Live data from Hacker News

Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

accuweather.com

111–120 of 310 posts

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#111
post #85
post #50

And here in the western world, people still don't like using public transport and their bikes (when they can). It's difficult to be optimistic, but it seems there is nothing that will truly limit fossil fuel consumption. Maybe some oil producing countries could get in some sort of alliance, and artificially limit the amount of oil they extract, in return for subsidies? Those countries could also put a tariff on oil.…

> people still don't like using public transport Because most public transport sucks, is unreliable, only works at certain hours, is dirty, unsafe, and covers only a small ridiculous amount of space limited to key cities. No wonder. The pandemic will only make public transport less desirable as well.

Public transit sucks in areas where only poor people use it.

When everyone has to use it, all of a sudden, everyone becomes invested in improving it.

> unsafe

Driving is unsafe. ~40,000 people die while driving in the US every year, and many more are seriously injured.

Public transit is so much safer, it's not even in the same ballpark.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#112
post #65

Instead of relying solely on air conditioning, which often adds to greenhouse gas emissions if run on fossil power, there are a number of passive solar design strategies that work without additional energy: - Solar chimneys draw cool air in when it’s sunny via pressure differential - Building orientation along with natural shading from deciduous trees prevent excessive solar insolation heating the building - Building…

There is nothing worse than spending a heatwave in one of those valleys of concrete and glass we call "office towers".

Yeah, and everybody turns AC to maximum, we have record energy consumption for each heatwave, whereas at home I feel more comfortable with just a big fan.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#113

A grim thought, but in 50 years time when a lot of the planet is uninhabitably hot, does that reduce emissions, by virtue of, you know, there not being people to stoke the fires?

Most carbon pollution comes from the global north, most of which will still be inhabitable long after the tropics aren't.

Food security is another quesiton.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Countries with secure energy reserves are sitting on the moral high horse right now. Similar to the India criticism above, in Europe it is always Germany that is criticized for importing natural gas from Russia. This week it turned out that Poland and Bulgaria (which Russia has just cut off) relied to the order of 45% and 90% on Russian gas. Poland is now re-importing Russian gas from Germany! Other European countrie…

Still it's easier to lay blame on the richest country in Europe for picking the cheaper and dirtier option while they could do better, than Poland for trying to pull itself out of poverty. Not to mention a large chunk of Germany's gas is used by the chemical industry, which is kind of like saying "we're gonna keep buying Russian gas to not hurt our profit margins". What we should really be doing is following France's…

I agree with pushing nuclear energy, but France is still buying Russian gas!

Other European countries benefit from the NordStream pipelines as well, which were originally built to circumvent Ukraine after Ukraine stole gas in transit (another example that the history is more complex than presented right now).

Germany is rich on paper for the elites. The population is poor, suffers from wage dumping through influx of Eastern Europeans and already suffers from sky high energy costs for private households.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#115
post #65

Instead of relying solely on air conditioning, which often adds to greenhouse gas emissions if run on fossil power, there are a number of passive solar design strategies that work without additional energy: - Solar chimneys draw cool air in when it’s sunny via pressure differential - Building orientation along with natural shading from deciduous trees prevent excessive solar insolation heating the building - Building…

How much do these things work when the wet bulb temperature is over 90F?

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#116
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you tell "climate change" heat waves from "non-climate change" heat waves? I mean "heat waves" are not some recent phenomenon. I mean, any farmer can tell you some growing seasons are really warm, others cold, some very dry and others very wet. No two seasons are the same.

This is more or less covered in the article as well: > Meteorologists from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) found that March 2022 was the hottest March for India as a whole since 1901, with average highs jumping to a staggering 3.35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.86 degrees Celsius) above the climatological average. Heat waves happen, and have happened before, but if they become more common, longer, hotter on average…

If the last time this happened was 1901 (but 1901 was hotter), it doesn't sound "more common"?

It's literally more than 100 years since the last time this level of heat occurred. Sounds similar to 100-year floods?

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#117
post #85
post #50

And here in the western world, people still don't like using public transport and their bikes (when they can). It's difficult to be optimistic, but it seems there is nothing that will truly limit fossil fuel consumption. Maybe some oil producing countries could get in some sort of alliance, and artificially limit the amount of oil they extract, in return for subsidies? Those countries could also put a tariff on oil.…

> people still don't like using public transport Because most public transport sucks, is unreliable, only works at certain hours, is dirty, unsafe, and covers only a small ridiculous amount of space limited to key cities. No wonder. The pandemic will only make public transport less desirable as well.

Go protest to your local government for better public transport.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#118
post #58
post #50

And here in the western world, people still don't like using public transport and their bikes (when they can). It's difficult to be optimistic, but it seems there is nothing that will truly limit fossil fuel consumption. Maybe some oil producing countries could get in some sort of alliance, and artificially limit the amount of oil they extract, in return for subsidies? Those countries could also put a tariff on oil.…

"Hilarious" is not the word I'd use. "Dispiriting", "Irresponsible", "Fucked up". I don't understand why we aren't pouring massive amounts of money into public transport. Apparently many people in Western Europe seem to enjoy being stuck in traffic for hours every day. For some reason, company cars are still a thing in Belgium, very nearly everyone working in IT gets one. I can't wrap my head around how stupid this i…

Public transport hasn't solved the problem of "the last mile". How do I get to/from the train station/bus stop? Frequently you still need a car to even get there and then you will need parking - which is often limited and costs a lot.

Then there's timeliness. Deutsche Bahn is known for frequently their trains are delayed. In summer, even on the Intercity connections (IC, ICE) trains will be filled to the brim and air conditioning unavailable.

I love trains. I want to use public transport. It's just so goddamn inefficient.

I live in a small town about 70km north of Frankfurt am Main. A lot of people will commute daily from here to Frankfurt. The drive is 45 minutes to 70 minutes depending on traffic. If I were to take a train I could: - Walk to the bus station (5 minutes) - Take a bus to the train station (25 minutes) - Take the train to Frankfurt (60 minutes) - Take the metro to the closest location for my office (10 minutes) - Walk into the office (5 minutes)

The time given is assuming no delays, and a schedule that matches up perfectly. Realistically you'll lose another 30 minutes just standing around on platforms.

Ultimately the whole trip, even with a daily ticket will already cost you double your fuel costs for the same ride while sacrificing air condition, quiet and comfort.

We need better solutions for a lot of things. I loved seeing how Oxford in the UK has massive parking lots outside the city center with free buses connecting you to the city. It means that people can take the highway to the city but not get stuck in city traffic.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#119
post #78
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- paint that has high emissivity in the IR window and high reflectivity in the rest of the spectrum. - thermochromic windows

> - paint that has high emissivity in the IR window and high reflectivity in the rest of the spectrum. paint is not free and needs replacement every few years. hardly a solution.

So you are looking for a free magic solution?

I mean, I like houses made from big stones but it is probably cheaper to paint an existing house, instead of tearing it down and replacing with stonewalls.

Re: Nearly the hottest place on Earth, India swelters under intense heat wave

#120
post #26

> there are street vendors in major cities selling special fruit that supposedly helps protect people from the potentially damaging effects of above-normal temperatures. [...] "Instead of the regular synthetic fruits, you know, the ready-made fruit juice which is harm[ful] to the health, these are good for your health as well and these are the only way that you can manage the heat." What's this mysterious special fru…

I thought the rest of the article was equally lousy.

Quoting Death Valley temperature as only “99F” to make a point that Delhi is really fricking hot at this time. Well, Death Valley currently isn’t at its peak temperature and the summer has barely begun. It’s also not experiencing a heat wave.

The whole article appears to be GPT’ed.

Post reply on HN