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India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

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181–190 of 269 posts

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#181
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they are armed, you can simply shoot at the air and they'll scram.

This "solution" ignores the fallout of said actions. The British lost their highly profitable Indian colony because the citizens at home could not stomach the killings of hundreds of Indians. The average American would not be OK with seeing videos of millions of refugees being mowed down at the border. And that's ultimately what it would take. When you're dying of dehydration or starving to death, you aren't going to…

>This "solution" ignores the fallout of said actions. The British lost their highly profitable Indian colony because the citizens at home could not stomach the killings of hundreds of Indians. The average American would not be OK with seeing videos of millions of refugees being mowed down at the border.

When the alternative is living next to them, that perception might change. Time will tell.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true but it is referred to colloquially as "The Syrian Crisis" here, in any case I don't what the solution is, I deeply admire the Germans for what they did though. Taking 1.5 million migrants with a population of 82 million, if the UK (my country) had done the same ratio that would have been 1.2 million, best figure I can find for UK is One thing I do wonder is what western culture will look like in a hundred…

Culture evolves/changes over time. So it's a valid question as long as it's not a veiled "will there be too many brown people".

Couldn't care less one way or the other about how many brown people there are in Europe, I'm curious if western culture will be significantly altered one way or the other though - there are elements of it I like and would hope would promulgate into the future is all.

It's interesting that you can't really broach it as a question though without it been implied that racism is involved, if you can't debate a subject without been accused of racism then you leave all debate of that subject to racists since they may not care about been accused of racism.

Too many people use race as a placeholder for culture and vice versa (same with religion).

Honestly things would be better if both sides would stop hurling slurs at each other and actually debate the issues but I figure it serves them to have this kind of fight as it gains both sides followers.

I'm seeing more and more of that kind of balkanization in the UK and it's worrying, Brexit has opened some pretty nasty wounds that may not heal in my lifetime.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#183
post #26

If this happens frequently enough in sufficiently populated areas, then the resulting population die-off will eventually reduce the energy need and resulting carbon outlet and things may stabilize. Sucks for the people involved. But globally speaking, it may not be so bad.

It's not surprising that people are unable to sympathize with people who they've never seen. I suggest you travel through India and you'll realize how mistaken you are, sometimes the carbon emission of a village with 100 members is less than a typical American household, specially now when LPG is rolling out even in the remotest and poorest families.

So, the migration of large numbers of people from a low-energy-per-capita economy to a high-energy-per-capita economy will save lives, but also have the unintended side effect of increasing global temperatures?

If we refuse to reduce our energy expenditures in the US because [stubborn reasons] ... would it be easier to solve global warming by just having everyone in the US migrate to existing more efficient, low-energy-per-capita economies?

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#184
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the number of current economic refugees is relatively small Interesting way to describe people fleeing war.

Economic refugees don't have it good either. Starving and dying from disease isn't easy.

If you are travelling because otherwise you will starve while dying from disease, you are a refugee. Economic migration generally assumes that you are not likely to die from returning. I do not think it is that wise to conflate the terms.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#186
A slightly redacted version of my earlier post.

Dear HN crowd, it might not feel like it but we are quite influential. We are rich and therefore have a non-negligible command over economy. Silicon Valley is cool and people look up to us (do they? I don't really know, but wasn't Steve Jobs a national hero?) and may follow our example.

Please, take the lead. Here are a few things an hornorable member of the HN community can do

- Stop flying to conferences. Go to a local meetup. It's fun. And cheaper. If you really need to get out of town, take a train. Don't think about it as not flying for the rest of your life. Rather, can we declare a moratorium on conferences for like three years? Let's hope by then Prometheus will give us carbon-neutral jet fuel https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19842240

- Shift your investments from fossil to green. If you can't find enough worthy greens, shift it to anything else. Some say it won't impact your returns http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/the-mythical-per.... Move your deposits and savings to a more sustainable bank. This might be one of the most underappreciated yet simple and powerful tools https://fairfinanceguide.org

- Work less. Work part time, and part of that part time remotely. Reduce your commute. If your boss won't let you, find a job that will. In the current job market you can negotiate almost anything, and remote work must be the easiest thing to negotiate. http://cepr.net/documents/publications/climate-change-worksh.... A firm lets its employees work four days a week while being paid for five. Everyone is happy, lower electricity bills, fewer cars on the road https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/asia/four-day-workw....

- Reduce your meat consumption as much as you can. I noticed that this one is quite controversial but I am mentioning it anyway. It's fine to not go fully vegan, but make meat a special treat, something you are looking forward to, not an everyday snack. They say these new vega burgers are not too bad. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/30/dining/climat....

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#187

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.

New Delhi, the capital, recorded 47 C. Its a population center is it not?

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the effect of humidity. Our bodies rely on evaporative cooling to reduce heat, which is why we sweat and why you need water. When humidity is above 50% evaporative cooling stops working, so temperatures slightly above our body temperature become lethal.

Rajasthan is a desert. The city mentioned in the article, Churu, currently has a humidity of 11%. I mentioned Tempe because it's nearly an identical climate. I've spent time in Ajmer, India, which is pretty close to Churu. It was only about 45C/113F when I was there. Obviously this is all anecdotal, but my anecdote here isn't off base.

Its absolutely not localized to Rajasthan. Almost the whole of north india is under a heat wave. And we recorded 37% humidity today in Delhi (The capital) with 47 C temprature and hot winds.

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#189
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been telling people for a while, if we think the amount of refugees from our wars is bad, just wait till you see the number arriving due to the fuel we burn. Though given our reaction to the current wave of refugees, we will blame the refugees for their own predicament and probably George Soros, as is tradition, long before we accept any blame ourselves.

Or we will simply not accept the refugees. As you said at current numbers it’s been really bad. At much higher numbers it will simply be a better and more popular option to close the border.

Then slowly the climate change will come for you. Will your borders stop the climate?

Re: India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius

#190
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone guess where will the first wave of climate change refugees will be from and where they'll be heading too?

Climate change refugees are already common. For instance, climate change played some role in the current Venezuelan refugee crisis (the one that has Trump separating families and housing people in camps under overpasses, or bussing them to sanctuary cities). Today, the main problem is that their government started to collapse in 2017, so they are unable to supply food to their population. Why did the government start…

Not sure why you got downvote for an argument made with data sources but I gave you an upvote anyway.

Spirited debate is the best thing about this place.

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