31–40 of 98 posts
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Yes, there have always been floods. But we had several events on the scale of "once in a century" in the last years... So, maybe... centuries don't last as long any more?
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> The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day period was the rainiest ever recorded in central Europe Surely you have data ready for peer review that contradicts this group of scientists?
Remember when the rivers were too dried up in France for the nuclear plants to function? Then everyone said that due to climate change we'd soon have an arid climate in Germany.
So, according to "peer reviewed data", we go from an arid 2020 to rain forest 2024 in just four years due to climate change. Remarkable.
What's up with so many Hacker News commenters coming out of the woodwork when headlines blame climate change to challenge it? Just a glimpse of the article shows there's some research behind making the point of the headline, still people feel the need to comment on their feelings to deny it possibly could be due to climate change. Per the article: > The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day p…
HN audience is both reflexively contrarian (will argue with any article on any subject), and also surprisingly rightwing (exposed to climate change denialists).
Hypothetically a good thing, but in action it tends to derail most conversations.
The whole COVID Pandemic, the 2020 election, (edit: and the shutdown of SlateStarCodex) definetly brought a lot of nuts out of the woodwork, and they never left.
Edit: Here's an example below. It's one account that I've had significant arguments with before. In addition, it's also a "new" (post-2021) account, ime all of whom don't tend to provide the level of discourse comparable to earlier HN users (yes, I recognize the irony as a combative newish throwaway)
There was a large increase in HN usewebase around that time when the SlateStarCodex forum shut down.
What's up with so many Hacker News commenters coming out of the woodwork when headlines blame climate change to challenge it? Just a glimpse of the article shows there's some research behind making the point of the headline, still people feel the need to comment on their feelings to deny it possibly could be due to climate change. Per the article: > The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day p…
It’s the Silicon Valley wannabe intellectualism that has somehow allied itself with contrarianism. They just reflexively think the consensus view is wrong because daddy Thiel said you can make big money that way. “The Contrarians”, of course, is its own silly tribe of lemmings that produces its opinions from its identity first and foremost.
I've noticed the fringe hot takes tends to occur around this time of day on HN, which is 5am in SV (some of us wake up very early to run/bike without getting run over, as well as answer EMEA emails).
Most users at this time of day are European (who tend to be German, Eastern European, and British ime) and some East Coasters.
Mainstream HN doesn't kick in until 4-5 hours from now.
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TL:DR from a fireman:
My father has always been saying "water will find a way". As progress+civilization expand, there is less and less free/open ground. Roads, parking lots, shopping centers, more roads, train tracks (elevated = blocking water), rivers being covered, fires, etc. Water doesn't care, it wants to go through - it will go through.
In the "good old days" it would rain X amount up on that mountain, and 10% of X amount will find its way towards your town. Now, burn that mountain, then add 50 roads/highways/etc. Now 40% of X amount will find its way towards your town.
By the way your town has 30% less free ground (roads, parking lots, etc.)
Thus, floods. You can (rightfully so) poke 100 holes on the above, because each town/village/mountain/river is different, but the point/spirit remains. "Water will find a way".
EDIT: I am always fascinated to read in the news that the (e.g.) "Old lake" flooded again after 30 years". Guys!!! The name of the location is "Old Lake", which means that for about a couple of million years water has been converging there. The fact that some people built there, doesn't Water/Nature from doing its thing.
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> The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day period was the rainiest ever recorded in central Europe Surely you have data ready for peer review that contradicts this group of scientists?
The comment you replay to literally praises the fact that we have rain again, as opposed to several almost arid climate years in Europe. Remember when the rivers were too dried up in France for the nuclear plants to function? Then everyone said that due to climate change we'd soon have an arid climate in Germany. So, according to "peer reviewed data", we go from an arid 2020 to rain forest 2024 in just four years due…
Yes, it is a remarkable behavior of complex systems like weather, but we see it in all complex systems as they spin out of control.
“You say the vehicle crashed by veering off the right hand side of the road, but in this video we see the car wildly veering from left to right across 6 lanes of traffic multiple times first! Remarkable!”
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HN audience is both reflexively contrarian (will argue with any article on any subject), and also surprisingly rightwing (exposed to climate change denialists).
There is a surprisingly vocal and toxic community that are fringe members on both sides of the aisle on HN. Hypothetically a good thing, but in action it tends to derail most conversations. The whole COVID Pandemic, the 2020 election, (edit: and the shutdown of SlateStarCodex) definetly brought a lot of nuts out of the woodwork, and they never left. Edit: Here's an example below. It's one account that I've had signif…
The ones wishing unemployment, imprisonment, and death upon the people who didn't want to get the vaccine? The ones who insisted on forcing kids to were masks? Or the ones who silenced scientists who held differing view points from the mainstream narrative or challenged the efficacy of masks? Or the ones who were saying Ivermectin was for horses? Or the ones who said if you get the vaccine you won't catch or spread COVID?
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Totally agree, climate change is highlighting the places we messed up but had enough stable weather patterns to hide it. Lots of areas are getting absolutely flooded around Europe and it's basically because they drainer or changed the water courses, as well as making everything flat and smooth for (over)farming. And then you get a week of rains and everything goes tits up.
> The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day period was the rainiest ever recorded in central Europe And having the rainiest four day period in recorded history
Having a look at the "Maximum of 1-day precipitation" dataset it is clear that it has increased greatly over the past decades which results - among other things - to flooding
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Yes, there have always been floods. But we had several events on the scale of "once in a century" in the last years... So, maybe... centuries don't last as long any more?
"once in a century" doesn't mean literally once a century, but rather a percentage probability over time. Having a couple in quick succession is actually not that strange.
Look at this table for example: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Hochwasser-Ereigniss...
Seems like people either started documenting more or there are more floods now.