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

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

#221
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Humans didn't cause it so it's not our problem" has gotta be the weirdest take. No... it's definitely a problem either way.

Same thing with covid. "The China Virus is sent from China so we shouldn't have to deal with it because it's not our fault". Oh, had the virus arisen naturally in the US, we could fight it, but because it's (supposedly) an act of Chinese biological warfare, we should just take it lying down? I don't get people.

Scared people flip to angry people. Leaders want to give people something/someone to be angry at that isn't them.

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

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense. Whether someone virtue signals or not, actions are what's important, not words. The CO2 emissions output has been coming down since the high in 2006. With the old boss and the new boss. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide... If anything, fracking helped the environment, since it offset resources being mined by the traditional, more wasteful methods.

The atmosphere is shared between all countries. Looking at the output of a single country is useless for everything except petty politics discussions. When a country moves its industry abroad without changing its demand, net CO2 output is unchanged, and these figures are worse than useless.

> atmosphere is shared between all countries

True, but since we are talking the old boss vs new boss... Neither can exactly tell China or Europe to stop increasing their CO2 output.

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

#223
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.

Cold records being broken are less frequent than in the past. Pretending that 1 cold record being broken disproves global warming is just the kind of disingenuous argument that deniers make. Figures 1-4: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica... https://www.climatesignals.org/data/record-high-temps-vs-rec... https://www.axios.com/climate-change-warm-cold-temperature-r... https://phys.org/news/20…

What am I denying? That it is a hot summer. Or that I don't believe in climate change. For one, the records for temperature only go back a 100 years or so, so I would call it statistically insignificant. But, secondly, I truly would like to know what us as a people are actually going to do about it? Nobody on HN is going to give up their devices, or stop buying crypto that uses massive amounts of energy to produce. I just feel that the genie is out of the bottle in regards to the fact that the world will keep on producing more and more regardless of how people interpret weather patterns.

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

#224

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...

Yeah, I heard about that but was skeptical that people could take that position non-sarcastically until recently when driving on the PA Turnpike, I saw this... https://twitter.com/co2coalition/status/1397912884756107269 The cynical dishonesty of an organization creating a billboard like that boggles my mind.

"Do you want to live in the Altered Carbon future? If not, realize that death is an important part of life. Paid for by People Against Cancer Research"

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

#225
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very left, and despise Biden's refusal to address climate change where it counts, like fraking. But honestly, the new boss is not the same as the old boss, even with climate change. The new boss does in fact acknowledge it exists, rather than insisting that all climate change is a hoax and it is invented by China to hurt the US. Biden is not making the progress I'd like to see, but he is in no way as bad as the…

This is nonsense. Whether someone virtue signals or not, actions are what's important, not words. The CO2 emissions output has been coming down since the high in 2006. With the old boss and the new boss. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide... If anything, fracking helped the environment, since it offset resources being mined by the traditional, more wasteful methods.

It seems you are stating that the loudly-spoken and widely-distributed words of the US president are "not important". I completely disagree with that. What the US President says is definitely important. I have already expressed anger in this thread that Biden has not taken the right actions. His words aren't even right. But there IS a difference - it DOES matter what he says.

Denial is not the same as acceptance. Saying that it doesn't matter if the president is a climate denier or not is pretty far out there - I haven't heard this take before.

Is it okay for the president to spread messages of pro-genocide and hatred? That doesn't matter right? The president's words literally don't matter, so whatever, he can go on about yelling that he's gonna nuke someone, doesn't matter. "Words [of leaders] don't matter" is a terrible take.

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

#227
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.

Remember that global warming is not real. If it is real, then we don't know what is causing it. If we do know what is causing, it is not humans. If we do know it is humans causing it, then there is nothing we can do about it. If there is something we can do about it, it's not worth it, think of the jobs.

I believe in climate change, the evidence is there when looking at the earth’s geographical shifts in time.

The question I pose to people which sometimes is misinterpreted is this: What will we do in order to survive climate change? All we hear is how to consume “greener” products.

Where’s the plan for major city relocation, new technologies, etc?

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

#228
On record meaning 142 years of history. Sometimes people conflate "on record" with "ever since humans were around" but on a species scale 142 years is basically no history at all.

Not to say that climate change isn't a very serious issue, but we will likely have to live with the realities of where we are headed, and life has adapted in the past to much larger swings of temperature.

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

#229

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...

I think part of the problem is that we started talking about global warming (“nice! More sunshine!!”) to climate change (“cool! We get too much snow here anyway!!”). Maybe instead of talking about climate change, which is a symptom and not the problem, we should talk about “destabilising the atmosphere”. I feel like people will find it harder to use nonsense arguments if they’re confronted with the problem rather tha…

> we should talk about “destabilising the atmosphere”.

Or, more bluntly, "planetary fuckups."

Habitat loss, chemical pollution, overfishing, and microplastics are others, all leading to very bad things on their own.

Climate change is the big one though.

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

#230
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.

About this, what was very puzzling to me was the opinions of the late Michael Chrichton. He was constantly expressing the opinion that the global warming was a frame up, both in his books but also to various talks. He had even written a book on which the bad guys were Greenpeace agents! Now, considering how highly educated (not only he was a great author but he also had studied MD) and smart (this should be obvious t…

Maybe I've spent too much time among lawyers, but I have noticed that there are some very smart people that seem to relish having certain unconventional beliefs. A critical, independent mind is a great thing, but the danger is when the view is held because it is unpopular and not because of any critical investigation of the evidence. Call it "anti-confirmation bias" if you want. Or to put it another way, some people just seem to enjoy smugly dismissing the obvious answer because it makes them feel smart!
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