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

US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 224 posts

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#31

Post by nickd2001 »

jokoon wrote: post #23

I'm starting to think that governments and people will be unable to fight CO2 emissions for several reasons: * Reducing living standards is counter intuitive when consumerism is the norm, in France the Yellow Vests movement showed that it's very difficult to tax carbon if it punish poor people. Inequality and carbon emissions are deeply intertwined. * People will just consume, feel guilty, maybe take some individual…

For the reasons you state and more, I feel that developing a carbon capture technology that people have an incentive to install (e:g, end product from reacting something with CO2 is commercially useful in some way), is the best hope. People are just determined to maintain their lifestyles. Covid taught us how little quite a number of people are willing to moderate their daily life to save others' lives. So it seems to me if we can side-step this problem by making people want to extract existing CO2, then there's hope. But as for how realistically achievable that is... answers on a postcard please. I'm not a chemist. I do wonder is there a place for software experts to assist with this endeavour in some way, but how to do it is not yet obvious to me

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#32

Post by jaywalk »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #11
chrisco255 wrote: post #4

Not only is it possible but the worst heat waves on record were experienced in the 1930s: https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

What I don't understand is what people who argue against climate change stand to gain. The argument for climate change is: "humans are polluting the planet and it's causing a change in the environment and will have a disastrous effect on the climate." The arguments I hear against climate change always seem to concede that humans are polluting the planet, but argue in different ways (natural cycle/not really happening…

The solution always eventually boils down to paying more in taxes. That's why it gets opposed.

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#33

Post by throwaway894345 »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #11
chrisco255 wrote: post #4

Not only is it possible but the worst heat waves on record were experienced in the 1930s: https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

What I don't understand is what people who argue against climate change stand to gain. The argument for climate change is: "humans are polluting the planet and it's causing a change in the environment and will have a disastrous effect on the climate." The arguments I hear against climate change always seem to concede that humans are polluting the planet, but argue in different ways (natural cycle/not really happening…

> What I don't understand is why people who argue against climate change stand to gain.

I suspect it is something like psychological security (“I’ve only known a history of rapid progress and I’m not emotionally prepared to confront the possibility that life will be worse for my children and grandchildren, nor that I was complicit”).

At least that’s the average joe climate denier. For the very wealthy it’s simple greed. They’d rather ruin the world irreparably than pay taxes (this characterization doesn’t seem to do justice to the fact that their wealth is derived from cheating society by externalizing costs by way of pollution).

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#34

Post by aww_dang »

aliasEli wrote: post #2

> beating the previous national high temperature mark by more than 4C in one go, as happened in Canada last week, is virtually unprecedented. This event should be a warning call to all people who believe that a global warming of only 2 degrees Celsius will be barely noticeable. One positive effect is that scientists have collected a lot of data that will help them improve climate models.

On the other hand, proponents of climate apocalypse frequently make a distinction between weather and climate.

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#35

Post by user-the-name »

monkeynotes wrote: post #8
jameshart wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dust bowl heatwaves are not a good argument against the idea that human activity can have dramatic climate impacts in a short time, though.

You should probably give some sort of reasoning behind your comment else it's just the opinion of a random stranger.

His argument was that the dust bowls themselves were a dramatic climate impact, caused by human activity, in a short time.

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#36

Post by toopok4k3 »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #11
chrisco255 wrote: post #4

Not only is it possible but the worst heat waves on record were experienced in the 1930s: https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

What I don't understand is what people who argue against climate change stand to gain. The argument for climate change is: "humans are polluting the planet and it's causing a change in the environment and will have a disastrous effect on the climate." The arguments I hear against climate change always seem to concede that humans are polluting the planet, but argue in different ways (natural cycle/not really happening…

Denial is strong in humans. You'd have to actually change your behaviour if you didn't deny it. You'd have to become responsible.

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#37

Post by Scarblac »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #11
chrisco255 wrote: post #4

Not only is it possible but the worst heat waves on record were experienced in the 1930s: https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

What I don't understand is what people who argue against climate change stand to gain. The argument for climate change is: "humans are polluting the planet and it's causing a change in the environment and will have a disastrous effect on the climate." The arguments I hear against climate change always seem to concede that humans are polluting the planet, but argue in different ways (natural cycle/not really happening…

Because it means massive changes to everybody's lifestyle, and people will become poorer. It's not surprising that there is resistance to that.

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#38

Post by akavel »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #11
chrisco255 wrote: post #4

Not only is it possible but the worst heat waves on record were experienced in the 1930s: https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

What I don't understand is what people who argue against climate change stand to gain. The argument for climate change is: "humans are polluting the planet and it's causing a change in the environment and will have a disastrous effect on the climate." The arguments I hear against climate change always seem to concede that humans are polluting the planet, but argue in different ways (natural cycle/not really happening…

IMO, because admitting that climate change is reality would in consequence require massive, expensive, and hugely uncomfortable changes in one's lifestyle. Plus, not uncommonly, becoming de facto socially ostracised in at least some (though possibly all) of one's social circles. Also, there's not even some concrete "ozone layer hole" you could point your finger at, but rather some vague: "Some, though not all [FUD works, sorry to say :(], scientists say it will be warmer! Like whopping 2 degrees! No, no, you heard me right, that's a lot, and you don't want to be warmer, though it's kinda hard to explain, involves some complex theory or something..."

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#39

Post by sgpl »

I've been cranking up my AC and adding ice to my water to combat the heat but I recently read an article about sea-life [0] boiling to death in their natural habitats (oceans, seas) which made me realize that animals in the wild increasingly don't have this option.

It made me really sad to think about the fact that we'll probably see mass-extinction events (for animals, etc.) in the near future or at least within my lifetime because while we all 'care' there's no political will or consensus to combat climate change; it's also not a one nation issue.

I've also been religiously recycling in my personal life but every now and then I read articles about even recycling from a lot of places ending up in landfills which really frustrates me as it takes away any agency I really have on this action.

[0] https://www.complex.com/life/bc-heat-wave-cooked-more-than-a...

Re: US-Canada heatwave 'virtually impossible' without warming

#40

Post by irthomasthomas »

I thought we where not supposed to conflate weather and climate change?

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_we...

https://www.science20.com/news_articles/stop_conflating_weat...

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/hot-planet/dont-be-fool...

Post reply on HN