NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded • Hacker News Board

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#101

Post by neverartful » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 1:40 PM UTC

edejong wrote: post #43

throwaway010718 wrote: post #38

As much as I want to believe climate change can mitigated by individuals making conscientious decisions, it seems as naive as telling someone in 1970 that if they care about the smog then they can just buy a catalytic converter for their own car. Climate change progress, like the catalytic converter, will be 1% innovation and 99% legislation. If you care about this problem please vote. Voting is arguably the most imp…

No, voting is passive. Be politically active: talk to your neighbors, at your local sports club, at work and at local events on climate change. Contact your local legislators. Give options to local polluters by researching options for subsidies. Write to your congressmen and ask for the most pressing local actions. Democracy does not start with a vote. That’s just a step in a large process.

I think your suggestions are exactly right for individuals. If someone's reaction is "What can/should I do?", what's the best response? Serious question. What are the more reputable resources for providing these answers?

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#102

Post by Proven » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 1:52 PM UTC

And I haven’t noticed a thing, my air conditioning has been operating normally.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#103

Post by Retric » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:06 PM UTC

perfunctory wrote: post #82

chrdlu wrote: 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…

Wood is considered heavily polluting because the smoke is harmful and it’s generally undergoing incomplete combustion. It’s CO2 footprint is as you guessed a non issue.

https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/indoor/indo...

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#104

Post by xyzzyz » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

skosch wrote: post #49

sanxiyn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not familiar with US politics, but looking at your link, the bill is sponsored by 58 Democrats and 1 Republicans. Is it a usual practice to describe such bills as bipartisan?

Good question. Republicans in particular need to worry about primary challenges in their science-illiterate districts, and many may be wary of attaching their name to this directly. But there are a good handful of deep red congresspeople who are happy to discuss policy details around carbon pricing, even if they can't politically afford cosponsorship [0]. I imagine that several of those may be willing to vote for suc…

> Also, consider that if Democrats gain control of the Senate in 2020, they can pass this easily

Yes, they can, which should really get people thinking if they don’t. Republicans don’t care about this stuff and readily admit it, but Democrats seem to only care a lot if they don’t have power to do anything. Once they are in control, this kind of heavy impact bills don’t get passed either, and best we get is something like plastic straw ban.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#105

Post by anesmike » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

abootstrapper wrote: post #17

There is a bipartisan carbon fee and dividend bill in the United States Congress right now with 59 sponsors[1], called The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763)[2]. This bill puts a fee on fossil fuels that grows over time. The money collected (minus administrative costs) is paid back to every American to spend as they see fit. Citizen's Climate Lobby is a bipartisan organization of regular people tryi…

Any time you spend money , you generate green house gases so I fail too see how this bill can mitigate green house gas production.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#106

Post by evan_ » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

sanxiyn wrote: post #33

abootstrapper wrote: post #17

There is a bipartisan carbon fee and dividend bill in the United States Congress right now with 59 sponsors[1], called The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763)[2]. This bill puts a fee on fossil fuels that grows over time. The money collected (minus administrative costs) is paid back to every American to spend as they see fit. Citizen's Climate Lobby is a bipartisan organization of regular people tryi…

I am not familiar with US politics, but looking at your link, the bill is sponsored by 58 Democrats and 1 Republicans. Is it a usual practice to describe such bills as bipartisan?

Where we are at in the US is that TODAY dozens of right-wing, White-supremacist supporters of the president have traveled to a town they believe is not supportive enough of his politics and have openly declared that they are going to assault people on the streets, and the President has responded by offering an oblique blessing. There’s no such thing as bipartisan.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#107

Post by the8472 » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:37 PM UTC

egdod wrote: post #21

... by 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit. I wonder what the error bars are on that number.

If the records were rising by 1 degree per year we would already be toast. That the increases are so small means that we'll only be toast in a century or two instead if nothing changes. modulo tipping points.

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#108

Post by FoeNyx » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

neverartful wrote: post #100

zaroth wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The grandparent's post might be referring to an article¹ recently featured on HN which stated that complementing cow feed with less than 2% of a specific dried seaweed, called Asparagopsis, might decrease their methane production by 99%.

[¹] : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20711498

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#109

Post by jtolmar » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #76

jtolmar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voting is the victory lap. Organize.

Any ideas for organizing at scale?

Read No Shortcuts [1]. But in summary, determine the group of people you want to organize (a bounded group, not "everyone"), reach out to people (face to face conversations), identify community leaders who are on board, try doing a small bit of activism, and see what percent of your target group showed up. Identify leaders who got people to show up, and look for different leaders where they didn't work. Repeat, using any success as incentive to get more people interested in participating next time.

[1] https://global.oup.com/academic/product/no-shortcuts-9780190...

Re: NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

#110

Post by edcastano » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

abootstrapper wrote: post #17

There is a bipartisan carbon fee and dividend bill in the United States Congress right now with 59 sponsors[1], called The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763)[2]. This bill puts a fee on fossil fuels that grows over time. The money collected (minus administrative costs) is paid back to every American to spend as they see fit. Citizen's Climate Lobby is a bipartisan organization of regular people tryi…

Check out www.writegreen.org to help find and write a letter to your elected officials.