Live data from Hacker News

Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

wired.com

281–290 of 296 posts

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brisbane checking in. Wish we were near the coast. :(

Is anywhere in the Brisbane area more than 45 minutes from a cold body of water suitable for swimming in? I don't think there are crocodiles near Brisbane.

No crocs near us. There's quite a lot of lakes for freshwater swimming and when the rain is right, rock pools.

The sea is about 45 minutes away but only rock beaches.

But we have the famous beaches of Sunshine Coast (Noosa) and Gold Coast (Tallebudgera amongst others) around 90 minutes away.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think people living in those regions in the article can just go inside to solve their problem?

With shirt off, drinking plenty of water, a mechanical fan (or even a manual handheld Japanese style) I can easily live “outdoors” in mid forties for days. No problem. -20 with no heating (not carbon friendly in such zones), i will be dead in a few days.

I dont think you understand what the article is talking about.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, ships are incredibly effective means of transportation. "Green", or not. At least in northern Europe, you are often confronted with this sentiment of condemning oh-so-bad imported fruits from afar (Checkmate, Avocado!), when really most of the CO2 emissions are due to the first and last few kilometers of travel by fossil-fueled trucks. The thousands of kilometers across the ocean are almost negligible. Eat…

Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon. Self driving on highways should be very achievable with route specific AI, convergent infrastructure like sensors and more wildlife fences and networked status reporting. Last mile delivery trucks will be the first commercial vehicles to electrify. The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environmen…

> Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon.

I hope not. Individualistic traffic is still much worse than mass transport trains. Do robotaxis for the last mile instead.

> The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environment regulations and enforcement.

Fun fact, tho, dirty exhausts from ships have been substantially cooling the climate before regulation kicking in.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess that is why I used "Pedantic". Just arguing around definitions of words at this point. What is a "plot" versus "theme" versus "just an incident" verses "plot point". If you want to say there are several 'plots', thus the book's 'plot', is not climate change, because climate change is really an overall 'theme', but not a plot. I took the previous discussion to mean, that there was an event with a wet-bulb incide…

Some times there are intelligent discussions on HN... This isn't one of those times.

I agree.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no false dichotomy because we absolutely should be reducing our emissions as much as possible and I never said otherwise, it's just that it probably won't be enough to achieve any significant cooling effect in a reasonable time scale to prevent the scenario described in TFA. It's possible we will see mass death in the coming decades due to extreme heat events. I am just saying we should be preparing alternat…

Wouldn't it still be leaning on that hope basket to intervene in the entire atmosphere with an untested solution that may help slow or reverse climate change, but may also have unintended side effects that actually make things worse? One interesting example from very recent research. In just the last couple of years we began enforcing reduced sulfur emissions from diesel motors in international waters. The expectatio…

> we began enforcing reduced sulfur emissions from diesel motors in international waters. The expectation was that would help with climate change, how couldn't it

Nice story, but the drive to reduce SOx and other particulate emissions is not because of climate chance but because of localized health concerns: because of the respiratory impact of SOx and soot to the lungs of people on coastlines and in port cities.

By the way, Dieselgate is a similar story - the illegally-increased SOx, NOx and particulate emissions of those diesel engines were created in order to decrease fuel consumption and thus climate change impact. Cracking down on Dieselgate helped people living near the car exhausts but hurt the climate as a secondary effect...

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it still be leaning on that hope basket to intervene in the entire atmosphere with an untested solution that may help slow or reverse climate change, but may also have unintended side effects that actually make things worse? One interesting example from very recent research. In just the last couple of years we began enforcing reduced sulfur emissions from diesel motors in international waters. The expectatio…

> we began enforcing reduced sulfur emissions from diesel motors in international waters. The expectation was that would help with climate change, how couldn't it Nice story, but the drive to reduce SOx and other particulate emissions is not because of climate chance but because of localized health concerns: because of the respiratory impact of SOx and soot to the lungs of people on coastlines and in port cities. By…

Everything I have seen related to sulfur emmisions reduction of diesel engines used in international waters referenced the environmental impacts not respiratory impact. There aren't many humans out in the middle of the ocean, the problem being solved was the massive amounts of diesel emissions being pumped into the atmosphere from the international shipping industry.

Dieselgate was a very different problem to solve. VW was caught lying on emissions tests to avoid regulations meant to reduce emissions in populated areas like large cities.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

ACs tend to dehumidify the interior space. If they're properly installed all the condensation will drain outside. For window-mount ACs, you may need to shim them to get them to sit at the correct angle. For split ACs, the drain tube needs to be angled to allow water to flow out through the wall.

> ACs tend to dehumidify the interior space.

Right. It condenses on cooler surfaces INSIDE the AC unit and drains outside.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's not normal, your AC is broken or has a plug in the drain if it's a window mount unit. If it's central air, you're just mistaken.

Sigh. The water condenses on cooler surfaces INSIDE the AC unit and drains outside. This is why mold grows on the squirrel cage and the walls of the blower housing. Even happens on wall mounted split units.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anywhere in the Brisbane area more than 45 minutes from a cold body of water suitable for swimming in? I don't think there are crocodiles near Brisbane.

No crocs near us. There's quite a lot of lakes for freshwater swimming and when the rain is right, rock pools. The sea is about 45 minutes away but only rock beaches. But we have the famous beaches of Sunshine Coast (Noosa) and Gold Coast (Tallebudgera amongst others) around 90 minutes away.

In the context of needing to cool down for survival reasons, during a heat wave + power outage + 100% humidity, I suppose it doesn't matter whether the beach you have access to is rocky or not.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No crocs near us. There's quite a lot of lakes for freshwater swimming and when the rain is right, rock pools. The sea is about 45 minutes away but only rock beaches. But we have the famous beaches of Sunshine Coast (Noosa) and Gold Coast (Tallebudgera amongst others) around 90 minutes away.

In the context of needing to cool down for survival reasons, during a heat wave + power outage + 100% humidity, I suppose it doesn't matter whether the beach you have access to is rocky or not.

I took the original message as being, if you're near the sea, the air around you is cooler so the environment it's self is less harsh.

Though I can guarantee on a hot day, 2.5 million people aren't making their way to beaches or water holes to cool off. And Brisbane is a sweaty place in Summer.

Post reply on HN