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Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

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Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#251

Post by ssl-3 »

DangitBobby wrote: post #24
parineum wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We couldn't have stopped using fossil fuels heavily until nuclear power was widespread and implemented, around the late 70s or 80s. We could have traditioned our grids off of fossil fuels but we also depend on them for fertilizer to feed the world and for transportation which, until very recently, didn't have a viable alternative.

Nuclear was also kneecapped by FUD and astroturfing, and we didn't properly fund renewables because Republican administrations were in the pockets of big oil. Did you know GM made a fully viable electric car that people loved back in the 90s? Setback after setback, all self-inflicted, people pretending we have these insurmountable hurdles all over the place. Pathetic for an empire that prides itself as a champion of…

EVs aren't new. Like, at all.

To pick one example: Once Studebaker decided to branch into self-going car territory, they were selling electric cars[1] nearly a century before GM's EV-1 project started delivering vehicles.

They were reasonably-reliable and they plugged into an outlet at home to recharge. Easy-peasy. But the range sucked: 40 miles is useful, but is just not very good for a lot of things that don't require any imagination to realize.

They did a lot better selling gas-fired cars than they did plug-in electric models[2], and this happened without requiring political conspiracy.

Anyway, it's 2026 and the range problem is solved well-enough for many folks. :)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Electric

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker#End_of_horse-drawn_...

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#252

Post by NicuCalcea »

chasd00 wrote: post #222
mh- wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Waco right now and the car said it was 107 today. If one more person says "but it's a dry heat"...

My reply to that is usually “the inside of an oven is a dry heat too, it’s still incompatible with life” hah.

It would be compatible with life for longer though. A dry sauna can get to 80-100°C, steam rooms are "only" 40-50°C. And subjectively, I can bear it much longer in a typical dry sauna.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#253

Post by runarberg »

ericmay wrote: post #189
mapt wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, we have a massive grainfed meat livestock sector that in an emergency could basically all be slaughtered in favor of feeding the grain to people. But we also have recent history demonstrating that this will not be allowed to happen, no matter how much starvation there is in poorer countries, we WILL have our steaks. Not negotiable.

Distribution is hard too. It’s not as simple as “we have food and we are mean”. Look at how Hamas for example was seizing food supplies meant for starving Palestinians. Who is going to deliver food aid to, idk, Sudan and ensure only the hungry get it? What guns and soldiers will protect it? Who is going to pay for it? Other countries have a lot of money and excess food too - EU, China, Brazil. I would look forward to…

Distribution is only hard if you have to find a way to profit off of it. Hundreds food programs of all sizes can do it, from the UN food program, to states of all sizes with food assistance programs (i.e. almost every country), to a tiny charity. Heck even a ragtag bunch of Anarchists can distribute food with their Food Not Bombs charters.

The only thing preventing food being distributed to everybody that needs it is economics, specifically the type of economics which rewards exploitation, hording, and maldistribution. The people with power actually prefer it that way, some people being hungry is fine actually, as long as the rich and powerful in their own country gets to make more money.

Now I am not gonna dignify your genocide apologia with an answer. But you should feel ashamed to have written such hateful words right here on a tech forum.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#254

Post by alt227 »

Noaidi wrote: post #243
alt227 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this is something the world has never seen and I mean that literally Lets not forget there have been bigger and hotter events than this in local past. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877%E2%80%931878_El_Ni%C3%B1o... You may tie this in to climate change in general to prove your point, but this is a discussion about El Nino weather event and it is important to remember the current situation is not unprecedented.

This El Nino is expected to be worse than that based on the El Nino 3.4 temperatures we are already seeing. This is why most weather people are talking about it so much. We do not have the same data for the 1877 event that we do for the last strongest El Nino in 1997. And this one is much stronger than that by far: https://xcancel.com/BenNollWeather/status/208864941472211787...

> expected to be worse

Lets not speculate, currently there have been worse ones in the past. If this eventually becomes more extreme then yes it will become a big talking point, but it is not there yet.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#255

Post by ssl-3 »

mort96 wrote: post #216
ssl-3 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would indeed have helped a ton. It's important to not let perfection be the enemy of good. If we just wait around forever for a perfect solution to appear, then we'll simply be waiting around forever. That's not the path of progress.

I agree. I just wanted to point out that to "stop burning fossil fuels" requires more than green electricity generation. Green electricity generation is 100% necessary, just not in itself sufficient, as was implied by "Would have been doable if we could have switched to nuclear".

Agreed.

We'll never stop burning fossil fuels -- not in our lifetimes, anyway. They're too useful.

Like: Cement kilns. They're ridiculously intensive of energy, and they're necessary. They burn approximately everything, from coal and natural gas to heavy fuel oil and petcoke to used tires. About the cleanest thing I've heard of them burning is old railroad ties, which isn't really so great either. :)

But if we solve some of the other big industrial users and mostly leave the cement factories, then that's... that's actually pretty good.

And we can make cement with electricity. There are companies working on scalable processes to accomplish exactly that. Electricity has just historically been very cost-prohibitive compared to alternatives in the cement-making world for it to be practical.

But! If we'd landed in the age of cheap electricity instead of this timeline, then that process would probably have been solved long ago; the incentives would have been so great that solving it would be inevitable.

And it really may have once been possible at one point to have steered things in that direction, and it even may still be possible today. But we're certainly not there (yet?).

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#256

Post by jandrewrogers »

WillAdams wrote: post #194
ben_w wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many farmers are subsidised specifically so that food is over-produced in most years, specifically to ensure than in bad years people don't go hungry. Corporations may indeed be taking advantage of this, demanding prices so low that the farmers don't get the benefit of those subsidies. However: > buy the stuff and sell it at a premium later Is the point of a futures market. Futures let people trade a thing before the…

No, the point of a futures market is to have a reliable supply which matches demand and allows everyone who works to produce and use a given commodity to have a reasonable expectation of demand and how production should be matched to it. Goldman-Sachs should _not_ be inserting themselves into profiting on the poor's daily bread. https://theecologist.org/2011/sep/13/how-goldman-sachs-start...

The point of the futures market is to transfer risk to someone more capable or more willing to manage it. Any effect on supply and demand is a side-effect of this.

The risk is inherent. Not everyone that produces a commodity wants to manage the risk associated with that commodity, as it is a very different skill set.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#257

Post by watwut »

pelasaco wrote: post #237
watwut wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most anti-facts and anti reality bulshit comes from people who mock feelings and opinions while framing themselves as factual and u biases. Especially in climate change "debate".

or the said "experts" hungry for media attention.. we saw it all

I have no idea who you are talking about.

You want to imply doubt about climate change without saying it, using dog whistles and vague accusations of "feelings".

You did not stated a single fact, you apparently dont know much about topic, but you know some experts and politicians opinions are wrong.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#258

Post by nec4b »

vrganj wrote: post #184
dgellow wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don’t know and feel very conflicted about my own ideology. I recognize how broken it is at scale, but also value the personal autonomy, entrepreneurship, nonconformity capitalism promotes. Though my version of capitalism isn’t the libertarian free market one, libertarianism will always evolve into oligarchy or something fascistic given enough time, it’s just baked into the incentives. My personal ideology…

I really appreciate the self-reflective answer and I fully understand the conflict. You seem like a thoughtful dude, kudos. I fully agree with your assessment about capitalism devolving into either fascism or some sort of feudalism. I, too, have been struggling with what a more just system could look like. Personally, some aspects of Yugoslav worker self-management appeal to me. Basic idea is: Companies compete on a…

Yugoslavia failed spectacularly economically. People had to smuggle bananas, diapers, coffee and jeans among other goods from the neighboring Italy and Austria. Millions of people (Gastarbeiter) migrated to Germany to be able support their families, because there was no opportunity at home. Inflation was horrendous, people exchanged the local currency to german marks on the same day as the payday, otherwise by the next day it was worth half as much. There was a shortage of gasoline and people sometimes waited years to get a car. But yes the dictator and the red nobility lived very well for sure.

Re: Super El Niño Keeps Growing as New Forecasts Reach Record Territory Ahead Winter

#260

Post by sfn42 »

alt227 wrote: post #224
Noaidi wrote: post #6

People really don’t appreciate yet. How really bad this situation is and will be. They’re talking about 1.76°C higher temperatures next year because of this El Niño. Those are climate change temperatures that are not supposed to be around until 2035. So it’ll give us a sneak peek into our future. But the biggest effect and this is noted by many insurance companies now is going to be in places like India. But this is…

> But this is something the world has never seen and I mean that literally Lets not forget there have been bigger and hotter events than this in local past. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877%E2%80%931878_El_Ni%C3%B1o... You may tie this in to climate change in general to prove your point, but this is a discussion about El Nino weather event and it is important to remember the current situation is not unprecedented.

The global average temperature was about 1.5C lower back then.
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