Realistically speaking, with that many people, good luck keeping them out.

I remember reading a sci-fi story back in the 80's (damn I wish I could remember the name) where that basically happened, Europe and the US fortified their borders (massive walls/fences, automated weapon systems, usual sci-fi fare) and left the rest of the world to it's own devices. I was only a kid and I remember thinking "I can't imagine that ever happening" then I look at the refugee camps in EU states (Greece par…

The Sheep Look Up was similar, and depressingly prescient.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#138

Post by leereeves »

hedora wrote: post #93
jessriedel wrote: post #38

The 50 C number was observed in a desert. Death Valley, California, also a desert, spend 5 consecutive days above 54 C in 1913, the year it set the temperature record of 56.7 C.

For people that don’t know, Death Valley’s name is no exaggeration, even in modern times. Going outside there even for short periods of time is extremely dangerous for some fraction of each year. They shut the park down when this happens. A few years ago, some tourists that didn’t heed the warning ended up dead after rental van overheated. I don’t see how the populated areas already hitting comparable temperatures wi…

> I don’t see how the populated areas already hitting comparable temperatures will be habitable at all in ten years.

Phoenix, AZ, where nearly 5 million people live, hit 50C in 1990 and has come close many times.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#139

Post by [deleted] »

Isinlor wrote: post #19

These temperatures in high humidity can be deadly even to healthy and fit humans as our bodies are left without a way to cool down. Currently, they have humidity around 10-20% so it affects the most vulnerable, but global warming may lead to making parts of the world literally deadly to every human being... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a…

[deleted]

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#140

Post by [deleted] »

jobigoud wrote: post #124
Isinlor wrote: post #19

These temperatures in high humidity can be deadly even to healthy and fit humans as our bodies are left without a way to cool down. Currently, they have humidity around 10-20% so it affects the most vulnerable, but global warming may lead to making parts of the world literally deadly to every human being... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a…

> fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; This is scary, what's a good way to survive for someone that doesn't have access to a bunker or AC? Immersing oneself in water in a bathtub?

[deleted]
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