As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating • Hacker News Board

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#71

Post by keybored » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

HelloMcFly wrote: post #14

I want to ignore these articles as it is so painful to watch the beautiful clockwork of the natural world unravel. I hate facing the suffering, diminishment, and extinction of so much in the name of profiteering and ever-increasing growth. But this is the world now, there will only be more stories like this, and so I'm not turning away from it any further. The world becomes less beautiful, less rich, less full every…

There was a Norwegian TV series called Catastrophe or something to educate the whole family about how insecure and bad the future is. What to do if a Russian van keeps driving through your neighorhood. What to do in a natural catastrophe.

How nice. Us adults who have ruined the planet[1][2] and now we are lecturing the youngins about how to deal with this suckage.

With a bizarrely cherry narration. Did you know things are about to suck for you? Just your usual shameless state TV programming.

But we, with our particular national programming, are just supposed to act like we were just spoiled brats that now have to live without dessert post-dinner. The “dessert generation” indeed.

[1] Um akshually, we haven’t ruined the planet—the planet is just minerals! It doesn’t care. We are just ruining the foundation for our own comfortable exi— yeah no kidding.

[2] Like with Norwegian oil/gas extraction

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#72

Post by moffkalast » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

acuozzo wrote: post #49

bilsbie wrote: post #36

My main skepticism (Shark lover here btw!) Is that sharks are an ancient species and they’ve survived way warmer oceans even relatively recently. For example the Medieval Warm Period Sargasso Sea surface temperatures were 1°C warmer than 400 years ago, and Pacific Ocean water temperatures were 0.65°C warmer than the decades before.

Were there any periods in which the rate of change in warming was the same or greater?

During mass extinction events.

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#73

Post by HelloMcFly » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

MisterTea wrote: post #53

HelloMcFly wrote: post #14

I want to ignore these articles as it is so painful to watch the beautiful clockwork of the natural world unravel. I hate facing the suffering, diminishment, and extinction of so much in the name of profiteering and ever-increasing growth. But this is the world now, there will only be more stories like this, and so I'm not turning away from it any further. The world becomes less beautiful, less rich, less full every…

It's hard when your job and even hobbies are intertwined with this destruction. I enjoy working with computers and industrial machinery - two giant sources of pollution and social disruption. I sometimes feel this existential crisis where I am part of the problem yet I have no way to escape and become filled with guilt. Yet without this technology our lives would be more difficult. I sometimes think about a post-indu…

I agree. Like many here, my job is now in the service of an AI-first business and people are incentivized to make AI as central and routine a part of our operations as possible. AI usage is not included in corporate commitments to social responsibility or environmental stewardship are not.

All that said: you might enjoy the book Robot & Monk by Becky Chambers, if you're one to read fiction. It kind of depicts what you're describing as your fantasy.

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#74

Post by georgemcbay » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

Deukhoofd wrote: post #41

mempko wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the emissions are done by the 100 biggest corporations. That's where I'd start fixing things.

That factoid always hides the real issue. The biggest reason that that factoid is true is that the 100 biggest companies includes a large amount of the fossil fuel industry, and that that industry produces most emissions in the world. A company like Saudi Aramco produce 4% of global emissions. We need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. For full clarity, it's also not the 100 biggest corporations that produce m…

> We need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

Unfortunately the United States is currently ruled by a death cult that sees any further push to renewables as capitulation to China and is dedicated to burning fossil fuels until they are fully gone.

See, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sbvp4ULD6GI

And while this part is less explicitly stated, I'm convinced they aren't ignorant of the devastating results of this policy, they just intend to profit off it rather than mitigate the harms, thus the stated interest in taking Greenland, Canada, etc.

They know things are going to get really bad, but they also know their own wealth will at least in the short term shield them from much personal exposure to the harm that will increasingly immiserate everyone else.

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#75

Post by Insanity » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

forlorn_mammoth wrote: post #70

Insanity wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, I'm vegetarian and generally climate-conscious. I think we humans should do what we can in order to protect our planet. I think we can do a lot to keep the planet a good place for all living beings. But to also say something unpopular, humans are part of the natural world. So these human driven changes to nature are just 'nature changing nature'. I understand that we are potentially causing mass extinction…

Yeah, but some of my favorite life forms are vertebrates. Would hate to see that branch go.

Haha, mine too, but I suppose we are biased!

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#76

Post by ghurtado » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

concinds wrote: post #47

HelloMcFly wrote: post #14

I want to ignore these articles as it is so painful to watch the beautiful clockwork of the natural world unravel. I hate facing the suffering, diminishment, and extinction of so much in the name of profiteering and ever-increasing growth. But this is the world now, there will only be more stories like this, and so I'm not turning away from it any further. The world becomes less beautiful, less rich, less full every…

Blaming "profiteering and ever-increasing growth" is way too easy. Can any legislature get away with dramatically increasing taxes on meat, fish, gas, and plane tickets, just at a level high enough to account for environmental externalities? Even dictatorships couldn't get away with it because it would cause too much unrest.

Why do you present your second paragraph as if it were a reasonable solution to anything?

It's a kindergartners view on troubleshooting an unfathomably complex issue.

"Well just raise taxes and fix that!"

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#77

Post by ghurtado » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:43 PM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #45

HelloMcFly wrote: post #14

I want to ignore these articles as it is so painful to watch the beautiful clockwork of the natural world unravel. I hate facing the suffering, diminishment, and extinction of so much in the name of profiteering and ever-increasing growth. But this is the world now, there will only be more stories like this, and so I'm not turning away from it any further. The world becomes less beautiful, less rich, less full every…

But on the plus side a few companies increased shareholder value. Can you imagine if we had fewer products, or didn't push the human population its theoretical maximum?

What the hell does "fewer products" even mean?

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#78

Post by acomjean » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

MisterTea wrote: post #53

HelloMcFly wrote: post #14

I want to ignore these articles as it is so painful to watch the beautiful clockwork of the natural world unravel. I hate facing the suffering, diminishment, and extinction of so much in the name of profiteering and ever-increasing growth. But this is the world now, there will only be more stories like this, and so I'm not turning away from it any further. The world becomes less beautiful, less rich, less full every…

It's hard when your job and even hobbies are intertwined with this destruction. I enjoy working with computers and industrial machinery - two giant sources of pollution and social disruption. I sometimes feel this existential crisis where I am part of the problem yet I have no way to escape and become filled with guilt. Yet without this technology our lives would be more difficult. I sometimes think about a post-indu…

It’s hard. But do what you can, it’s all you can do.

We got a solar array 10 years ago now. It’s small, but between 1000 to 3500 watts depending on the weather. It brings me some joy.

“Ones and zeros” by Jack Johnson is brutal lyrically. “A lot of traffic on the streets, so who's really doing all the drilling?”

It’s an unknown future and I’m glad that there are a lot thoughtful comments in this thread by people who care.

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#79

Post by tracker1 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

As sad as these things are... one needs to also accept, that as capable as we are of changing our environments, from transportation, to air conditioning, we do not control all the things. We have and continue to over-fish in a lot of places, and I have deep concerns over farmed fish and the impact of less than natural foods on our own health.

A lot of the changes to the waters is well outside human control... there's a huge balance of factors at play from the earth, moon and sun. We don't control these things... and to what impact we can/do, I'm not sure that anything we might do may not have unintended consequences that are materially worse.

We can definitely do some things, but the level of internalized and externalized guilt that people in and outside these discussions seem to carry and put on others isn't at all healthy in and of itself.

Re: As oceans warm, great white sharks are overheating

#80

Post by ghurtado » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

bilsbie wrote: post #36

My main skepticism (Shark lover here btw!) Is that sharks are an ancient species and they’ve survived way warmer oceans even relatively recently. For example the Medieval Warm Period Sargasso Sea surface temperatures were 1°C warmer than 400 years ago, and Pacific Ocean water temperatures were 0.65°C warmer than the decades before.

> Is that sharks are an ancient species

For a shark lover, you should know that shark is not a species, but a taxonomy group.

From there, everything else you assume is incorrect (ie: some species of sharks have definitely gone extinct)