Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Strongest El Niño Ever

theclimatebrink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 370 posts

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#271

Post by lazide »

giardini wrote: post #270

Remember that you don't need AC to beat the heat - we've had other options for centuries. One of my favorites is fans. I've lived in a hot subtropical climate most of my life. The best modes of cooling are, in order of comfort: shade, clothing, breeze, fans, A/C. Our rather large home didn't have A/C when we bought it. But it did have a huge attic fan that kept the air moving throughout the entire house on hot days.…

Fans do you no good when the humidity is above a certain point.

You’re also losing a lot of water to evaporation from sweating if it is doing anything at all.

There is a reason why Singapore switched to AC pretty much everywhere except old hawker centers, and why it’s not alone.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#272

Post by 4gotunameagain »

fragmede wrote: post #236
TacticalCoder wrote: post #213

If things get really unsustainable, I'm talking about a sizeable percentage of the world's population dying because of heatwaves, shall we see desperate measure being taken? For example some scientists suggested installing sunshades but... Literally a sunshade: deploying an umbrella of sort, in space, so that less heat reaches the heart. Now of course as we've been ruled by luminaries since decades, bringing us to th…

Cloud cover to raise the Earth's albedo can be done by a smaller independent team, vs needing the whole world to agree to stop polluting.

Large scale ecosystem modifications run huge risks of unintended consequences.

Due to the chaotic nature of these systems we are incapable of predicting the effect of our actions.

It could very well be that by artificially increasing cloud cover we cross a different tipping point with grave consequences (e.g. flooding, ecosystem collapse from lack of sunlight, or who knows what)

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#273

Post by TranquilMarmot »

giardini wrote: post #270

Remember that you don't need AC to beat the heat - we've had other options for centuries. One of my favorites is fans. I've lived in a hot subtropical climate most of my life. The best modes of cooling are, in order of comfort: shade, clothing, breeze, fans, A/C. Our rather large home didn't have A/C when we bought it. But it did have a huge attic fan that kept the air moving throughout the entire house on hot days.…

I live in the US in the Pacific Northwest, one of the *least* air conditioned regions in the country. I have never had built-in AC since moving here in the early 2000's.

Back in the 2000's, it was fine - maybe a few hot days in the summer, but bearable with shade, fans, proper clothing like you said.

But the last ten years or so, the summer has gotten to be more and more brutal. Heatwaves where it's 70-80% humidity and 100+F outside for more than a few days in a row. We have a portable A/C and find ourselves hooking it up more and more often.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#274

Post by spwa4 »

inigyou wrote: post #180
spwa4 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Chemistry to remove CO2 from the atmosphere? The problem is that it costs as much energy as you received by putting it there. You have to unburn the fuel. Did you know each molecule of chlorophyll only processes three molecules of CO2 per second? The limiting factor is energy input.

Chemistry (and Physics) to have abundant energy generation without CO2 release. There is no shortage of energy, not by many orders of magnitude, there is a shortage of viable energy conversions.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#275

Post by TranquilMarmot »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #213

If things get really unsustainable, I'm talking about a sizeable percentage of the world's population dying because of heatwaves, shall we see desperate measure being taken? For example some scientists suggested installing sunshades but... Literally a sunshade: deploying an umbrella of sort, in space, so that less heat reaches the heart. Now of course as we've been ruled by luminaries since decades, bringing us to th…

> I'm talking about a sizeable percentage of the world's population dying because of heatwaves, shall we see desperate measure being taken?

At that point, won't it be too late?

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#276

Post by 21asdffdsa12 »

bcoughlan wrote: post #77
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

The buried lede: What does all this mean for global temperatures? Because global temperature lags ENSO by around three to five months, most of this event’s warming will land in 2027, which is now shaping up to be a genuinely alarming year and the warmest on record by a sizable margin I’m certainly no climate scientist, but if I lived in Europe, I would absolutely be looking into how to get a solar energy system set u…

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.

What should they have done differently? They de-industrialized and did the out of sight and out of mind thing europe does now before europe?

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#277

Post by 21asdffdsa12 »

thenthenthen wrote: post #259
Tadpole9181 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like 90% of US residential buildings have AC. For Europe, it's around 20% (for good reason, mind you). It's not a meme if it's an actual fact that many European homes are not prepared for these kinds of increasingly common heat waves, and I got the impression that the parent was showing genuine concern.

House build after WW2 are terrible. I miss my ancient Berlin house with 80cm thick walls. Cool in summer, warm in winter.

Room roofs as high as 3.5 m.. altbau

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#278

Post by Saline9515 »

jordanb wrote: post #173
puttycat wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that both sides have a point. European countries (notably France) have known for at least 30 years that this was coming, but was ideologically insisting not to install proper AC or even ventilation in public spaces and transport. This does not contradict the wider angle about Americans ignoring climate change.

> ideologically insisting not to install proper AC or even ventilation This is not supported by facts. People won't spend money on equipment they don't need. Most places in France do not need air conditioning (or did not need it). It makes no sense that a building owner or transit agency would spend limited funds on something that they do not need. One may argue that the government of France should have imposed some…

It is totally a fact, many people and officials in France believe that AC is a major contributor to climate change. The public (and very well funded) ecology body, the ADEME, has been at war with AC for a long time now[1].

You can see the same dolorism in the national media[2]. While using coal-powered AC is indeed polluting and not the only solution, it's not the case in France due to the nuclear and hydro share in the mix.

[1]: https://www.ademe.fr/presse/communique-national/avis-de-lade...

[2]: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/le-18-20-un-...

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#279

Post by protocolture »

dredmorbius wrote: post #260
protocolture wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Exponential growth, a/k/a constant periodic percentage growth (per day, month, year, etc.), increases rapidly. Differences (or errors) in magnitude measurement disappear rapidly: a factor of two in a single generation, a factor of ten in about three generations, a factor of 100 in less than 7, a factor of one thousand in fewer than 10. Exponential Growth in datacenters is extremely unlikely. I doubt it could be sust…

Again: the point remains that the sustained growth rate matters far more than the starting point. And again: it usually doesn't. Most growth trends follow a sigmoid rather than exponential curve . You're arguing against points I'm not making. The point I am making is to keep an eye on the growth trend (and whatever might constrain that, you've given some credible concerns here), rather than the starting magnitude . T…

>to keep an eye on the growth trend

I will be, mostly to add it to the bucket of trends that didn't continue forever as predicted.

>The question of how much societal resource information services can plausibly consume over a long term is an interesting one.

I dont know if biology is a really good model?

>You're arguing against points I'm not making.

No I think I am right on the money.

Small thing increases exponentially compounding every other week, for 2 weeks. Still a small thing.

Small thing increases exponentially for a decade. Now a big thing.

Datacenters increasing at the current rate for a couple more years before hitting several very hard walls. Still a small thing.

If they go from 24 times less water consumption than golf courses as far as 15 times less water consumption than golf courses I would be surprised.

Re: The Strongest El Niño Ever

#280

Post by simmerup »

zuzululu wrote: post #214
simmerup wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it is, and I don’t think it’s repeatedly pushed back I just think the science is still being worked out. But the world is getting hotter, and the scientists know it’s not good for us when the earth heats past a certain point. But we’re still burning that fuel regardless.

We've had the apocalyptic climate prophecies every decade and towards the end of each they move the goal post again and again. Then other scientists offer alternative views that point out that flaw and they are automatically not deemed as science despite the geological history of earth's magnetic poles shifting and recorded climate changes. The fuel we burn barely makes a dent on the overall climate change effect. Yo…

So you think this climate change is caused by the magnetic poles shifting?
Post reply on HN