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A 3°C world has no safe place

economist.com

21–30 of 291 posts

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#21
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

> In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, seem like to care the less.

This is ignoring the fact that if the southern coastal US is toast the northern areas are going to have a climate refugee crisis on their hands.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#22
This article smells more like religious eschatology than rational economic discussion about the costs and benefits of climate change. This sort of sensationalist and opinionated reporting hardly advances the credibility of its cause.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#23
post #10
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

Tell that to the residents of Lytton.

Right? It hit 116°F in Portland, Oregon last month, hotter than the record highs in such places as Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, and downtown LA.

The notion that there's a climate change safe zone is an optimistic one, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of supporting evidence.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#24
post #10
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

Tell that to the residents of Lytton.

Agree on that part. If you are on a heat bowl area, you will have to deal with it, and getting the short end of the stick.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#25
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

> Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live

This may have been true a few hundred years ago, but not now. Where do their families live? What do they they do for work, food, resources and recreation? Who will they trade with? Where will they get consumer goods?

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#26
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

Even if that would apply, the people won’t stay in the south for very long if it becomes impossible to live there. I don’t think there will be a secret enclave that can just ignore the impact of global warming.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#27
I'm sitting in my air conditioned room, in the USA. Doing computer stuff, naturally.

I look at what I can do about this. I can turn up the temp in my room, and the house. Meager difference. I can use less water - I already am, with getting showers every other day on average. I can eat less meat - which I do with purchase of the beef CSA. I'm big into the repair movement, and repair household equipment and electronics with my knowledge of circuitry and 3d printing. I recycle, but that's if its not repairable or reusable/repurposable.

I look at what I'm actually doing, and I'm at my limit. There isn't anything else I can add on to reduce footprint. And in reality, the same goes for many people.

These global climate change issues are the sum of all the work in this world, but the bulk of it is emitted by companies who do the cheapest thing. And if dumping gigatons of CO2 or methane in the air makes more sense, that's done. I can petition my congresscritters, but it's well known they do not listen to the little guy (https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-... ). Your party is irrelevant here.

So what do I do? know what we're doing is what we can and hope some rich people pull up the cause, and not try to escape the atmosphere in a penis-shaped rocket.

I've given up hope that this will be solved.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#28

Maybe it wouldn't have mattered, but I wish that the Fahrenheit increase would have been more prominently used over these years. I think that most Americans don't realize that 1°C is more than 1°F so it doesn't sound as bad when it's "only a few degrees"

I equally wish that more Americans used SI -- Farenheit is about as familiar to me as Rankine; I have been bitten by the US use of 'mil' to mean thousandths of an inch whilst remaining how some en-gb engineers use it as inaccurate slang for mm. But this is a big distraction. Alas, I know that the whole reason we're in this pickle is that scientific literacy is low, and most people prefer short term gains over longer…

> I have been bitten by the US use of 'mil' to mean thousandths of an inch

Huh, I live in the US and I've only ever heard that called a thou but wikipedia backs you up. I'd think a mil would be a millionth of an inch.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#29
Keep in mind that it's 3C average, over the entire globe, over a year. The locale, variance, seasonality all matter. Like, suppose that you are "lucky" in that your region gets only the average of 3C, so your year is 3C warmer on average, but that only happens during 3 months of the year, so you get 12C hotter in summer--basically, el fuego--or you get 12C in winter--basically, no more winter.

A warmer winter can be catastrophic for forests in cold climates that depend on freezing temperatures to kill off invasive bugs. So an entire forest can be absolutely ruined by a damn beetle.

Re: A 3°C world has no safe place

#30
post #3

Canada and northern part of the US will be fine (north of the mason dixon line). Places like Albany, NY, or Minesota, or most of Canada, appart from the occasional crazy swings, are going to be more lovely places to live, with slightly milder winters. The southern part is toast, both from water level rises, and lack of fresh water. In this country, the ones that are going to be the most affected by global warming, se…

No, because climate is a chaotic system and nothing, nowhere, will be 'slightly milder'. You are mistaken. It ain't about a minor shift in baseline plus sea-level changing, though sea-level changing is still a thing.

I'm IN the Northeast, not far from Albany. The crazy swings are less and less occasional and that's a trend that continues to escalate. I consider the location pretty much optimal. That's a far cry from 'fine', and the distinction is important.

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