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Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

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171–180 of 296 posts

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why we need a home solar revolution. The grid is going to have to undergo huge evolution, but increasingly corruption and political gridlock make that unreliable. Plus home solar empowers you from centralized control and functions as the only free market alternative to the regulatory captured grid infrastructure. Home storage with sodium ion and hopefully in 2-4 years sodium sulfur will drop costs 50%. Also,…

Yes. Also radiative cooling. Lawns literally suck here too, we need more trees and bushes, biomass fixation, in personal homes, for shade and drought resistance. And massive, diverse reforestation to replete ground water reserves and stabilize the local weather. We also need to massively invest in poor countries' ability to survive too. Or else conflicts will spread to us regardless of our own resilience.

I'm convinced that there is a contingent in society that has crossed both side of the political spectrum that is increasingly less empathetic to assisting poorer regions of the world as the negative effects of climate change start setting in, and its only going to grow

Its anecdotal, but my very progressive friends (think: Bernie Sanders type voters) have over time subtly started expressing opinions that are regressive to world assistance.

Namely, an attitude that nations should reap what they sow. They equate ecological devastation in poor countries almost solely to the inability of those countries leaders to do anything effective or sustaining. While they aren't wrong per se, its in ignorance or disregard of other broader factors.

All this is to say, I hold little hope that poor countries will receive much aid from richer ones unless they already have something useful to trade

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#172

This is why I think we should be seriously considering atmospheric aerosol injection already. Not sure why there aren't more large government funded studies of this.

"Sir you should stop drinking and smoking or your liver and lungs will die"

"It's ok I'll get a liver and lungs transplant :)"

We'll really do everything before we consider stopping the root cause lol. And heat isn't even the only issue we're facing

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Its disgusting. I am also a grumpy fart right now because the night time temperature has not dropped below 20degrees since, like, November[1]. If I tried to aircon that like I do most of the day time, I would wake up a sinusy coughing mess... Sure, 30degrees and 90+ humidity is survivable, but only just. [1] https://7news.com.au/news/brisbane-set-to-break-record-of-da...

And how could you get any work done? I worked in the oilfields when I was in my early twenty's, if the temp was over 100F, less work got done because we didn't want to die. I knew men who got heat stroke, they were never the same again. I myself got heat exhaustion several times, it took a few days to recover. Our bodies can only take so much, no matter how tough you are, wet rags and frequent breaks don't always wor…

>And how could you get any work done?

Drink (hopefully cold) water and cover up from the sun. I grew up doing manual labor in a climate like this. People adapt, but there are of course limits.

Children die sometimes being pushed too hard in athletics, etc. The majority of people however simply put up with it.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#174
post #26

The scientific litterature and IPCC’s summaries warned about these phenomenon. When 2 billion people will be living under wet bulb temperature that can’t be tanked by the body it’s going to be a mess worldwide.

People who live in the humid tropics are already on a knife's edge. A small increase makes the heat intolerable and you will see either mass death or mass waves of immigration. "Just build aircon" doesn't work when you're talking about people with intermittent (or no) electricity and who have an annual income equal to a single aircon unit.

All the more reason to urgently develop the world to at least the level of Malaysia / Thailand (or ~Western Europe ca. 1950). If we quit fossil fuels cold turkey it is those very same people in the tropics that will starve. But making that connection requires thinking about second order effects, a tall order for the degrowth cult.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#175
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a rag of cold water on you will cool you regardless of evaporation. It is a thing that is cooler than the environment. The water from our taps at least is a pretty constant like 50°F

So you have a supply of water at 50°F - that’s 10°C (an optimistic temperature in many places). And you are using it to try to maintain a body temperature around 37°C. Let’s assume you do so by transferring heat from your body into the water enough to raise its temperature by 25°C - that’s probably overly optimistic given that it will also be warmed by the environment and the rate of transfer will be reduced as the t…

> Your body, when not working hard, produces about 200W of heat. That’s 200J per second.

Minor quibble, 2000 (kilo)calories / 1 day = ~100 Watts.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Its disgusting. I am also a grumpy fart right now because the night time temperature has not dropped below 20degrees since, like, November[1]. If I tried to aircon that like I do most of the day time, I would wake up a sinusy coughing mess... Sure, 30degrees and 90+ humidity is survivable, but only just. [1] https://7news.com.au/news/brisbane-set-to-break-record-of-da...

You're allergic to air conditioning? I don't understand.

AC's tend to build up a lot of mold which grows in the condensation and blows it around. People with sinus and allergy issues get stuffy and inflamed. This is why I avoid using the AC and prefer a fan along with opening a window.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence to support the case that sending more weapons to Ukraine will spare lives? If so. Shouldn't we prioritize sending weapons to the people of Gaza first, since their casualty numbers are much higher?

Sending aid to Ukraine isn't just a thing we do for fun. It's the tradeoff for them giving up their nuclear arsenal. We said we'd have their backs. Money is probably better than sending people's kids.

Perhaps. I'm just curious about the casualty projections. Casualties with weapons, and casualties without.

If sending more weapons results in lives saved, then this would be an excellent argument for arming Gaza with modern weapons. In terms of children saved the effect could be sizeable.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#178
post #138
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is text taken from a popular cartoon [0], with some stuff added by the OP. [0] https://ifunny.co/picture/yes-the-planet-got-destroyed-but-f...

Oh god, there is another one of these further down the thread. I go to HN to escape the brainless quoters/referencers, let it stop please.

I go here to escape comments similar to yours, please stop too.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millions of people already live in these conditions (temperature in the low 30s, constant high humidity) in the tropics so I am skeptical about that study. It sucks for me in those conditions but a lot of locals say they're used to it. The general strategy without AC is to minimize activity during the hottest part of the day and keep a fan on you.

With high enough heat, a fan will only make things worse, no?

If the wet bulb temp is above (say) 40C, definitely yes.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#180
post #134
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to our current icehouse phase, plants have thrived during intense greenhouse periods of global climate. "Earth has been in a greenhouse state for about 85% of its history... Earth is now in an icehouse state, and ice sheets are present in both poles simultaneously." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Eart...

Did the livestock and cultivated plants we depend on for food exist during the greenhouse states? Did humans? There’s no doubt the earth and life will survive, but our civilization may see extreme turbulence (100s of millions of people dying). How much turbulence before our sophisticated society collapses? We don't know for sure but I rather not find out.

>100s of millions of people dying

This seems optimistic to me. With the state of play of current politics across the globe, I think its going to be a ~billion once you tabulate second order effects.

Already under current changing patterns of climate, there are areas of the world that if power simply went out for an extended period of time millions of people could die, and those areas are growing every year

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