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

noaa.gov

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

#451

Post by jacquesm »

iammisc wrote: post #381
SigmundA wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well I'm religious (although I guess I 'believe' in man-made climate change), so here goes. Of course, every religion will have different answers. The general Christian jist, often twisted by evangelicals and fundamentalists (in my opinion), but still preserved and well-recorded in the annals of Catholic thought is that God is both personal but also perfect. Let's go back in time. Aristotle, from whom a lot of (Weste…

Thank you.

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

#452

Post by jacquesm »

crispyambulance wrote: post #84
SigmundA wrote: post #21

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.

That's absurd.

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

#453

Post by em500 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #180
mc32 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The important policy question is what are big and small governments around the world gonna do about it? No, straws and plastic bags won’t abate it. Electric cars are nice but won’t do much to lessen emissions. They need to address industry, shipping and population growth. The last one might be a third rail for some countries. But look, China did it. The west did it (via progress on education, etc).

> They need to address industry, shipping That would be possible with well thought out tariffs. Foreign countries (like China) have no problem bringing online coal power plants at an out of control pace. Then, with all these cheap power plants it's no wonder they can undercut every European and American manufacturer, who has to pay for green energy and environmental norms.

No need to trot out the China bogeyman, when "greenest president" Biden is issuing more drilling and fracking permits than Trump, and is pressuring OPEC to increase production, since golly gee gas is getting really expensive nowadays.

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

#454

Post by danaris »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #444
danaris wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee you the progressive Democratic politicians have climate change as a high priority—and "Democrats more broadly", depending on how you define it, don't have anything remotely resembling a coherent agenda. The progressives don't get to make laws all on their own. Even a single lost Democratic vote on a bill means it doesn't make it past the Senate, and Senators Manchin and Sinema have both made it abundantly…

I'm not sure I agree entirely with your characterization, but the salient bit that we seem to agree on is that Democrats profess a belief in the existential threat of climate change and still aren't organized to combat it. That seems like a bigger problem than Republican obstructionism (what is there to obstruct if Dems don't even have a coherent, remotely realistic plan)? While progressives are aligned on the Green…

From my perspective, the bigger problem by far is that everyone to the right of our skewed American political center (this includes some Democrats, particularly those I named) do not believe that it is critical to take any action at all on climate change. The more people agree "yes, we need to solve problem X", the more likely it is that we (collectively) can get something passed to start moving toward change, even if we don't entirely agree on the severity of the problem or the precise methods needed to combat it.

Or, to put it another way: If the Republicans weren't being obstructionist, the Democrats wouldn't need a strategy to overcome them. They'd be able to put their energy toward coming up with actual policy solutions.

Finally, it is my understanding (though I don't have the link handy right now) that the Biden campaign put out a fairly clear set of legislative goals to push for in order to combat climate change. So while it's certainly true that "Democrats", broadly, don't all agree on what to do, a) that's essentially a tautology (not just of Democrats, though they tend to be less likely to fall in line with a centralized message and agenda than Republicans), and b) that's not at all the same thing as saying "Congressional Democrats and the White House have advanced no clear legislative goals toward combating climate change."

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

#455

Post by taylodl »

Diederich wrote: post #437
slg wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that an asteroid is an existential threat to humanity while climate change is just short of that. The rich and powerful are always going to be protected from experiencing the worst aspects of climate change. They won't be the ones working outside when the air quality is dangerous from wildfires. They aren't going to be the ones who can't sleep because it is 90 degrees in their home. They won't be st…

> The difference is that an asteroid is an existential threat to humanity while climate change is just short of that. This is a valid point. To clarify, though, I don't think climate change is likely to make humans extinct, but I believe it has a non-trivial chance of destroying our civilization. If/when the climate gets really bad, human irrationality will go into overdrive, and we'll be a massive danger to ourselve…

Who knows if climate change will be an extinction event for humanity? When things get dire humanity turns to war and there's a lot of nuclear armaments at our disposal. Would it be insane to wage such warfare? Yes. But when crops are failing, cattle are dying and our civilization is undergoing extreme duress don't rule out our resorting to the insane. I think the hope is we're 50-150 years (or more) from things getting that dire and perhaps we'll have a technological solution to the problem. I hope so, but hope is not a strategy.

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

#456

Post by [deleted] »

pessimizer wrote: post #443
munk-a wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's healthy and necessary to make fun of fundamentalists - I think the issue comes when people make efforts at taking them seriously and give their platform a modicum of respect at a national level. The US has a severe issue with fundamentalist entrenchment in media and government at the moment and it's going to take a while to kick them all out. Evangelism is an extremist ideology that is causing ongoing ha…

You can't kick religious people off of the world. And anyway, they're better at organization and mutual aid, so they would win any conflict with you. The question is whether you want to get stuff accomplished or want to be right. A dead pedestrian who had the right-of-way was right, but it doesn't matter to them anymore.

[deleted]

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

#457

Post by em500 »

swader999 wrote: post #313
bwship wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It only matters what China and India do. We aren't emitting enough where reductions matter in relation to those two.

Please check your facts. Total USA emission is still almost double that of India. (Per capita it's almost 8 times higher.)

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

#458

Post by noobly »

matthewmcg wrote: post #230
spapas82 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I probably play devils advocate a little bit too much, but most people are too eager to firmly plant their feet in some belief, rather than just roll the ideas around. And if you like to probe around, you'll have some questions or at least value different perspectives, and if you pose these (loaded) questions or insights to others it can be divisive, even if meant in good faith. I probably messed around as a flat earth troll too much, but I think it's a great example.

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

#459

Post by turing_complete »

cthaeh wrote: post #405
linuxhansl wrote: post #303

Imagine an asteroid would be on trajectory to collide with earth in (say) 2025. Possible order of hypothetical events: 1. Scientist discover the asteroid. Calculate risk of collision. 2. Asteroid comes closer, probability of impact is calculated as high. 3. People will start saying that we cannot let our economy be controlled by the specter of an asteroid. 4. The asteroid becomes visible. You can see it with your bar…

Disclaimer, I'm all for stopping climate change and think it's the biggest issue facing our generation. But nothing indicates non runaway climate change is an existential level event for humanity. Nothing. By comparing it to asteroids, and then 10, 20, 30 years in the future, when what happens is nowhere near to the complete eradication of all humans on earth that you are predicting with this comparison, why are you…

Why is this comment being downvoted? Valid point.
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