The narrative of combating global warming / climate change is ineffective and it misses the point. The Earth can quite naturally be inhospitable to human life. The narrative needs to be one of terraforming our own planet.
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The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
11–20 of 129 posts
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#12Temperatures have been rising even further north. I'm near the 47th parallel and there was practically no winter this year. Used to have -20 degC with lots of snow, but alas. Last year's highs were above 40 degC for weeks - unimaginable 20 years ago, and rare 10 years ago. Everyone's getting air conditioners now. For some unexplainable reasons, people still use dark colored roofs - it's time that everyone painted the…
Well it is a temporary thing, the rate of change is still increasing. We'll reach the new normal a number of decades after we stop burning fossil fuel.
> after we stop burning fossil fuel
You mean, when we run out of fossil fuel?
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#13Color me optimistic, but we'll learn to survive and adapt. Humans in temperate climates (Chicago, Toronto, etc.) already live in places where it's too cold to survive outside for long in winter. Just replace heaters with ACs in this case.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#14Personal anectode.
I already can't bear summer. I don't have AC, as most people don't have it here in Switzerland. Even offices tend to not have them. There are 1 to 2 months a year where my productivity sinks, enjoyment of life plummets and I just want it all to be over.
I also barely see any snow anymore, if I don't hike in the mountains. I love snow.
The change is real and I hate it. Couldn't it be global cooling instead of warming? Damn physics.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#15Color me optimistic, but we'll learn to survive and adapt. Humans in temperate climates (Chicago, Toronto, etc.) already live in places where it's too cold to survive outside for long in winter. Just replace heaters with ACs in this case.
For people who can afford AC and won't be able to go outside
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#16Climate related reports are getting scarier by the day. I am scared. Really scared. Everyone should be. If I may, let me make a little plea. May I remind everyone that we are not a mere spectators of the show. We are active participants. We can influence things. We as in you and I, HN crowd. It may not seem like it, but an average HN reader has a non-trivial amount of influence. And not only in financial sense. Pleas…
>>I am scared. Really scared. Everyone should be.
The thing is, I'm completely oversatured with being scared. This has lead to massive mental issues in the last few years, because everything around us is apocalyptic, even though we live in unimaginable luxury compared to 99.9999% of the rest of the time when humanity existed. I just....can't anymore.
>> The future of humanity is in your hands.
No, it isn't. At least it doesn't feel like it. Impact of my actions is zero. The only way that a "future of humanity is in my hands" is by either deciding to not have kids, or even better, just killing myself and immediately reducing all my output to zero. Still, on a global scale that amounts to nothing.
Watched a good video about this recently - even if all of United Kingdom was wiped off the map and just disappeared overnight, China and US would make up for the reduced polution in about 8 weeks, as both countries emit more and more by the day. And you're telling me the future is in my hands? Right.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well it is a temporary thing, the rate of change is still increasing. We'll reach the new normal a number of decades after we stop burning fossil fuel.
> after we stop burning fossil fuel You mean, when we run out of fossil fuel?
Well that's one way, we'll see.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#18Climate related reports are getting scarier by the day. I am scared. Really scared. Everyone should be. If I may, let me make a little plea. May I remind everyone that we are not a mere spectators of the show. We are active participants. We can influence things. We as in you and I, HN crowd. It may not seem like it, but an average HN reader has a non-trivial amount of influence. And not only in financial sense. Pleas…
Well, you know, so long as we're fighting about all these other things it's hard to organize the kind of cooperation needed to focus on climate change effectively. We really need to resolve these other differences somehow.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#19The narrative of combating global warming / climate change is ineffective and it misses the point. The Earth can quite naturally be inhospitable to human life. The narrative needs to be one of terraforming our own planet.
There are several problems with this approach.
The person performing the forming would essentially be cleaning up the polution of everyone else. Terraforming would require global agreement and adherence to a highly capital-intensive enterprise. This is not unlike the discussions about limiting global warming, which are not a frank success.
We currently have no means of cleaning up that is more efficient ie less costly) than the methods we gave for limiting pollution. And it is already impossible to get people to accept to pay those costs.
That is not to say that it should not be researched. But to propose it as an alternative is not helpful in the current political context. It is akin to saying "yea but we'll win the lottery anyway" when other people are trying to get the community to accept a balancing of the budget.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well it is a temporary thing, the rate of change is still increasing. We'll reach the new normal a number of decades after we stop burning fossil fuel.
> after we stop burning fossil fuel You mean, when we run out of fossil fuel?
That's just not going to happen by any measure. Deposits might become more and more expensive to tap into, but we're not just going to run out. We need to stop using them, not hope that we'll just stop once they are out - they simply won't be.