It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record • Hacker News Board

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#191

Post by marcc » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:02 PM UTC

SigmundA wrote: post #21

lmilcin wrote: post #8

Who still believes global warming does not exist? I am currently listening to audiobook of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998). It has a paragraph on global warming and trying to convince POTUS it is real. And POTUS not wanting to act on it because it would be too large economic drag on US. This book is almost quarter of century old.

Most of the deniers I know have shifted from it doesn't exist to either its not man made and just a natural cycle or it may actually be a good thing because plants like CO2 and warmth...

Also have heard folks make an argument that it's more economical to plan to live in the post-climate changed world than to stop climate change. See https://www.amazon.com/False-Alarm-Climate-Change-Trillions/...

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#192

Post by imoverclocked » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:02 PM UTC

edgyquant wrote: post #60

imoverclocked wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the plethora of scientists claiming that it was an issue not factor in at all?

To be frank the science is way less apocalyptic in nature than certain politicians and people tend to be rhetorically speaking. Climate change isn’t going to wipe out humanity or all life on Earth and I’ve never seen a legit paper even come close to suggesting this. Yet I hear it from Joe blow all the time.

While science does tend to keep estimates and language neutral to focus on hard facts, I would argue that those facts have pointed to catastrophe for a long time [1]. The language of fact is often dry and what most people (myself included) naturally pay attention to are loud/charismatic/flashy presentations of topics.

Visualization [2] of data helps understand just how much area we can expect to lose around the coasts. These kinds of datasets are available and scientists do their best to publish them but what the public ultimately gets are articles filtered through journalists who often "translate" what they hear.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/26/world/scientists-urge-rap...

[2] https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/slr/10/-13585575.60473416...

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#193

Post by ProAm » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #169

Koshkin wrote: post #163

From Wikipedia: The climate of the Jurassic was generally warmer than that of present, by around 5 °C to 10 °C, with atmospheric carbon dioxide likely four times higher. Forests likely grew near the poles...

...and mammals were all 3" or smaller. Not a world we'd want to live in.

Speak for yourself.

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#194

Post by pdonis » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #139

bwship wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call myself a denier. But a hot July doesn't sound that scary. Next thing that will happen is February will be the coldest month ever recorded, and then people will really lose their shit.

Why is it not scary? The hot July killed 1000 people in the Pacific Northwest alone in just 1 week. An entire Canadian town burned the the ground, basically nothing left. Residents had 15 minutes warning and not everyone made it out. Where are you located that this hot July wasn't scary? This hot July had my fingers on emergency services as temperatures rose, AC couldn't keep up, loved ones with asthma and already tr…

> The hot July killed 1000 people in the Pacific Northwest alone in just 1 week.

Cold kills more people than heat. Milder winters will save more lives than will be lost in hotter summers.

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#195

Post by dleslie » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

908B64B197 wrote: post #185

dleslie wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banning plastic straws and plastic bags wasn't to combat climate change, the bans were created because those single-use plastics were overwhelming municipal garbage disposal systems. And then foreign states stop buying it to recycle.

> And then foreign states stop buying it to recycle. It was never recycled. Pretty much always was systematically illegally dumped into the ocean.

Well, yah. Recycling has always been something between an unfulfilled hope and an outright sham.

Reduce and Reuse were always the most important components of the trifecta.

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#196

Post by mattrighetti » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:04 PM UTC

melenaboija wrote: post #115

whall6 wrote: post #19

Why is every other post on hacker news about climate change

Because its audience seems to be a bit worried that we will cook ourselves taking a look to some statistics, which therefore means (luckily in my opinion) the audience trust statistics

Repeatedly showing stats won’t make things better or make people more aware of the problem, in the end people will still use their cars while they wait for others to make a change. Hypocrisy at its best, that’s what I see

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#197

Post by anyfoo » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

Koshkin wrote: post #163

From Wikipedia: The climate of the Jurassic was generally warmer than that of present, by around 5 °C to 10 °C, with atmospheric carbon dioxide likely four times higher. Forests likely grew near the poles...

That's great for whatever ecosystem succeeds us, not so great for us, our children, and their children.

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#198

Post by lmilcin » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

anyfoo wrote: post #144

hotz wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if the cost of it was reasonable more people would bother. With the cost of electricity rising, people naturally buy/replace appliances with more efficient versions. The fact that anything green related costs an arm and a leg makes some people think it's all a money making scheme. The more renewable energy gets installed the more articles like this pop up. We get it, people are worried about the climate, pushin…

You should not be downvoted for stating your opinion, I think it adds to the conversation. That being said, can you elaborate on how "anything green related" costs an arm and a leg? Do you have a few examples maybe? If it refers to something like organic food, then, well, yeah... mass producing food without regard for anything but efficiency in creating said food will make it cheaper, not doing that means higher pric…

I would risk suggesting that he is being downvoted because of cynical point of view.

It is us, right now, who are exploiting the world.

It is our kids and their kids that are going to pay for this.

And here somebody complains "the cost is too high".

It is as if the robber, after robbing your house, complained the bus fare was too high to get to work, so it somehow excuses the theft.

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#199

Post by tstrimple » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #110

The NOAA currently hosts over over 37 petabytes of 'comprehensive atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data' and was established in October 1970. It sometimes seems the more data we have the more gloom and doom we get. I'm not one to use emotional quasi religious terms like 'denier' but that does give pause for thought. The NOAA started out Surveying the US coastline in 1807 as the 'U.S. Coast and Geodetic…

> It sometimes seems the more data we have the more gloom and doom we get.

Ignorance really is bliss isn't it?

Re: It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

#200

Post by pessimizer » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

SigmundA wrote: post #21

lmilcin wrote: post #8

Who still believes global warming does not exist? I am currently listening to audiobook of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998). It has a paragraph on global warming and trying to convince POTUS it is real. And POTUS not wanting to act on it because it would be too large economic drag on US. This book is almost quarter of century old.

Most of the deniers I know have shifted from it doesn't exist to either its not man made and just a natural cycle or it may actually be a good thing because plants like CO2 and warmth...

There is a severely underestimated group of religious people who think that only God controls the weather, His reasons for what he does with it are not for you to evaluate, and that saying that humans can change the weather is blasphemy.

It's easy to make fun of, but the most direct experience that people have of a God who controls the universe would be the weather. These people need to be approached theologically; secular explanations are not going to hack it. The fact that polluters have an easy job getting their support doesn't mean that the ideas that they have about the weather originate from polluters.

To preempt a certain type of response, telling them that "climate" is different than "weather" is not going to work unless you can cite a biblical verse that explains that distinction.

We (middle-class PMCs) vastly underestimate the number of honest fundamentalists the same way we vastly underestimate the number of English-speaking illiterates. I'm always amused on HN when people in a thread realize that the reference to demonic possession or witchcraft by another commenter was completely in earnest.