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

noaa.gov

281–290 of 578 posts

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

#281
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.

And yet the best solution science has been able to come up with in all that time is that we should not eat meat or drive a car. Maybe the population in general will take it seriously when they're told to do more than engage in Puritanical self-flagellation about the evils of Western society.

Uh, no. Science has been _screaming_ for a carbon tax. Eat all the meat and drive all you want, but be prepared to pay up for the externalities that have been “free” so far.

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

#282
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...

I've been hearing the 'it's a natural cycle' argument for decades. The arguments haven't shifted, it's just that more recently the warmer weather has prompted anecdotal arguments for climate change ("See! It's warmer! Global warming is real!"), and the 'natural cycle' argument is the more relevant rebuttal to that.

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

#283
post #250

We are far beyond being able to fix this by just reducing our emissions. We need to focus on innovations focused on extracting CO2 directly from our atmospheres at scale. An interesting read on the topic: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/bill-gate...

It's not either or, we need both. It will never be more efficient to pull CO2 from the atmosphere then it is to just prevent it from getting there in the first place, so cutting emissions is still the bottleneck

Might be more "politically efficient" to extract it though.

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

#284

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.

When I read Lovecraft's stories, I used to have trouble believing people would willingly worship an uncaring force that was going to kill them just like the others. After the past few years, it's gotten easier to understand.

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

#285

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...

Now go read about the Triassic-jurassic extinction event, because the process of reaching those 5-10 degrees is the scary part.

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

#286
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.

Where I have lived my entire life, the hottest I'd ever seen in my is 33C. That would be an unusual year. The hottest summer days might hit 30C. This is 100 years, historically: over 30 is possibly, but unusual. Years where 29C is the hottest day is completely typical. End of June (June! Not even July/August!) we had a heat wave. What would you expect to find in such an event? Maybe 34? That sounds pretty hot. 35? 36…

Looking at small number of samples from one place for a limited amount of history without understanding the pattern of weather you are in.

Argumenting global climate change from your local experience does not work.

It only works when:

* you can measure things globally (you measure the effect)

* you understand relation between the greenhouse gasses and the measured global climate change (causation)

Fortunately, we have both. We both measure temperature pretty much everywhere and we understand the underlying mechanism of the change even if we can't exactly predict how the chaotic system will be have in the future.

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

#287
Why are geoengineering efforts not more popular? I thought that what Bill Gates and co were doing with the chalk dust in the atmosphere was a good idea. I think there are myriad ideas along these lines that would go a long way towards combating climate change while also not killing a large swath of economic activity.

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

#288
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Ok then, people spending thousands of dollars to make their cars less fuel efficient and pollute more. It’s the same point. That doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. It’s ridiculous. But the fact it exists in the country with the largest per-person capita of CO2 emissions points to a huge underlying social problem that is unlikely to be fixed in the near future.

>But the fact it exists in the country with the largest per-person capita of CO2 emissions

I have a feeling that you're not talking about all the people rolling coal in Palau. US isn't even in the top 10 when it comes to carbon emissions per capita. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They can. Largest economy on earth. Just put your money where your mouth is.

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

#290

What year does NOAA choose as the beginning for "record"? It's relevant to the discussion. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Humans have existed for 200,000 years. This all comes off as political or quasi-religious because I can assure you that the author knows average people will read that headline and assume "begining of time". Hence I call bullshit.

Technically true but not really relevant.
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