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

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211–220 of 578 posts

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

#211
Assuming the climate continues to change rapidly, which I presume it will, what efforts have been made (in any country) to deal with it? I have seen much about attempting to prevent climate change, but very little planning about how to deal with its consequences.

We can and should continue to discuss and explore our options for sustainable civilization, but at some point we need to start mitigating the risks for calamitous outcomes.

It feels a little like we are living at the base of volcano, debating about the best way to prevent the volcano from erupting.

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

#212
post #37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as this is (anti?) virtue-signaling, it's not really a contributor to global warming. Idling the engine for a minute or two probably causes more co2 emissions. The main concern is the particulate emissions.

It’s not the act itself, it’s the fact that there is a segment of the population that will spend thousands of dollars to modify their cars to pollute more, so that they can try and humiliate people driving hybrid and electric cars. That’s a symptom of a much, much deeper problem.

> so that they can try and humiliate people driving hybrid and electric cars

I don't think that's really what they're trying to do. It looks more like garden variety virtue signaling. Just like flags in the back of the truck, etc. They're announcing membership in their tribe. I do wish they'd choose something that didn't pollute the air we all breathe.

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

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to explain this to a relative who started in with the “the earth has always had climate change” jibberish. They tried to tell me no-one knows how the last Ice Age happened. So I explained, but because they didn’t understand any of the concepts involved they thought I was just making it up. It’s a good reminder never to assume malice when plain old stupidity is on the table.

It's not just ordinary stupid people. I've known people with advanced degrees who ostensibly make a living making predictions who don't believe it. Sometimes their arguments get very very intricate. There's just so many layers to the onion it's impossible to do in a conversation, rather than say an essay. Other friends have CS degrees and don't believe it either. It's particularly hard because there's a lot of little…

> Other friends have CS degrees and don't believe it either.

I have three CS degrees. Our field has a real problem with hubris and reinterpreting everything through a CS lens, particularly assuming everything is discrete, falls into neat categories, and is not subject to noise.

I had a decade long debate with a friend from Chemical Engineering about whether the Universe was continuous or discrete, and also about whether it was deterministic. I recall confidently stating tons of crap about quantum mechanics, and it turns out I was completely full of shit because I did not understand probability theory or wave functions.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I would still like to see a push toward cellulose and wax replacing single use plastic.

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

#215
post #83

Ok global warming is happening we know it for a long time. But is there a place somewhere that explain how could the world works without emitting too much co2, or any gaz which are problematic. How do we replace cars ? trucks ? how many people on earth is possible ? Can we have plane ? Boat ? How do we produce clothes, how do we have electricity at night ... I'm not asking to have a plan for everything, because this…

I thought Bill Gates' recent book covered all the important problems and how they could be addressed. Here is a good summary: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Lowering-Green-Premiums

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

#216
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I still want to understand that side. And know how it can be counteracted, e.g. by subvention (to encourage the more expensive but better alternatives), and regulation (to outlaw the cheap but terrible ones).

For that, I'd like to know what exactly the "anything green related" is that's (being perceived as) expensive.

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

#218
post #22
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.

I was very much a skeptic until I started seeing more and more real world (as opposed to just models) evidence. I am pretty convinced now. My skepticism was rooted in the fact that politicians, pundits, and the media were trying to scare me about it. Any time politicians or the media try to scare me about anything my default response is to assume it's a get out the vote drive or a power grab and to become extremely s…

> My skepticism was rooted in the fact that politicians, pundits, and the media were trying to scare me about it.

I'm sorry, but this excuse borders on a clear lie. There were "politicians, pundits, and media" lined up on both sides of this issue. And there had been going all the way back to the dawn of the issue in the 70's.

What happened was that you chose to believe one side. And it was wrong. But rather than admit that "your side" was wrong you're blaming the "other side" for, I guess, making you distrust them on a subject where you should have trusted them.

> I still think that should be a default suspicion, but that means you have to dig and check the details and check multiple sources.

Which is exactly what you did not do! You get that, right? Rather than check details and multiple sources, you chose to walk away from the people who were telling you the truth.

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

#219
post #50

The current administration has approved more than 2,000 new fracking permits. I'm so glad the US has rejoined the Paris Agreement. "Meet the new boss Same as the old boss"

Doing this is not mutually exclusive to taking action on climate. Fracking is what's really killing the coal industry.

The kind of reasoning you're using rings hollow when you actually look closer at what's going on politically:

https://www.slowboring.com/p/climate-left

> $16 billion for capping orphaned wells and cleaning up abandoned mines.

> $47.2 billion for climate resiliency projects.

> $48.5 billion for public transit.

> $66 billion for freight and passenger rail.

> $15 billion for EV charging stations and electric buses.

> $73 billion for upgrading the electricity grid.

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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; s…

I have never been able to get my head around the religious paradox of God has a plan and free will.

Can we make choices that effect the outcome of things or is it all part of Gods plan? It can't be both right?

Did God create everything including free will or does it exist outside of his control?

I don't blame my program when it does something wrong, I mean I wrote the code that tells it how to behave.

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