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Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

bbc.co.uk

111–120 of 157 posts

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#111
post #2

"But global warming is a hoax. And even if it wasn't it's not our fault. People couldn't be the cause. And even if it is our fault there's nothing we could do about it." We have broken our world for the greed of a few. History will not be kind to us.

Does the « greed of the few » include the masses who use air travel across the world, who use cars, who rely on energy infrastructure? I guess the answer is somehow no, because this is populist drivel of the worst kind. Did not expect that here.

The fact that oil companies lobby to kill renewables and nuclear etc and then politicians reciprocated is what they are referring too. Those are "the few".

I never wanted my electricity to come from coal but it has been mostly forced upon me.

Basically there is more money in polluting tech than the alternatives that were available to us for the last 100 years or more.

Air travel would be inconsequential if the rest of the world operating on nuclear, solar and wind.

Over the last two decades I’ve attended climate rallies etc. I think it has had an impact. But due to the corruption we’re in trouble.

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#112
post #50

If you are reading this in your climate controlled northern hemisphere room, be reminded that the people suffering this are not just going to disappear, and they will need to live somewhere, somehow, and they will be more motivated than you will ever be. If you love your "western comfort" so much, the best thing you can do is to make sure other people than yourselves can also have a bare minimum of living conditions.

No, they will sadly disappear. That's the horror of it. Then we will etc.

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#113

Reminds me of the opening to "Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson. In that book, a wet bulb event (high humidity and high temp) in India pushes infrastructure past the breaking point, the grid goes down, AC systems still running on generators are overloaded and overcrowded and fail, the water temp goes over body temp, and millions die. The positive cultural/societal reaction to the disaster strained my s…

This is a weird premise. India (and Bangladesh) has virtually 100% access to electricity and adequate generation capacity. The concept of temperatures exceeding the wet bulb temperature makes for a scary fiction novel. But I bet even my dad’s village in Bangladesh could afford to put a few cheap Chinese mini splits in the school building and other gathering places. They are extremely efficient in the heat and wouldn’t cause a huge strain on the grid.

As the article notes, people certainly will and do die from such conditions. But it’s in the tens of thousands, not millions. And about 50,000 people a year die from heat waves in europe, too.

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History will forget effectively all of us, so that’s comforting.

I hope some record of us stays so whoever comes next would be able to learn from our stupidity. Yeah, and eternal shame is all we deserve.

I started reading history hoping to learn how to avoid the mistakes of the past, and instead came to the conclusion that history inexorably repeats itself, over a cycle just long enough for the current generation to forget the last event. (I'm trying to indicate similar kinds of mistakes in judgment, the details are always different of course.)

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#115
post #2

"But global warming is a hoax. And even if it wasn't it's not our fault. People couldn't be the cause. And even if it is our fault there's nothing we could do about it." We have broken our world for the greed of a few. History will not be kind to us.

Does the « greed of the few » include the masses who use air travel across the world, who use cars, who rely on energy infrastructure? I guess the answer is somehow no, because this is populist drivel of the worst kind. Did not expect that here.

[dead]

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#116

> Poor people don't have the luxury of worrying about the heat Just.. damn man > For eight or nine days, temperatures of 47-48C continued without a break Wasn't sure if the night time temps stayed that hot due to some factor but it appears that's the daytime high. > Overnight temperatures remain around 30C.

In India even middle class people can't afford AC. However, Indian government and musk is worried about falling birth rate.

How did you come to the conclusion that the middle class in India cannot afford air conditioning,

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#117
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See I could agree with the first part. But then you add We have broken our world for the greed of a few . After that I sort of understand why so many folks reject the former – they're rejecting the empty moralizing. If you truly believe climate change is real then also admit that "We all have broken the world", except perhaps some uncontacted peoples in the Amazon. Anyone who has ridden in an automobile, a train, a p…

Not everyone's footprint is the same, though. If I cut down my plane flight in half that means I'll take a plane every two years, meaning I'll also see my family half as much. You'd also have to include that, since I travel economy, you'd divide my contribution by ~350. If Taylor Swift cuts her plane travel by half she'd "only" make 51 trips a year [1] on a plane that carries 12 and would still make more money in a y…

> If Taylor Swift cuts her plane travel by half she'd "only" make 51 trips a year [1] on a plane that carries 12 and would still make more money in a year than what I'll see in my lifetime.

Taylor swift travels so much because the people want to see her in person.

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#118
post #47
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See I could agree with the first part. But then you add We have broken our world for the greed of a few . After that I sort of understand why so many folks reject the former – they're rejecting the empty moralizing. If you truly believe climate change is real then also admit that "We all have broken the world", except perhaps some uncontacted peoples in the Amazon. Anyone who has ridden in an automobile, a train, a p…

I worked at a warehouse last year. Managers always breathing down my neck to work faster. Constant stress for 9 hours straight. (Okay, we got a lunch break at least. There are worse jobs!) It got me wondering. Alright, what's his problem. Well, his manager is breathing down his neck too. It's literally his job to make my day as stressful as possible. Okay, why? You trace that chain and where does it end up? Fat capit…

[deleted]

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#119

We know that cutting down trees increases heat and intensifies drought but we continue to do it, how bad do things need to get before we reverse course?

"We"? I haven't even been to India let alone cut down trees there.

The OP of this thread is referring to humanity at large, not just India. We are all in the fight against climate change together.

Re: Mornings and nights no longer exist at 47C: A day in the hottest place in India

#120

Reminds me of the opening to "Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson. In that book, a wet bulb event (high humidity and high temp) in India pushes infrastructure past the breaking point, the grid goes down, AC systems still running on generators are overloaded and overcrowded and fail, the water temp goes over body temp, and millions die. The positive cultural/societal reaction to the disaster strained my s…

This is a weird premise. India (and Bangladesh) has virtually 100% access to electricity and adequate generation capacity. The concept of temperatures exceeding the wet bulb temperature makes for a scary fiction novel. But I bet even my dad’s village in Bangladesh could afford to put a few cheap Chinese mini splits in the school building and other gathering places. They are extremely efficient in the heat and wouldn’…

Problem with events like this is that they affect tens of thousands of people all at once. The first 1% of people will buy all of the available air conditioners. This happened in Australia in 2019: we had a huge bushfire with smoke affecting ~600K people. The available air filters sold out in hours.
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