Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 160 posts

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#151

Post by blooalien »

thirsty-coucal wrote: post #114
lm28469 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's an unsolvable problem, too many variables, too many incompatibles interests/goals. Humans aren't made to solve world wide / very long term issues. The covid pandemic showed we're not able to handle any kind of global stress collectively. We're apes trying to live like ants, but we lack the organisation and selflessness. We'll do what we do best, wait until we have our backs against the wall and find so…

> It feels like we're at the beginning of one of these Hollywood "end of the world" movies That's very deliberate. We've all been saturated with doom propaganda for decades. Many people believe it, despite virtually all metrics of human well-being improving.

> It feels like we're at the beginning of one of these Hollywood "end of the world" movies

Another common thread among those movies is a large number of people in decision-making positions who could have taken action much sooner denying the very existence of the actual problem until after it's far too late.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#152

Post by ben_w »

nicbou wrote: post #127
ben_w wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a lot more optimistic. The American idea of a compact car is the British idea of a big car (judging by labelled parking spaces in Davis CA), so that’s culture or fashion, and those can shift fast. And all the big companies are shifting to electric now, so even big isn’t as important. Vat meat is starting to get on the market, and while we’ll have to wait and see if this is a iPhone moment or a Sinclair C5 moment,…

But culture is heading the other direction in America. Cars get larger every year. Culture won't get us decent public transportation.

You’d have to ditch low density housing to make public transport affordable.

But don’t be so hasty to dismiss culture as an opportunity: Musk turned electric cars from a joke into something the rich wanted to show off with.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#153

Post by thrashh »

michaelt wrote: post #107
arcturus17 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looking at how we handled the pandemic, I don't think we'll manage. Amidst the chaos, humanity has been able develop a wide range of therapeutics and public healthcare prevention protocols, research and deploy vaccines at global scale in under a year, all while avoiding total economic collapse. What outcome would've given you hope in humans' ability to solve complex and chaotic crises?

The pandemic showed us making and using a silver bullet in record time - when a silver bullet is possible. But the pandemic also showed us a large % of the American population are reluctant to make even minor, temporary sacrifices to protect their country. And that a decent fraction of American political leadership are happy to close their eyes to factual reality.

Americans acted the way they did because of bad leadership. A lot of people high up sowed the idea that getting a vaccine is not worthwhile and that masking up was an immediate threat to our freedom, and naturally a lot of people heard that and ran with it.

Those Americans aren’t any different from you and me: they just got their news from different sources — sources that shouldn’t be saying what they said.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#154

Post by yosito »

effingwewt wrote: post #143
yosito wrote: post #134

Considering the source, remind me in one month. I'd like to see if the predicted 110° temperatures actually happened, or if it was just media amplifying the worst possible case for the doom clicks. To go about this scientifically, we need to be comparing our predictions to reality, especially when the predictions are coming from a source incentivized to generate clicks rather than to provide an accurate view of reali…

LOL, you must have missed Death Valley,CA breaking records with 130 degrees. I agree, think critically and vette your sources, but this kind of denial sounds like when Republicans stood around in the snow screaming global warming wasn't real because LoOk SnOw It'S nOt GeTtIng HoTtEr

> Death Valley

...

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#155

Post by mlang23 »

ashton314 wrote: post #148
mlang23 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, only "priviledged" people should have children. Elitist thinking ahoy! Nope man, these days, with the amount of people on this planet, nobody really needs more of them, no matter what nice elitist excuse the individual finds.

> Sure, only “privileged” people should have children That is not at all what I said. If you are trying to have a net positive effect in the world, and you have the means to do so, raising a child with a good education, instilling the best of your values in them, etc., is a fantastic force multiplier and a good way to ensure that someone like you keeps being a net good in the world. Beyond that, raising children has…

> I would not wish a childless life upon anybody

Wow, what a slap in the face of people who cant get children for one reason or another. Its fine that you are happy with parenting, but please consider what sentences like this can do to others.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#156

Post by nicbou »

ben_w wrote: post #152
nicbou wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But culture is heading the other direction in America. Cars get larger every year. Culture won't get us decent public transportation.

You’d have to ditch low density housing to make public transport affordable. But don’t be so hasty to dismiss culture as an opportunity: Musk turned electric cars from a joke into something the rich wanted to show off with.

And the rest of the planet drives with internal combustion engines. The cars Germans replace with electric ones (or obsoletes due to emissions) are sent to other countries.

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#157

Post by puchatek »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #125
mrpopo wrote: post #51

Reminder: what is happening now is the result of past emissions and will keep happening year after year no matter what. After humanity finally stops emitting greenhouse gases, it will not get better, it will just stop getting worse. The earlier we act the less bad the consequences.

Sadly this kind of message will just result in apathy [in the US]. We've seen from the pandemic that just telling people they're going to die unless they take the most basic health precautions isn't enough to create action. We need a massive campaign of manipulation tactics by trusted peers or they're not going to act to save themselves.

I think you guys need a "War on CO2" if you want to mobilize the masses. Unlike the other wars, this one could actually be won...

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#158

Post by puchatek »

Gravityloss wrote: post #82
mrpopo wrote: post #51

Reminder: what is happening now is the result of past emissions and will keep happening year after year no matter what. After humanity finally stops emitting greenhouse gases, it will not get better, it will just stop getting worse. The earlier we act the less bad the consequences.

If global human CO2 emissions stopped, the ocean would be absorbing some of the current atmospherical CO2, so it would start going down. The ocean is already currently absorbing, and acidifying as a result. It is not currently in equilibrium. Of course, as it warms, its ability to absorb lessens. Warm water holds less CO2, used as a denialist talking point to say that the CO2 is from the oceans, not from humans. But…

If the US and Canada managed to cut down on their dramatic per capita emission levels then this could serve as an example to others and give some weight to otherwise empty pleas for change. It would also help accelerate green tech to a point where it can compete with fossil fuels on price line it's happening with solar. Others will follow suit naturally at that point

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#159

Post by antonvs »

MatteoFrigo wrote: post #116
antonvs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Global warming" involves extremes of temperature on both ends of the scale, and "coldest winters" are not inconsistent with that. Think about a pot of hot water vs. one that's boiling. The surface of the water in the boiling pot is not smooth, it has peaks and troughs. The level of some of those troughs will be lower than the level of the water in a less energetic pot. The situation with global warming is similar, a…

That's not at all what "basic physics" says. For example, in a gas at a given temperature, some molecules are more energetic and some molecules are less energetic. The distribution of energy across molecules is called the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and has been known, well, since Maxwell. The Maxwell-Boltzmann formula clearly shows that, if you increase the average energy per molecule, the probability of "cold" m…

You applied that comment beyond its intent. With more energy in the atmosphere, "the average [temperature] will inevitably be higher. Basic physics doesn't allow for anything else."

Re: US set for punishing temperatures as ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

#160

Post by antonvs »

b112 wrote: post #56
antonvs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Global warming" involves extremes of temperature on both ends of the scale, and "coldest winters" are not inconsistent with that. Think about a pot of hot water vs. one that's boiling. The surface of the water in the boiling pot is not smooth, it has peaks and troughs. The level of some of those troughs will be lower than the level of the water in a less energetic pot. The situation with global warming is similar, a…

It is more than this, too. It is called climate change for other reasons, and that is because while the global, overall, average temperature will rise, local temps could drop, or even stay the same! Say we have a 3C temp rise, global average. Some places could have a 10C increase, others a -5C decrease average! Look at coastal areas, like British Columbia, while inland the temps drop quickly. Or the British isles. Oc…

> Edit: just realised you sorta said this, just in a different way. Will leave this here regardless.

Yup, your description is a good complement to what I was getting at.

Post reply on HN