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The Strongest El Niño Ever

theclimatebrink.com

161–170 of 370 posts

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#161
post #143
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1.5C target (which, as others pointed out, is not an end-of-the-world scenario) is about average temperature above pre-industrial baseline across 20 years. The temperature anomaly of a single year has nothing to do with that; 2028 will likely be colder again. Average temperature moves in cycles. By confusing single-year temperatures with the 1.5C target, you're just going to make people think "crisis averted" onc…

Does that matter? The only thing that can be done, is for oil producers to stop digging up fossil fuels. And not even Norway is willing to do that, to say nothing about Russia or China, even this year. And that, not digging up the fossil fuel is the only way. If it's dug up, it will be burned. Guaranteed. Oh and it effectively doesn't matter: to merely stop global warming we need 99.7% less fossil fuel production (an…

Yes, accuracy matters in this discussion. Not conflating numbers which have no relation to each other matters. We haven't "surpassed the 1.5C target" just because one year is abnormally hot. When we finally do officially surpass it, we don't want a lot of people to be confused and ask, "wait didn't we already surpass it in 2026?".

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#162
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC water consumption is a red herring. That water is returned back to its source but warmer.

If you think that every data center is now a closed loop system enjoy your propaganda. Colossus 1 and 2 still use open loop systems. And with the case of blow down water that's "returned" it's not usable due to the use of concentrated salts (1,200 to 6,000 mg/L). In your mind this is a closed loop system of clean water. It is not. And as DCs have less and less discharge there is more and more solid waste produced. Yo…

What happens to the water leaving Colossus 1 and 2?

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that every data center is now a closed loop system enjoy your propaganda. Colossus 1 and 2 still use open loop systems. And with the case of blow down water that's "returned" it's not usable due to the use of concentrated salts (1,200 to 6,000 mg/L). In your mind this is a closed loop system of clean water. It is not. And as DCs have less and less discharge there is more and more solid waste produced. Yo…

Yes, but they _could_ be a closed loop system if governments demanded it. And they should. The could, and should generate their own electricity as well. And perhaps even provide free power to the surrounding neighborhood to make up for the noise and inconvenience of having one nearby.

The xAI one does that, with the result of giving everyone in a several mile radius permanent asthma.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be divisive, but this meme-like stream of news articles and comments about Europeans being silly about air conditioning, from the drill-baby-drill nation that refused to even try to do anything about climate change, really grates on me.

It would be one thing if Europe immediately stopped using coal, drastically reduced airline usage, quit building gasoline cars, but if anything it is only marginally better than the US. Europe mostly shifted their dirty work to Asia and North America, while restricting themselves from using air conditioning as some kind of virtue signaling. That's the problem as I see it.

This. Add to the list: consuming huge amounts of meat while depriving themselves of AC "for the planet".

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#165
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do we make sure that doesn't happen? That's the neat part, you don't. Europe has saved on CO2 emissions by moving production to China, and more recently to India and Southern Asia, moving energy generation for factories onto coal power, significantly INCREASING the rate at which climate change occurs. China and India have made it very clear that, first, they will continue to do this. Also adding solar power, bu…

Would please install adjustable shades and ceiling fans first? And also plant a few trees if you can?

That does nothing to remove the moisture in the air; an air conditioner removes water from the air which makes the apparent temperature much cooler than relying on sweat evaporating. I just spent an entire weekend in 100F/38C weather and it would’ve been dangerous without an air conditioned space to cool down in.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#166
post #43
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if not a heat pump Most heat pump installations in Europe are air-to-water systems fitted to use the existing piping in old homes and is used only for heating. Such installations can, in theory, be used for cooling, but very inefficiently.

The annoying thing is that UK at least has a bigger grant for air-to-water systems. I've been doing some research into this, because I would ideally like to get this system so I can make use of the existing radiators in my old house, but I do also want to have the option of cooling my home. It does seem like Fan Coil Units (FCUs) are an option for this. Anyone have experience with these? Are they really inefficient c…

Fan coil units work just fine, you’ll need to install a condensate drain but other than that it works like a mini-split evaporator/fan air handler.

You just have the added equipment and maintenance for the water/glycol loop vs an air to air system that only pipes refrigerant around. Fan coil units or VAV boxes are the usual terminal units for commercial HVAC systems that have a chilled and hot water loop, VAVs are used in a system with ducted AHUs and FCUs are used for apartments (stacked FCUs with vertical supply/return risers) or spaces not served by ducted air handlers for whatever reason.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would please install adjustable shades and ceiling fans first? And also plant a few trees if you can?

That does nothing to remove the moisture in the air; an air conditioner removes water from the air which makes the apparent temperature much cooler than relying on sweat evaporating. I just spent an entire weekend in 100F/38C weather and it would’ve been dangerous without an air conditioned space to cool down in.

Letting the sun in is like turning your heaters on. You wouldn't turn on both heaters and aircon in summer, would you ?

Please bring some shade and save energy.

Edit: also, without wind there is a hot and humid bubble around our own body. Fans help a lot with that by bringing fresh dry air right onto the sweat so it can evaporate.

Have an AC if you need to. But please dont have only an AC. Shading and fans pay for themselve in energy savings.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#168

Other than "numbers go up" it's unclear to me what the consequences are, as I'm not extremely familiar with El Niño events. Hurricanes, maybe?

I live in the Southeast Asia, so this El Nino event is worrying. It also means drought and super typhoons.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#169
post #161
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that matter? The only thing that can be done, is for oil producers to stop digging up fossil fuels. And not even Norway is willing to do that, to say nothing about Russia or China, even this year. And that, not digging up the fossil fuel is the only way. If it's dug up, it will be burned. Guaranteed. Oh and it effectively doesn't matter: to merely stop global warming we need 99.7% less fossil fuel production (an…

Yes, accuracy matters in this discussion. Not conflating numbers which have no relation to each other matters. We haven't "surpassed the 1.5C target" just because one year is abnormally hot. When we finally do officially surpass it, we don't want a lot of people to be confused and ask, "wait didn't we already surpass it in 2026?".

Neither side cares about accuracy, and both will prevent you from getting your message out. The discussion has 2 sides:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlRompc1yE

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxQZ8ub54Y

These are the conversations that get translated into policy. They are literally about directly satisfying people's emotions. No detours. Accuracy? I hope you're joking.

AND there's the problem that the policy the "pro-global-warming" camp wants will not even help. Global CO2 emission reduction is not realistic.

I'm working in AI and hoping that will help. If I had the realistic option (I have a family to support), I'd love to work in Chemistry to make it at least possible, maybe even easy, to do something about that (of course, even Chemistry products are being designed with AI, so ...). Achieving anything in policy seems to me beyond absurd. In fact I find it very hard to defend the viewpoint that even the policymakers pushing global warming action even want to help. Technological solutions at least might achieve something.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we've been stupid "solar oven" buildings for 50 years while climate scientists were warning against extreme weather events and, now that said extreme event arrives, the best we find is to rush to aircon. Seems pretty short-sighted to me.

Yup. Built a house in 2016 in Belgium. Perfectly insulated. You didn't have to run heating in winter. Kept it all inside. Also, it overheated instantly.

Insulation is actually helpul against heat too!

But since modern buildings usually have huge windows, we're letting in about 1kw of heat from sunlight per square meter of window. That's 6kw for a 3x2m bay window, or about the equivalent of 6 electric heaters at full power.

Block that heat ouside of your house with all kind of shade you can get: trees, blinds, adjustable shades, rolling shutters...

Also, close every openings during the day, vent at night.

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