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Why North America's killer heat scares me

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#161

Post by Rochus »

throwaway284534 wrote: post #6

Respectfully, I’m getting fatigued from hearing about climate changes. Not because I don’t care, but because I feel powerless to do anything major about it. For all the recycling I’ve done, a single factory can undo in just a day. Being defeatist isn’t exactly productive, but hearing that calamities are happening on a daily basis doesn’t help much either. I really do think the only way this’ll get better is after som…

Here is a good publication about the effectiveness of individual measures; there are indeed much more effective individual actions than recycling: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#162

Post by Rochus »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #146
bioinformatics wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best thing you can do is to not produce any pollution whatsoever. It’s the easiest and most ecological way to have 0 impact on Nature. Make a list of all the things that harm Earth that you do daily (hint: using a computer and the internet is one) and just eliminate from your life. You will be better, we are going to be better and thw world will thank you

The only way to accomplish what you call the "best way" is for everyone to die.

If you have dental fillings or pacemakers, even that is still polluting.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#163

Post by ocschwar »

vegetablepotpie wrote: post #132
throwaway284534 wrote: post #6

Respectfully, I’m getting fatigued from hearing about climate changes. Not because I don’t care, but because I feel powerless to do anything major about it. For all the recycling I’ve done, a single factory can undo in just a day. Being defeatist isn’t exactly productive, but hearing that calamities are happening on a daily basis doesn’t help much either. I really do think the only way this’ll get better is after som…

The dust bowl wasn’t addressed until the dust made it to Washington [1]. I suspect we’re not going to see real climate change mitigation in the US until Capitol Hill is flooded with sea water (elevation: 79ft). Although changes to individual actions are needed to solve the climate crisis, the impact of individual actions will be minimal, and big policy changes are needed to make meaningful impacts. The things that ar…

The parking facilities around the capitol will be hit first, and since congressmen have pretty fancy cars, I expect the saltwater damage will change some minds. And I'm not trying to be glib or cynical. My congressman, now Senator, Ed Markey, made climate change his priority after floods damaged the basement of the building with his district office in Medford MA

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#164

Post by adamcstephens »

hooplah wrote: post #160
adamcstephens wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not hand waving China’s emissions away, and explicitly said they can and should do more. If and when they decide to deal with the problem, I expect they’ll make a lot more progress than we have. We’ll just have to agree to disagree that America is trying to cut emissions. There seems to be neither political nor corporate will to do so. Furthermore Americans have zero desire for reducing their standard of living t…

> If and when they decide to deal with the problem I expect they’ll make a lot more progress than we have. Sure. I will update my stance if or when the CCP decides to do something, especially if they shoot past everyone in reduced emissions. I won't hold my breath though, unless I'm in Shanghai's smog.

Seems like your reason to be here is to point the finger at China while ignoring the problems in the US.

Personally, I'll focus on the US since it's a massive contributor to global warming and is the place I have the most leverage of any. Not that I have any real leverage, given the rampant corruption in American politics, but it's a better place to spend my energy.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#165

Post by hooplah »

adamcstephens wrote: post #164
hooplah wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If and when they decide to deal with the problem I expect they’ll make a lot more progress than we have. Sure. I will update my stance if or when the CCP decides to do something, especially if they shoot past everyone in reduced emissions. I won't hold my breath though, unless I'm in Shanghai's smog.

Seems like your reason to be here is to point the finger at China while ignoring the problems in the US. Personally, I'll focus on the US since it's a massive contributor to global warming and is the place I have the most leverage of any. Not that I have any real leverage, given the rampant corruption in American politics, but it's a better place to spend my energy.

No, I personally think the US should manufacture more at home so we can control the process and reduce as many emissions as we can. I believe we are doing an okay job, and the numbers show, but we could be doing even more if politicians tried.

I also think we should invest more in natural gas and nuclear to wean off of coal entirely. While continuing investments in renewables in areas that make sense (wind in Texas, solar in Arizona, geo thermal, hydro, etc.) In addition to continuing researching new materials to replace others that may cause more emissions.

I'd just like to see the largest emissions tackled as well since time is off the essence apparently.

Also not a huge fan of plastic dumping, and anyone who does that should be sanctioned.

I criticize US politicians every damn day, but I can call the CCP out in this thread at the same time. It's not a countries fault, it's the leaders, and the CCP is authoritarian, they could do these things if they wanted to.

As far as US leaders... Democrats need to embrace the nat. gas pipelines, fracking, nuclear, and domestic manufacturing. Republicans need to embrace renewables in areas that make sense. Republicans have warmed up to renewables, Texas runs on 100% wind some days, but we need nat. gas for peak periods. Both parties need to support nuclear and sanctioning polluters.

Don't get me started on Europe...

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#166

Post by lamontcg »

throwaway284534 wrote: post #6

Respectfully, I’m getting fatigued from hearing about climate changes. Not because I don’t care, but because I feel powerless to do anything major about it. For all the recycling I’ve done, a single factory can undo in just a day. Being defeatist isn’t exactly productive, but hearing that calamities are happening on a daily basis doesn’t help much either. I really do think the only way this’ll get better is after som…

You can refuse to work anywhere that doesn't let you work from home fulltime.

Commuting is killing the planet and killing employees due to stress and accidents.

And a lot of employees could move somewhere a bit cheaper which would help to reduce mortgages and rents and make cities more livable.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#167

Post by jude- »

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #157
jude- wrote: post #137

It's all well and good for us folks in the West to talk about reducing consumption, but the reality check we need to hear is that the "West" is no more than 20% of humanity (give or take, depending on how you count). Like it or not, the remainder of humanity is rapidly industrializing. First, no amount of lifestyle changes in the West is going to offset the pollution and environmental degradation this could cause. Se…

> Housing sounds like a tough political problem at first, but few people will say no to a policy of "everyone -- rich or poor -- gets a free condo." Even existing homeowners would take a second home in a big city, even if all they do is use it for storage or weekend visits. The problem is almost always local opposition. Looking at California, we see huge moneyed sue-happy NIMBYism that fights rabidly against any new…

That's why I advocate for running the NIMBYs out of town. I meant it literally.

NIMBYs are not only pro-homelessness and pro-urban-decay, but also pro-climate-apocalypse and anti-growth. In my mind, the only difference between NIMBYs and Big Oil executives is the scale of impact, and the only difference between NIMBYs and terrorists is the means of violence. We should act accordingly.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#168

Post by lamontcg »

mtrn wrote: post #24
throwaway284534 wrote: post #6

Respectfully, I’m getting fatigued from hearing about climate changes. Not because I don’t care, but because I feel powerless to do anything major about it. For all the recycling I’ve done, a single factory can undo in just a day. Being defeatist isn’t exactly productive, but hearing that calamities are happening on a daily basis doesn’t help much either. I really do think the only way this’ll get better is after som…

I do not own a car, I do not fly, I buy clothes used or new just once a year. My newest smartphone I bought five years ago (and I just bought a new battery for $10, so I can use it for five more years). My utility company stats says my energy consumption is overall very low. I eat meat once a month. I try to own as few things as possible. I try to write and deploy code in energy efficient languages (Go, Rust, C, ...)…

You're perpetuating the idea though that we need to live like Ascetics in order to solve climate change.

It'd be thousands of times better to get one coal fired plant turned off in place of renewables.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#169

Post by lamontcg »

anonAndOn wrote: post #113
dragontamer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was extremely difficult getting my knowledgeable and smart sister to vaccinate for COVID19, an eminent disease that we both agreed was killing hundreds-of-thousands of Americans. Fortunately, I pushed her hard enough with a little bit of help from the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie (we will go to theaters if you vaccinate). Honestly: I don't know how I would have done it without that movie, lol. Now my sister's s…

COVID is an evolutionary filter for the anti-vax movement. If freedom loving Americans want to roll the dice on survival, let 'em.

Even if it worked that way, its a poor filter since the IFR is only 1% and it mostly kills people that are very old anyway. Plus ideologies aren't genetic. And even with genetics the whole "evolutionary filter" concept fails due to reversion to the mean. Plus it is a fundamentally right wing political concept. "Evolutionary filters" are about as scientific as the antivax movement.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#170

Post by lamontcg »

doktorhladnjak wrote: post #75
tdfx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they want to believe that the virus will go away on its own Pandemics have never "ended". Their effects just slide to a level that people stop talking about it.

All pandemics end. That doesn’t mean the disease is eliminated. It means it no longer is spreading uncontrolled around the world.

The 1918 pandemic didn't end until 1957. The virus came back as seasonal influenza until it was eventually displaced by H2N2 (as H1N1 displaced whatever influenza was around pre-1918). That H1 envelope protein came back in the 2009 pandemic and has been with us ever since.
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