US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country • Hacker News Board

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#141

Post by mrlonglong » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #101

newman555 wrote: post #23

still, I see no serious action being taken to tackle the climate crisis. Current governments are just putting some dates by which we’ll stop doing x or y, but in really almost nothing concrete is done to stop the worst scenarios.

Australia had a carbon price a decade ago. It lost that government the next election, the incoming government repealed the carbon price and have retained government since. Even now, the current government is resisting any policy that could be considered threatening to fossil fuels. The voting majority of Australians don't give a fuck about climate change action.

It is my belief that Australia will become unhabitable by the 2050s. Cattle cannot survive high temps and droughts.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#142

Post by gremlinsinc » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

laydn wrote: post #20

For the first time in my life, I experienced a massive heat wave, torrential rainfall and flooding, a forest fire and hail, all within a single month. I am NOT looking forward to what's coming in a few years.

In utah 80% of our water is spent on alfalfa for cattle. The governor is an Alfalfa farmer.

The Great Salt Lake is about to be renamed the Minor Salt Lake as it's bone dry.

Seems to me Utah's biggest industry isn't Alfalfa or Cattle though, it's tourism. Especially skiing. Much of the slopes get their snow from lake effect snow. That's not likely to be as much this year, and might not be a thing at all if the lake dries up completely.

On top of that the lake will create a deadly arsenic dust bowl that will damage the health of all creatures locally including humans for years to come.

Lucky for me, I'm in southern Utah where we only have to worry about rising # of forest fires. /s

I feel like if we had more water...if we didn't use it all, perhaps the lake effect snow would fill the snow cap, and then the droughts would be less.

It'd be a shame if cropdusters accidently put salt in alfalfa fields, a real shame.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#143

Post by effingwewt » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

yosito wrote: post #134

Considering the source, remind me in one month. I'd like to see if the predicted 110° temperatures actually happened, or if it was just media amplifying the worst possible case for the doom clicks. To go about this scientifically, we need to be comparing our predictions to reality, especially when the predictions are coming from a source incentivized to generate clicks rather than to provide an accurate view of reali…

LOL, you must have missed Death Valley,CA breaking records with 130 degrees.

I agree, think critically and vette your sources, but this kind of denial sounds like when Republicans stood around in the snow screaming global warming wasn't real because LoOk SnOw It'S nOt GeTtIng HoTtEr

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#144

Post by gunfighthacksaw » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 3:07 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #138

gunfighthacksaw wrote: post #136

It looks like Southern Ontario is going to be spared, despite our proximity to affected areas. Can anyone venture as to why it (and the Northeast US) is not going to be affected? I assume it’s some geographic or climactic quirk since I don’t expect heat domes to respect national boundaries.

Probably the jet stream. Here's a wind speed map for jet stream altitudes [1]. The jet stream plays a big part in positioning heat domes [2]. [1] https://www.windy.com/?300h,15.708,-125.244,3 [2] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/heat-dome.html

Oh wow that’s pretty cool. It looks like there is a current that stays mostly within Canada, with the exception of upstate NY and northern New England.

It suggests that my climate will have more in common with areas 300mi to the NE vs 150mi to the SW. I know that Windsor-Detroit is in a warmer Koppen zone than pretty much every Canadian zone to the east. Continental a vs b IIRC.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#145

Post by jfengel » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #28

I'm worried the map shows only US. I mean, global climate is, well, global. So how can one think about his neighbors if they are not even on the map...

The rest of the world has already seen this. The weird part is how often temperature maps look like this one:

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N4thNYyzqzgBCFgF4YCpxlF7gEg=...

Recently, the US has often had extreme cold events while the rest of the world is seeing temperature extremes. It practically looks like a conspiracy of the weather to make Americans disbelieve in climate change.

Having the US be subject to heat waves might just change that.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#146

Post by halgir » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #28

I'm worried the map shows only US. I mean, global climate is, well, global. So how can one think about his neighbors if they are not even on the map...

This particular article is filed in the "US Weather" category. A global perspective is important, but it doesn't exclude a local one.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#147

Post by wiz21c » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #145

wiz21c wrote: post #28

I'm worried the map shows only US. I mean, global climate is, well, global. So how can one think about his neighbors if they are not even on the map...

The rest of the world has already seen this. The weird part is how often temperature maps look like this one: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N4thNYyzqzgBCFgF4YCpxlF7gEg=... Recently, the US has often had extreme cold events while the rest of the world is seeing temperature extremes. It practically looks like a conspiracy of the weather to make Americans disbelieve in climate change. Having the US be subject to heat…

yep, like any revolution, action for climate change will need deaths to start...

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#148

Post by ashton314 » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

mlang23 wrote: post #88

ashton314 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it is incumbent upon those of us in privileged positions of education and wealth to have children that we teach and raise to be contributors in solving the world’s problems. Raising one child well goes a lot further to helping people out then not having a child at all.

Sure, only "priviledged" people should have children. Elitist thinking ahoy! Nope man, these days, with the amount of people on this planet, nobody really needs more of them, no matter what nice elitist excuse the individual finds.

> Sure, only “privileged” people should have children

That is not at all what I said. If you are trying to have a net positive effect in the world, and you have the means to do so, raising a child with a good education, instilling the best of your values in them, etc., is a fantastic force multiplier and a good way to ensure that someone like you keeps being a net good in the world.

Beyond that, raising children has brought me more joy than anything else. I would not wish a childless life upon anybody. I am optimistic that we can teach teach our children to find solutions to the problems they will have. This is not just passing the buck: every generation needs to work for the betterment of mankind. I just want to help raise the smartest, strongest generation yet.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#149

Post by blooalien » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

missingrib wrote: post #133

nicbou wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It showed us that most people are unwilling to accept even the slightest inconvenience to save lives and help an unpleasant situation pass faster. Yes, the scientific community has done the impossible, but us laymen have failed to do even the possible, even when it was easy. We can solve problems, no doubts, but perhaps we aren't so good at collective, sustained efforts. Climate change will not come to pass like the…

>It showed us that most people are unwilling to accept even the slightest inconvenience By slightest inconvenience you mean complete social isolation for an entire year, right?

Or maybe wearing a freakin' mask and washing hands a little more frequently, like people freely and willingly do every flu season? Or once a vaccine was available, getting a little jab in the arm instead of starting mass disinformation campaigns to scare stupid people away from it?

Both ultra-simple and only slightly inconvenient actions, but both would have made a huge difference in the outcome and timescale of this whole mess. Of course humans can't be bothered to give a rat's ass about other humans (or even about themselves) if even the slightest inconvenience is involved. Nope. Humanity deserves what's coming. Humanity is a planetary cancer, and we've brought this all upon ourselves by our own actions.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#150

Post by samus » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

CaptArmchair wrote: post #109

Gys wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU ‘proposes to raise the EU's ambition on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030’. At the moment that part of the world is the most ambitious part. > after we move to zero emissions I wonder if that will happen on a planet scale even in your sons lifetime

Last night, I watched NGC's "Before the flood". At one point, a director for a local climate action institute in India was interviewed by Leo DiCaprio. She pretty much pointed out that climate change is a social issue in no uncertain terms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia5fMomBXbE As an EU citizen, I applaud the ambitions, but I feel apprehensive at the same time. Regardless how you spin this, affordability is an…

We are all sitting in the same boat here. Fingerpointing to the West is insincere because it's the same attitude the West had when nobody cared about the environment yet, but directed outwards. It's also not helpful at all. Developing countries have to also somehow take part in the climate change mitigation efforts, else the West will have trouble convincing their citizens to accept climate change mitigation policies, and the latter will be right in the assumption that their contribution won't matter.

And you have a good point, but eventually, also people in the West will have to accept that climate change will impact them somehow. Sealevels will continue to rise, weather extrems will become worse, viable farmland will become more rare, and overall living cost will rise even without an increase in taxation.

Carbon tax is just a tool to account for climate change in a capitalist framework. Increased taxation on obsolete and inefficient technologies should be offset by deductions and subsidies. If the carbon tax becomes burgeoning, reducing or dropping the VAT could be worthwile.