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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

#31

Post by dragontamer »

nradov wrote: post #30
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…

Even in a worst case scenario with no vaccination, COVID-19 would kill less than 1% of the world population. So it's a serious public health problem but not an existential risk to human civilization. I certainly encourage everyone to get vaccinated if they can so as to get us to herd immunity faster, but as a practical matter the disease isn't much of an eminent danger to most people who are otherwise in good health.…

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Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#32

Post by jjcon »

A few years ago we would make fun of people who questioned global warming when it snowed… now we claim it is in fact global warming when it’s hot out?

Edit: Politicization of individual weather events makes way for bad science no matter how extreme. In general, individual extreme weather events are not evidence of climate change and it is my opinion that everyone sounds stupid when they politicize them. Instead we should be looking at the aggregate historical trends and their weather modeling but that certainly isn’t as sexy.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#34

Post by starlust2 »

savant_penguin wrote: post #2

"What if the 'safe' carbon budget is zero. We can't sugar-coat the potential realities of this." Compared to what? Living without electricity? Paying 10x for energy? The lack of a real comparison with the real life consequences of a zero carbon budget seems a bit too convenient

Compared to the expense of failed crops? Mass migration of all humans to the northern most reaches of Canada?

I really don't think you get it. If temperatures rise enough, most of Central and North America won't be uninhabitable. The parts that aren't underwater will be too hot and parched. We won't be able to grow crops or desalinate enough water when the clouds and rain disappear (yes that will happen).

The 3 days of intense heat here in Portland left plants all around my yard scorched and half dead. Just 3 days. Imagine that happening regularly around the world.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#35

Post by AcerbicZero »

zbrozek wrote: post #20
powderpig wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think all geo-engineering is a bad idea. The least worse idea is sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere. The consequences of any geo-engineering ideas are not well understood.

I could imagine something a bit better controlled could be ok. Large areas of solar panels, engineered to reflect as much as they can't use, would be a good double benefit. Excess electricity could be opportunistically used for GHG capture or the panels could maybe flip over and become mirrors. An orbital umbrella that we could modulate such that we can deal with unanticipated consequences could also be ok. I'm sure…

I agree that geoengineering is exceptionally fraught with potential problems, but perhaps it is time to begin exploring the options at least.

from my own understanding and reading one of the few feasible cooling efforts would be high altitude aerosol dispersal, which again, has serious risk of unintended consequences.

There is also room for a bit more pressure on countries which emit excessive amounts of carbon, that show no signs of slowing down.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#36

Post by bioinformatics »

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…

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

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#37

Post by gruez »

JohnWhigham wrote: post #27
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For all the recycling I’ve done, a single factory can undo in just a day. Tangential, but recycling is much less effective the reduced consumption. I think the problem with policy makers not moving on this front is a reflection of people not doing so. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to make people even believe in something that would require them to sacrifice their lifestyle, let alone actually commit to doing…

I think most consumer-facing plastics need to go. They're one of the major catalysts, if not the catalyst for our hyperconsumerist habits. Go back to glass bottles for things. Give subsidies to companies that use glass for inventory loss and such. Bring back the milkman who refills your empty jugs.

>Go back to glass bottles for things. Give subsidies to companies that use glass for inventory loss and such. Bring back the milkman who refills your empty jugs.

Shouldn't we tax the externalities of plastic and let the market decide whether it's worth it? In your example of using glass bottles: sure it gets rid of plastic, but what about the costs of glass? eg. increased weight or energy/water needed to clean them. As for bringing back the milkman, how is driving a truck door to door delivering exclusively milk more efficient than picking it up on your way to the grocery store?

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#38

Post by prox »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #23
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 sympathize with and share your exhaustion, but I force myself to pay attention to these stories. They remind me why Climate Change is always my #1 priority when voting in elections, and when thinking about the world writ large. There was an editorial in The Atlantic a couple of years ago—which I now can’t seem to find—titled something like “We should be covering climate change like it’s the only story that matters”…

Making money comes first in this world, and only then comes the realization if our kids or grandkids still have a habitable world.

Guess up until now it’s an abstraction people couldn’t imagine. Despite years of warning.

Recently been thinking we should reform old style political parties. Instead we get to directly vote for ideological topics which we can vote on, and politicians/parties who adhere to them. So instead of parties we vote for ideas directly. Just an idea that needs a lot more work :)

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#39

Post by tdfx »

dragontamer wrote: post #18
liotier wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You feel powerless to do anything about climate change ? You feel your individual actions such as recycling are meaningless in the face of the incoming tsunami ? That is because they are. If you want meaningful, get into political action ! "For consumers in the industrialized world to signal virtue with their individual actions is irrelevant at best. Countries like Sweden that have had success in decarbonizing, didn’…

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…

> 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.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#40

Post by kylehotchkiss »

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…

For me, it's knowing that extensive lifestyle changes and even major policy changes in the western world will hardly make a dent as nations with less means continue to grow and increase their carbon footprint. (Yes, I understand per-person consumption in Western countries is much higher) I can't blame the people in those countries for not being able to think or plan long term while trying to make it day by day. Humanity has made tremendous strides as far as reducing extreme poverty between WWII and up until Covid hit. Maybe trying to look at the worlds issues more holistically and not with a laser focus on climate change could lead to building more countries that have the means to make the big changes the rest of the world needs to make.
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