OH HOLY SHIT YOU JUST FUCKIN PWNED EVERYONE WHO EVER DIED OF COLD EVER. DAMN, THOSE RETARDS WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST THINK TO BUILD A FIRE AND PUT THE FIRE UP TO THEIR INTERNAL ORGANS, FUCKIN RETARDS DYING OF COLD, HAHA FUCK THEM STUPID IDIOTS
The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
91–100 of 414 posts
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an aside, would you recommend that book?
Yes... But the first chapter the OP is talking about is truly horrifying, I honestly wish I hadn't read it. His other book New York 2041 also deals with climate change and is less traumatizing.
Yeah, there's so much unavoidable negativity around, so when I have the chance to choose I'd rather focus on positive things and read/consume things that make me happier instead of depressed.
Especially in terms of climate change. I try to live as green as I can and I vote for a climate focused party, other than that there's not much I can do as an individual. Reading about how bad things may become doesn't help me one bit.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#93Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…
A lot of new technology could potentially solve this problem. There are certain types of roofs being installed called cool roofs that reflect heat and don’t absorb it that keeps the inside of building a little cooler.
Radiative cooling roofs, like those from sky cool systems actually cool your house during the day. I'm not sure how cost effective those are but the technology seems to be very promising.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#94Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…
> It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Of note: that’s literal, even doing nothing and sitting in front of a fan you can’t cool down. And do one of the issues 35 WBT “hides” is that any activity lowers the heat stress threshold. Sugarcane workers are already dying due to heat stress today, and have been for a while. There’s been an “epidemic” of “kidney disease” in central…
And people START dying, en masse, at 28C wet bulb (see chicago and vancouver heat waves)
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Migration. Large parts of the taiga and permafrost are about to open up to human habitation. All the folks in the Middle East and India should move north in search of better weather. Human societies have been historically very bad at handling large scale migrations, but it's about to become necessary.
there was an article during the recent Oregon heat wave by someone who moved to the PNW as a hedge against climate change. that heat wave killed almost 200 people and is estimated to have killed a billion marine animals. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/08/pacific-nort... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/08/heat-dom... Migration is not going to cut it. Climate change is making weather more…
A million times this. It's important that everyone know that there's nowhere left to move to in order to continue ignoring the problem.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#96Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…
I wonder if going underground can help (being realistic that we are not going to make any drastic CO2 related changes)
Underground is as hot as the average surface temperature... so you live in a cave for a few years, pooping in the corner and eating bats... and then die anyways.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#97[deleted]
The limit is 35°C wet bulb temperature. The temperature you're accustomed to reading is dry bulb. You can't compare wet and dry bulb readings; they're completely different measures. The annual maximum wet bulb temperature in Arizona the last few years has been about 24°C. You were nowhere near the limit.
Using some random internet web-based calculator, apparently 50° C (122° F) at 34% humidity is just under 35° C (95° F) wet bulb temperature.
The calculator wouldn't go above 50° C, so I don't know what the temperature would be at 0% humidity.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#98Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book The Ministry For the Future starts with a very disturbing scenario: A heatwave with a "web bulb" temperature of 35 Celsius. It turns out, in those temperatures, even young and healthy people can't survive. Combined with power outages, as happens in the book, everyone living under such a heat wave will likely die. It's looking increasingly likely that such heatwaves are possible in t…
A mass death event will likely happen in a city with 26 million people that most folks outside China aren’t aware of the danger..Shanghai. Shanghai has been having extreme heatwaves, the worst one in 2017 where the temperature went to 46 degrees. Shanghai is projected to be unlivable in this century.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#99It’s wild to me that even the Biden administration appears so cavalier on climate. $1.2T on infrastructure and a follow up $3.5T budget bill and in both the environmental provisions are lame. Still no carbon pricing or anything that might make Exxon execs too uncomfortable (yes, I know Exxon supports carbon pricing in public because they don’t think anyone will actually do it).
While it's great and all for america to invest in the environment at the end of the day america is still only a small part of the world. The issues of climate are global in nature and unlikely to be solved in my lifetime.
Re: The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)
#100Similar question to this that I've been wondering this wildfire season -- at what point is AQI (Air Quality Index) too severe for human tolerance? The scale tops out at 500, what happens to a person if the air is even worse than that? Some sensors near Medford, OR are reading in the upper 400's and even low 500's -- what happens if it hits what would be the 1000's if the scale went that high? I'm mostly thinking of p…
Medford resident here. We experienced a few days of 900+ last summer.
It's very bad. Even in the 400's, it feels like chain smoking. At 900 the air is thick enough to block out most of sun. I have no idea what this has done to my health, but I guarantee it's not good.