(records began 80 years ago)
Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
11–20 of 108 posts
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#12> Burgess said the summer had been one of tumbling records and it would only get worse if the world continues to burn planet-heating fossil fuels. It would get worse even if we stopped burning fossil fuels immediately. Because of lag effects, tipping points, and masking.
Why is this relevant: you seem to imply “don’t bother”. I would disagree strongly.
Because HN is home to performative contrariness - making an observation for no substantive reason other than to show you "know" something.
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#13> Burgess said the summer had been one of tumbling records and it would only get worse if the world continues to burn planet-heating fossil fuels. It would get worse even if we stopped burning fossil fuels immediately. Because of lag effects, tipping points, and masking.
CO2 is the big long term problem, but in the short term, I understand cutting methane would have a significant impact
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#14> Burgess said the summer had been one of tumbling records and it would only get worse if the world continues to burn planet-heating fossil fuels. It would get worse even if we stopped burning fossil fuels immediately. Because of lag effects, tipping points, and masking.
Why is this relevant: you seem to imply “don’t bother”. I would disagree strongly.
It's relevant because people continue to downplay just how dire the situation is.
It's not only going to get worse if we continue burning fossil fuels. It's going to get worse no matter what.
If accepting that would lead you to conclude that we shouldn't bother, so be it. That's your interpretation, not mine. But downplaying those facts so that you can feel better about the situation is something I would disagree with strongly.
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#15> Burgess said the summer had been one of tumbling records and it would only get worse if the world continues to burn planet-heating fossil fuels. It would get worse even if we stopped burning fossil fuels immediately. Because of lag effects, tipping points, and masking.
So we shouldn't do anything at all?
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#16Perhaps we're also measuring temps more than ever with greater data collection.
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#17(records began 80 years ago)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/world/july-hottest-month-reco...
There is a decent amount of confidence that it's an outlier in the last 120,000 years, but you're right, there are no written records that far back.
Regardless, do you find it reassuring to know that the world is rapidly changing in a way that's proving to be predictable? We can easily look at that chart and guess what it's going to look like over the next 10 years.
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is this relevant: you seem to imply “don’t bother”. I would disagree strongly.
It's relevant because people continue to downplay just how dire the situation is. It's not only going to get worse if we continue burning fossil fuels. It's going to get worse no matter what. If accepting that would lead you to conclude that we shouldn't bother, so be it. That's your interpretation, not mine. But downplaying those facts so that you can feel better about the situation is something I would disagree wit…
I‘m on your side but your initial response would have meant something completely different to me, if you added that first sentence:
> It’s relevant because people continue to downplay just how dire the situation is.
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#19Perhaps we're also measuring temps more than ever with greater data collection.
I don't understand, are you arguing that maybe if they'd measured the right July day in 1951 then we'd see that that was the warmest month?
Re: Northern summer was hottest on record by a significant margin
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, they have a graph of temperatures from 1940 onwards with a linear trend line— but just by looking at the data points, it seems that an exponential curve would fit the data better. Maybe someone more skilled than me has analyzed that already? Because just eyeballing it, is really making me nervous about the exponential future projection of that graph of the next 20 years
This was discussed in the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show[1]. Apparently aerosols artificially held down temperatures roughly 1940–1980, after which they started to be reduced (from my memory of what they discussed). So it might be that the contribution of the greenhouse effect is masked in that period of the temperature graph. 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...
Were the aerosols from above-ground nuclear bomb detonations? I remember seeing a graph years and years ago that showed the temperatures really starting to rise was above-ground nuclear bomb testing was banned.
Crazy spur-of-the-moment idea - should we pursue dumping some sort of aerosol into the upper atmosphere to reduce the amount of heat Earth receives from the sun? Obviously this shouldn't be pursued in lieu of curtailing our pumping C02 into the atmosphere, but it could alleviate some of the damaging effects from what we've already done.