Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe • Hacker News Board

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#91

Post by nraynaud » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

Brakenshire wrote: post #75

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #44

> French energy company EDF stated that it would shut down two nuclear reactors in an attempt to limit the amount of heating water used to keep the reactors cool at Golftech nuclear power plant. I don't see why that would be a necessary or even good thing? Surely they must have higher demand for power from AC loads with the heat, even if AC isn't quite as prevalent in the EU as the US.

Because reactors need a lot of water as coolant, and they were designed with assumptions about how high the temperature of the water would be, which are now being broken. They started building that reactor in 1982, before they understood that temperatures were in the process of rising 1.5C (up to now).

The more accurate answer is that to not cook everything downstream they are forbidden from releasing to hot a water. If the upstream is already hot, they have no margin to not cook the fish downstream so they close shop. (It’s a bit more complicated since it depends also on the River size, but the main factor is downstream temp.)

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#92

Post by parsnips » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #29

gilbetron wrote: post #10

Not only broke it, destroyed it: +2.2C (+4.0F). That's incredible, in a terrifying, "well, I guess this is going to happen" kind of way.

Terrifying in the "this is the new normal" sort of way.

Really, when was the record set?

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#93

Post by kbenson » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

vbuwivbiu wrote: post #25

Climate Crisis Any news source that reports "record-breaking temperatures" is, deliberately or not, making these dangerously increasing temperatures sound like a good thing. This extreme heat is costing us $$$

No, record-breaking means it broke a record. If it was used almost exclusively for positive things, you might have a point, but it is routinely used for negative things as well. For example, "storm" is the third most related topic based on Google trends.[1]

1: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=record-breaking&g...

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#94

Post by Brakenshire » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

parsnips wrote: post #51

geddy wrote: post #7

We're seeing record shattering temperatures in different parts of the world a lot this yet - yet the article doesn't even mention climate change. As long as we keep shoveling meat into our faces 5x per day and the population keeps expanding at break-neck rate, we have massive heatwaves and endless storms to look forward to. And then that road will come to an end, and it won't be pretty.

Conflate weather and climate, I thought that's what "deniers" do?

According to normal variations around the long term average, these kind of temperatures would be happening once every 50 or 100 years, but they are happening now every few years. There’s only so many times you can roll a six before you conclude the die is loaded, and you should really start worrying when the die starts rolling sevens!

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#95

Post by pcdavid » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #44

> French energy company EDF stated that it would shut down two nuclear reactors in an attempt to limit the amount of heating water used to keep the reactors cool at Golftech nuclear power plant. I don't see why that would be a necessary or even good thing? Surely they must have higher demand for power from AC loads with the heat, even if AC isn't quite as prevalent in the EU as the US.

It's necessary because the water used to cool reactors is rejected in rivers. In normal circumstances the temperature increase this causes is under control, but right now it risks endangering the wildlife in said rivers.

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#96

Post by eropple » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #43

eropple wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse than things they've come to love. It's things they think are normal and necessary.

How are they not normal and necessary? Are you willing to give up electricity for 6 hours of your day to combat climate change? I think most people aren't willing to do that. If you were to take the problem seriously you'd need to start doing things like that and no one wants for their quality of life to decrease that much.

"No electricity for six hours a day" at an individual/consumer level is not the solution and obviously never will be even if the math lined up. Think economically, not individually. Commuting is normal but it is not necessary. Suburban and rural living at consistent standards of living (necessarily higher-consumption factors due to diseconomies of scale) are not necessary. You're right in that people won't do it, but that doesn't make it necessary.

And I'm putting enough solar on my roof to run the house and charge my in-the-near-future EV, so, yeah...

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#97

Post by ilikehurdles » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

b_tterc_p wrote: post #19

Do heatwaves pose a threat to local fauna and flora?

Warm seas kill coral reefs, and ecosystems depend on these coral reefs for sustenance and protection (hard for a colorful fish to camouflage itself in a bleached reef). It's also allowing Jelly Fish colonies to multiply out of control, which are pretty much devoid of nutritional value.

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#98

Post by _ph_ » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #44

> French energy company EDF stated that it would shut down two nuclear reactors in an attempt to limit the amount of heating water used to keep the reactors cool at Golftech nuclear power plant. I don't see why that would be a necessary or even good thing? Surely they must have higher demand for power from AC loads with the heat, even if AC isn't quite as prevalent in the EU as the US.

It is not a good thing. Just another piece of infrastructure affected by the heat. And a problem to solve - the higher the average temperature, the more limitations on cooling power plants with river water.

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#99

Post by sangnoir » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

bodyfour wrote: post #74

sangnoir wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vast swathes of land in Russia that have been frigid are becoming arable. Lots of formerly inland properties will become seafront all around the world - invest wisely!

Temperate, not necessarily arable. Arable implies soil conditions, etc which most of these areas probably don't have.

I meant arable: the soil (not) being frozen is one of the factors affecting arability, right? Russia has this to gain (with precipitation being possibly at risk) https://phys.org/news/2018-05-climate-arable.html

Re: Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe

#100

Post by stirfrykitty » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

hestipod wrote: post #59

tsneed290 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A major difference is most Texans make use of air conditioning. Paris largely does not.

Growing up in the US then living for quite some time in Europe it was initially weird for me to not see AC everywhere, but I quickly realized it was much more comfortable for me. Something about being in a cold building and then going out into a swamp heater just makes it more miserable. Maybe its slow acclimation or some subjective thing.

Not really acclimation, but willingness to suffer through it. I hate it when my children want to play outside because I'm out there for less than five minutes and my shirt is soaked through with sweat, it's unbearably hot, and the insects are legion. When I leave work in the late afternoon, it's so hot my car takes 10 minutes to cool down to where it's comfortable inside. By then my Right Guard has gone left and I'm having cold air blowing on wet skin. It really does suck.