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July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

nytimes.com

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Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#141

Post by tombert »

yread wrote: post #118
tombert wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, considering that I get my power from a combination of Nuclear and wind power, I doubt that I give a particularly high carbon footprint. But you're not wrong, I almost certainly have a higher footprint than most of the third world. I guess what I was getting at is that I think the levels New York has are substantially more sustainable than the rest of the US. Sorry for the confusion.

I would guess your footprint is more increased by getting all kinds of stuff (you don't really need). And the stuff being shipped across half the globe.

That's a fair point and I'll admit I hadn't considered that.

Conceivably, we could make electric (or something) transportation systems that can travel across the world and not produce and CO2, but we certainly haven't gotten there yet.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#142

Post by adrenalinelol »

hawski wrote: post #101
amelius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only solution to this problem is technology. There already exists a "carbon offset market" [1] So the solution is economical, which in turn will lead to technological solutions (carbon-reducing technology directly driven by profits in this market). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset

From what I quickly found it seems that Greenhouse Gas Tax on meat is still missing. https://www.google.com/#q=greenhouse+gases+livestock+tax

It's missing from far more than just meat; the problem is raising taxes is politically painful in the short-term, and said policy will not reap any tangible benefits... The chances of a political solution (economics) to global warming won't be tenable until it's too late.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#143

Post by harryh »

tombert wrote: post #117
harryh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without all the stuff generations past did you might still be living in a cave and hunting and gathering for food. All in, the gains you've received from your ancestors FAR FAR outweigh the losses.

I don't know really what you're arguing. I don't think that the poster was suggesting that we go back to the flintstones-age, and I'm sure he/she was appreciative of the work that's been done in the past, but that in no way deters from the fact that current and future generations are going to have to do a lot of cleanup from the past generations.

If your parents died and left you an inheritance of $1000 and also a debt of $100 you're still $900 ahead. Most people wouldn't call that being "punished."

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#144

Post by _ph_ »

s_q_b wrote: post #108
harryh wrote: post #44

Personally I think that the idea that these trends can ever be revered by some sort of world wide agreement to lower consumption is a pipe dream. People want to eat meat and drive cars and fly on airplanes. As long as they're rich enough to do so you'll never stop them. The only solution to this problem is technology. Some combination of green energy sources plus probably very large scale terraforming.

Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. I've said this before, and the same climate scientists who first discovered anthropogenic global warming agree, that nuclear fission plants are the only technology that can bridge the gap between fossil fuels and fusion.

Wind and Solar are now cost-competetive with nuclear, without its nasty side effects. And the cost of storage for nuclear waste has not really been calculated yet.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#145

Post by adrenalinelol »

lallysingh wrote: post #89
snarfy wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another solution: less people.

Populations past a certain level of prosperity for a generation or two do seem to drop reproductive rates. Perhaps the answer here is higher educational costs to discourage people from having many kids, and lots of alternative activities instead (Pokemon)?

Increase college tuition (even more?) with the hopes of stemming population growth? You know the majority of the planet doesn't actually attend college as is already?

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#146

Post by Pitarou »

chukye wrote: post #96

OK, but... any ideas how can we solve that?

1. Reach a firm global consensus that this is a problem and we need to do something about it. (I'm looking at you, United States and Australia.)

2. Implement a top-down program of transition to low-carbon technologies. Switch from coal power stations to nuclear, switch to electric vehicles, and so on.

3. Invest heavily in R&D to find ways to cope with global warming. Heat-tolerant crops, "cloud brightening", flood mitigation, and so on and so on. We must have the necessary tools and technology to hand before we need them.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#147

Post by ThomPete »

acomjean wrote: post #136
kleiba wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take it with a grain of salt. In Germany, we had warm summers in recent years, but this year's July has generally been cold and very rainy.

climate is long term, weather is short term[1]. Its a subtle difference and often confused, especially if english isn't your first language. [1] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_wea...

What on earth does language have to do with it?

Other countries write about climate change too :)

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#148

Post by harryh »

tombert wrote: post #88
harryh wrote: post #44

Personally I think that the idea that these trends can ever be revered by some sort of world wide agreement to lower consumption is a pipe dream. People want to eat meat and drive cars and fly on airplanes. As long as they're rich enough to do so you'll never stop them. The only solution to this problem is technology. Some combination of green energy sources plus probably very large scale terraforming.

Government intervention could conceivably work. In the same way that we were able to get rid of the hole in the ozone layer by imposing restrictions on CFCs, couldn't governments give tax incentives and impose regulations that encourage a greener, more sustainable system?

That's kind of my point. Governments are (for the most part at least) beholden to the people and the people will never tax incentivize themselves into a state of drastically lowered consumption.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#149

Post by kilotaras »

kleiba wrote: post #120
bjourne wrote: post #110

Anyone else who feel that the climate-related news are getting very scary? If for every month for the last year, there was a new sprinter breaking the last months world Record in 100 meters you'd know something was fishy. Like some kind of incredibly potent anabolic steroid runners were ingesting. With new and improved versions of that steroid being released every few months...

I would take it with a grain of salt. In Germany, we had warm summers in recent years, but this year's July has generally been cold and very rainy.

Sorry for answering with xkcd but it's very on point - https://xkcd.com/1321/

What was considered norm not 30 years ago is now called colder than usual and used as a rebuttal for climate change.

Re: July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to Nasa

#150

Post by dredmorbius »

misja111 wrote: post #39
pjc50 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're misunderstanding the arithmetic. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_temperature_recor... The Nth "hottest years" are relative to the present day. So in the graph, it looks like 1981 would have been a record hot year - but now it's only the 30th (or whatever) hottest year. If the graph were a completely smooth upward-sloping line, then you'd expect that 15 of the 15 hottest years…

Thanks for the chart. To me it still seems like we are missing something. If you look at the period of 1940 - 1980, then there was not really an upward or downward trend. But in the 36 years after 1980, the global temperature has been going up like crazy. Should all of that be attributed to statistical noise? To me it looks like some new factor has started to influence the climate in the recent years, whatever that f…

If you compare the rate of fossil fuel use over time, you'll find that that has also been accelerating tremendously. There are other factors involved, including particulate emissions (mostly from coal) which tended to repress warming trends.

From 1945 - 1975, fuel consumption was roughly doubling every decade. The rate of increase moderated slightly during the 1970s oil crises, but picked up afterward, with China's growth since 2000 being particularly troubling.

http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/alternativeenergyinnewy...

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