Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

accuweather.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 121 posts

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#11

Post by jcranmer »

murderfs wrote: post #8

> CORRECTION: The smog caused by the volcano caused temperatures across Eurasia to cool by 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit, not 36 degrees Fahrenheit as a previous version of this story stated. The error was the result of a conversion mistake. I find it hilarious that a weather site made this mistake.

Someone hand-converted 2°C to 3.6°F and missed the decimal point, yielding 36°F. Also, almost certainly classic precision blunder--the original source material is probably using 1 significant figure but it's being reported as 2 because the calculator reported it as having 2 digits.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#12

Post by s5300 »

fallingfrog wrote: post #5
booi wrote: post #2

It scares me to think about what would happen now that there’s billions more people

We’d probably handle it much better. I’m generally a pessimist but I have to give modern civilization some credit; food can be shipped over huge distances and plagues handled much better than in the past.

Not my intent to be snarky in posting this

Did you miss the part where the federal government of the U.S. went around seizing shipments of PPE to the point that governors had to facilitate private deals and then guard them with troops and secrecy of logistics to supply their own states? As one member of the presidential envoy stated "they're our masks" - not for the serfs of the nation, apparently.

As much as I'd like to see things in the light you are, I'm just unable after the entirety of the shitshow that was the US handling of Covid-19

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#13

Post by jbay808 »

waihtis wrote: post #7

An event like this, or anything else with a significant impact on food production is something many people should be absolutely prepared for. A bulk of countries, including where I live, are completely dependant on importing food. What do you think will happen if the net exporters experience a global supply crisis? Always be cognizant of events that are improbable but have a high impact on survival.

> What do you think will happen if the net exporters experience a global supply crisis?

The way that countries that manufacture PPE halted exports last year is a good reminder that the same can happen with food!

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#14

Post by rblatz »

jcranmer wrote: post #11
murderfs wrote: post #8

> CORRECTION: The smog caused by the volcano caused temperatures across Eurasia to cool by 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit, not 36 degrees Fahrenheit as a previous version of this story stated. The error was the result of a conversion mistake. I find it hilarious that a weather site made this mistake.

Someone hand-converted 2°C to 3.6°F and missed the decimal point, yielding 36°F. Also, almost certainly classic precision blunder--the original source material is probably using 1 significant figure but it's being reported as 2 because the calculator reported it as having 2 digits.

Or maybe it’s because 2°C is 36.8°F

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#17

Post by dang »

If curious, past threads:

536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23565762 - June 2020 (356 comments)

Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18469891 - Nov 2018 (4 comments)

Others?

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#18

Post by ergot_vacation »

I did not expect to read such an insightful, well-researched and well-written article from Accuweather.com.

I stand corrected.

EDIT: Seems to largely be the work of "Harvard University medieval historian Michael McCormick," cribbed from elsewhere (with permission). Still, higher quality than expected.

Re: Skies went dark: Historians pinpoint the 'worst year' ever to be alive

#20

Post by waihtis »

jbay808 wrote: post #13
waihtis wrote: post #7

An event like this, or anything else with a significant impact on food production is something many people should be absolutely prepared for. A bulk of countries, including where I live, are completely dependant on importing food. What do you think will happen if the net exporters experience a global supply crisis? Always be cognizant of events that are improbable but have a high impact on survival.

> What do you think will happen if the net exporters experience a global supply crisis? The way that countries that manufacture PPE halted exports last year is a good reminder that the same can happen with food!

I was not acutely aware of this, but is a perfect example of what will happen in severe crisis scenarios: countries will ensure their own survival over others'.
Post reply on HN