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NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

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Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#91
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will never pass. This is not simply me being pessimistic. US current government doesn't believe in climate change, and doing everything in its power to roll back whatever progress was made in the last decade or so. The current senate majority is a puppet of the government and will not pass anything Trump doesnt want. And even in the extreme unlikely scenario of it getting passed. It will get vetoed. Since gettin…

Wow, I just briefly looked over that linked wikipedia page, about a wide range of environmental stuff, not 'just' global warming. Absolutely horrifying and unbelievable! (For personal reasons I've been largely out of the news loop this decade, am not in USA.) How is it that all that has been allowed to happen? People in the USA (a majority, or close to it) wanted all those changes?! Edit: I am getting downvoted for s…

Most people have the view that the USA is a democracy. The USA is not and has not been a democracy for a long time. Majority votes do not elect a president, electoral votes do. So you can, in theory, have millions of fewer votes and still get elected. As is the case with the current president and some past presidents.

The idea of 3 branches of government, supposed to put checks and balances on the democratic system is also a ruse. The President has the executive power to do almost whatever he wants. Never in the history of USA, any president has ever been criminally prosecuted, despite a long laundry list of atrocities conducted, nationally and internationally - since its existence. Congress will often blindly side with their party's elected President to pass or block any legislation, Even if overwhelmingly majority of the people of the country wants legislation it will either not get passed - or get heavily diluted by lobbying. The revolving door between private industry and government is a huge deal and perfectly legal which results in absurd things like Oil industry executives being in charge of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

The Judiciary Branch is also heavily politicized and partisan. Which is truer now than at any time in its history and will often side alone party line and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

This is, of course, an overly simplified version of reality. But don't call USA Democracy, its anything but.

IMO Corporatocracy is the closes type of US political system. This has been the case for a very very long time.

Some links:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/413142-the-united-state...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/06/united-sta...

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/america...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mitchell-democracy-commen...

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-11/is-u-s...

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#92
post #72

Odd. But NOAA's own data also confirms this July was the 65th coldest on record? [1] Hard to make sense of what's coming out of NOAA these days... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMldKLR0Vwc

Hmm, who shall I believe the official publication from NOAA [1] that states in the title July was the hottest month? Or a reintrepretation of their data posted on YouTube by a notorious and discredited climate denier [2]. [1] https://www.noaa.gov/news/july-2019-was-hottest-month-on-rec... [2] https://tonyhellerakastevengoddard.com/who-is-tony-heller/

> [2] https://tonyhellerakastevengoddard.com/who-is-tony-heller/

So website that is an vitriol-ridden ad hominem attack discredits his usage of source news articles, data analysis, graphs, & logic? None of his arguments are addressed...

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#93
post #7

We can all do our part! Even though it is hard to actively contribute to fighting climate change every day, by becoming carbon neutral, we can grow a community to make a difference! The average American has a carbon footprint that can be offset with a $20 per month subscription. We need more money to flow into fighting climate change! I personally use Project Wren to offset my carbon footprint specifically through a…

Just looking at one of their sample projects "Clean cooking fuel for refugees" It says > Briquettes replace wood burning, a heavy polluting fuel source > This initative is projected to provide 4,000 refugee households with clean briquettes, saving over 16,000 tons of emissions annually. Let's do some back-of-the-envelope calculation. 16K ton per 4K refugees means 4t per person per year. I couldn't find data on brique…

Here's a comparison project by Cooling Effect, which was recommended to me by reasonable skeptical, saavy people at my work: https://www.cooleffect.org/content/project/affordable-cookst...

My guess is this is still highly optimistic, but the project claims are 50% emissions reduction from cooking, which is at least possible.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#94
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I just briefly looked over that linked wikipedia page, about a wide range of environmental stuff, not 'just' global warming. Absolutely horrifying and unbelievable! (For personal reasons I've been largely out of the news loop this decade, am not in USA.) How is it that all that has been allowed to happen? People in the USA (a majority, or close to it) wanted all those changes?! Edit: I am getting downvoted for s…

Most people have the view that the USA is a democracy. The USA is not and has not been a democracy for a long time. Majority votes do not elect a president, electoral votes do. So you can, in theory, have millions of fewer votes and still get elected. As is the case with the current president and some past presidents. The idea of 3 branches of government, supposed to put checks and balances on the democratic system i…

Elected by Electoral votes rather than majority votes:

Trump, G.W. Bush, B. Harrison, R.B. Hayes, and J.Q. Adams.

Adams was elected by the House after an electoral tie.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#95
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average American has a 20-ton / year carbon footprint. Offsetting 20 tons per year has a cost that ranges depending on what service you use. I've seen estimates of $6-10/ton - $20/month is $12/ton. Edit: for the average american footprint, you can easily find the stat that the US emitted 5.268 GtCO2 in 2018. There are 327.16 million people in the US. From that I get more like 16 tons/year per person, so 20 is out…

If we were thinking big picture, would this mean that the US gov't could basically spend $72 billion a year to zero out the carbon contribution of America? Cheaper than the Iraq war....

Offsetting carbon is not removing carbon.

For example, you could "offset" the effect of buying a daily latte on your household budget by just continuing to buy them while your partner promises to skip their own daily latte. Despite the offset, your bank balance would be lower than if you had just stopped buying them.

There is no known way to remove carbon at a scale that would make a difference and a cost people would accept. As almost all carbon from extracted fossil fuels is now in the atmosphere and ocean, it would amount to running our fossil fuel extraction in reverse.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#96
And yet the highest commented post on this site as of this comment is about some schmuck who invented a "marijuana breathalyzer". The reason this shit is getting worse is we're all collectively trying to make a buck without giving a shit that the world is on fire all around us. Humanity is going to perish purely out of our own stupidity.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#97
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have the view that the USA is a democracy. The USA is not and has not been a democracy for a long time. Majority votes do not elect a president, electoral votes do. So you can, in theory, have millions of fewer votes and still get elected. As is the case with the current president and some past presidents. The idea of 3 branches of government, supposed to put checks and balances on the democratic system i…

Elected by Electoral votes rather than majority votes: Trump, G.W. Bush, B. Harrison, R.B. Hayes, and J.Q. Adams. Adams was elected by the House after an electoral tie.

I didn't say it happens all the time.

I wrote:

> As is the case with the current president and some past presidents.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#98
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, who shall I believe the official publication from NOAA [1] that states in the title July was the hottest month? Or a reintrepretation of their data posted on YouTube by a notorious and discredited climate denier [2]. [1] https://www.noaa.gov/news/july-2019-was-hottest-month-on-rec... [2] https://tonyhellerakastevengoddard.com/who-is-tony-heller/

> [2] https://tonyhellerakastevengoddard.com/who-is-tony-heller/ So website that is an vitriol-ridden ad hominem attack discredits his usage of source news articles, data analysis, graphs, & logic? None of his arguments are addressed...

The first half of the video is about the US, which is completely irrelevant. After that, he points out cold areas in a map, but does no calculations. The announcement was about a global average. Then, he clips off the ocean in the land-ocean dataset, comparing it to the land dataset. They are different datasets with different methodologies which he doesn't understand or go in to. Any difference must be intentional.

Then, he goes to lower troposphere temperatures, but again this varies from the surface temperature for well known reasons.

In conclusion, he didn't make any actual "arguments" at all.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#99
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of it. At various granularities of measurement. For what we would consider modern, direct methodologies, about 150 years. Think mid- to late 1800's.

So, are you saying this is the hottest July in 4.5 billion years, or that this is the hottest July in 150 years, which is 0.00003% of the earth's history? Two fairly different claims.

I'd also be interested in having this clarified. Seem a fairly obvious thing to ask.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#100
post #9
post #6

The cost to mitigate global warming is much less than the cost that humanity will bear if it isn't mitigated. This is often argued as binary: 0) doing something will destroy the economy, 1) doing nothing will destroy the world. But in reality, there is quite a bit that can be done that doesn't cost that much. The innovators require the price signal. Externalities need to be internalized before the market can solve th…

For starters, lets feed the cows some seaweed. IMO technology is very rapidly evolving which will drastically reduce emissions with very little negative trade-offs, and in fact, do so in an economically competitive fashion. The EV cars don’t just emit nothing, they are also better cars in almost every respect. The seaweed cows don’t just not fart methane, they grow fatter for less feed. The solar power isn’t just gre…

The logistics of feeding cows seaweed are challenging and I wonder who would pick up the tab and be willing to take on the risk. Much of the grazing areas and feed lots are between north part of Texas and Nebraska. Who collects the seaweed? Who brings it from the coast to the feed lots? How is it stored? Will veterinarians be willing to treat (and know how) cattle being fed seaweed?

Some people say they can taste the difference in beef between grass fed and corn fed. What about seaweed fed? If the beef is not as palatable, steak houses won't want to buy it.

I'm not saying that it's not something worth pursuing, but it's not a quick, simple, risk-free, or inexpensive conversion.

(edit: clarify that my response is addressing the seaweed part of parent's post)

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