The Uninhabitable Earth
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The Uninhabitable Earth
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Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#2Why the hell is the author mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees?
Paragraph one: " for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal"
Paragraph two: "At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. "
Same paragraph: "At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb maximum of 26 or 27 degrees Celsius; the true red line for habitability is 35 degrees"
Paragraph three: " As I type that sentence, in the California desert in mid-June, it is 121 degrees outside my door. "
Just....why?
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#3It sounds very grim, is there any chance/hope of us getting out of this situation or is it just beyond any action at this point? I get the feeling from the article we're doomed.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#4Why the hell is the author mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees? Paragraph one: " for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal" Paragraph two: "At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. " Same paragraph: "At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb m…
I stumbled upon this one too. I suppose the author consulted various sources and forgot to normalize units afterwards.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#5This always reminds me of this cartoon https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/514325219919218393/
"What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?"
I think the key point that the article makes is that fossil fuels have enabled much of the industrialisation of the 20th and 21st century but it is also beginning to make certain areas of the world uninhabitable and yet we still seem to want to ignore the warning signs. A shift from fossil fuels and a focus on carbon capture technologies is hopefully not too late.
PS: I do keep reminding my dad that he should sell his house on the Indian River in Florida.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#6Why the hell is the author mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees? Paragraph one: " for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal" Paragraph two: "At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. " Same paragraph: "At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb m…
I'm an american and if you told me it was 27C outside I wouldn't know whether that was hot or cold until I reflected for a moment and compared that number to cpu core temps.
Ignorance on my part, certainly, and not excusable but perhaps typical.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#7It sounds very grim, is there any chance/hope of us getting out of this situation or is it just beyond any action at this point? I get the feeling from the article we're doomed.
It's the little things the author mentions, that impressed me. For example the prevalence of Malaria. A higher temperature can increase the lifecycle rate of the parasite by a factor of 10.
I was also unaware that higher temperatures increased sport fouls and criminal behaviour.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#8Why the hell is the author mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees? Paragraph one: " for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal" Paragraph two: "At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. " Same paragraph: "At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb m…
I'm an american and if you told me it was 27C outside I wouldn't know whether that was hot or cold until I reflected for a moment and compared that number to cpu core temps. Ignorance on my part, certainly, and not excusable but perhaps typical.
Out of interest, why don't you capitalize "American"?
Edit: I'm genuinely curious and not asking to annoy anyone; I might be misunderstanding grammar rules or rules of HN. I ask because I'm not sure this was a mistake; all over the web I see people who write with good grammar, but never capitalize "American". Is it considered rude to capitalize "American"?
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#9Why the hell is the author mixing Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees? Paragraph one: " for instance, where humidity routinely tops 90 percent, simply moving around outside when it’s over 105 degrees Fahrenheit would be lethal" Paragraph two: "At 11 or 12 degrees of warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. " Same paragraph: "At present, most regions reach a wet-bulb m…
I'm an american and if you told me it was 27C outside I wouldn't know whether that was hot or cold until I reflected for a moment and compared that number to cpu core temps. Ignorance on my part, certainly, and not excusable but perhaps typical.
I don't even mind the fact that he used one or the other, it's just that mixing units in a scientific article doesn't seem very....professional for me.
Especially since increase by 12 degrees Celsius != increase by 12 degrees Fahrenheit. So in that paragraph where he talks about 11-12 degrees increase being lethal, you don't have all information necessary.
Re: The Uninhabitable Earth
#10It sounds very grim, is there any chance/hope of us getting out of this situation or is it just beyond any action at this point? I get the feeling from the article we're doomed.
Don't worry, this is a pure climate alarmist. You can tell by this quote and others:
"But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough."
This person is literally saying we need to be alarmed.
I really didn't understand the part where they said methane has 34 times the greenhouse effect as carbon over a period of time and then changes the timeframe to bring the multiplier put to 84 times. To me it felt a lot like when congress talks about deficits over a decade - well actually they talk about reductions over a decade so it's times 10 and increases are just annual. Anyway, there is a difference between methane and CO2 but to try to make it sound worse by talking about time is just another alarmist tactic.
Regardless of your stance, this article is intended to be alarmist and even says so. IMHO it is not worthy of HN.