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

Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 296 posts

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#61

Post by spyke112 »

beAbU wrote: post #43
hackerlight wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who live in the humid tropics are already on a knife's edge. A small increase makes the heat intolerable and you will see either mass death or mass waves of immigration. "Just build aircon" doesn't work when you're talking about people with intermittent (or no) electricity and who have an annual income equal to a single aircon unit.

Smol nit: immigration means moving into a country. In your example we'll see a lot of emigration, people moving out of the country. You emigrate from one country and thereafter you immigrate into another. Mnemonic: IN=IMmigrate, EXIT=Emigrate

Even smaller nit: Isn't it basically two sides of the same coin in this context? I'm not sure what the intent was in the previous post, but it could just as well be from the perspective of someone living in a desirable country worried about a lot of immigration of less fortunate people.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#62

Post by lp4vn »

I used to live in a subtropical region when I was a child in the 90s and it's pretty remarkable how hot the winters are today over there. That experience alone taught me that no way the climate change is not real. It's a bit like with the economy, you feel something is pretty wrong, but a lot of people for one reason or another will deny and try to brush it off, then after many years you get to see articles about how tough times have been in the last X years.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#63

Post by seiferteric »

infotainment wrote: post #25
seiferteric wrote: post #13

This is why I think we should be seriously considering atmospheric aerosol injection already. Not sure why there aren't more large government funded studies of this.

I believe this was the plot of the movie Snowpiercer . I would be a bit worried about accidental side effects; atmospheric alteration on a large scale seems like a dangerous game.

> atmospheric alteration on a large scale seems like a dangerous game.

Were already doing that...

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#64

Post by Qem »

nrvn wrote: post #45

People from Middle East and Northern Africa who have been living in harsh conditions for the last several THOUSAND years send regards to all climate change researchers.

They face dry heat, not humid, extreme heat. These are different problems. Dry heat easier to solve.

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#65

Post by huppeldepup »

jijijijij wrote: post #35
cromulent wrote: post #2

A friend of mine who lives in Queensland (Sunshine Coast) was talking about a recent spell of 32° and 100% humidity and how oppressive it was. My understanding is that such weather is not survivable long term [1] without air conditioning. A power failure would be disastrous. [1] https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/humans-cant-endure-t...

The thing to think about, is how poorly developed, rural places, without ACs or stable grids , are much more likely to experience heat waves with universally fatal wet-bulb temperatures. Places like parts of India or Bangladesh with high population densities, too. Further more, I think, we also need to consider how non-survivable conditions to humans, may play out for other animals we depend on. The cows, chicken, sh…

The 2003 heatwave killed 70.000+ in Europe. But nobody seems to remember/know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#66

Post by genman »

nrvn wrote: post #45

People from Middle East and Northern Africa who have been living in harsh conditions for the last several THOUSAND years send regards to all climate change researchers.

You mean the desert people, like the people living in complete opposite conditions to high humidity?

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#67

Post by adonovan »

renegade-otter wrote: post #44
tapland wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that humidity level you can't cool by sweating. We've had days like that in southern Sweden, near the coast with very high humidity. I'm starting to go crazy over us not having ACs, and windows that are really hard to get working well with a portable ac. Retirement homes celebrate getting ice cream machines, but still lack AC and the deaths during summer are significantly higher =/

Europe in general needs to get with the program. The States have AC'd everything - busses, elevators, train stations, etc. Ice coffee in Europe is not a thing! Ask for it and you will be looked at funny. And even the "cold" drinks from the fridge in a store are just below room temperature. I don't get it.

There are historical reasons for it, including the (at least historically) milder climate, and much higher cost of energy. In many older buildings there are also space and architectural constraints.

I expect these objections will fall away in future years as summer heat gets more intense. Those who can afford A/C will install what is often seen as a conspicuous luxury and energy-wasting convenience, and those who can't will envy rather than despise them, as the culture continues its shift towards individualism.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/08/europe-franc...

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#68

Post by jijijijij »

donatj wrote: post #31
cromulent wrote: post #2

A friend of mine who lives in Queensland (Sunshine Coast) was talking about a recent spell of 32° and 100% humidity and how oppressive it was. My understanding is that such weather is not survivable long term [1] without air conditioning. A power failure would be disastrous. [1] https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/humans-cant-endure-t...

I grew up poor and without AC in Minnesota where we regularly get spells of 100°F+ (37.7°C) at VERY high humidity thanks to all the lakes. It’s survivable, it’s absolutely not pleasant though and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Fans and wet rags help some. I used to fill a 2-liter bottle with cold water and hold it against my chest. A lot of sleepless nights. When we got a local second run $2 movie theater, it was a li…

You do not understand the issue at hand. Whatever you experienced was way less severe, because evaporative cooling obviously was still possible. There is a point where you simply cannot cool yourself passively. That's the point where survival is at risk regardless of health.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#69

Post by moi2388 »

renegade-otter wrote: post #44
tapland wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that humidity level you can't cool by sweating. We've had days like that in southern Sweden, near the coast with very high humidity. I'm starting to go crazy over us not having ACs, and windows that are really hard to get working well with a portable ac. Retirement homes celebrate getting ice cream machines, but still lack AC and the deaths during summer are significantly higher =/

Europe in general needs to get with the program. The States have AC'd everything - busses, elevators, train stations, etc. Ice coffee in Europe is not a thing! Ask for it and you will be looked at funny. And even the "cold" drinks from the fridge in a store are just below room temperature. I don't get it.

What are you talking about? Literally every gas station sells chilled iced coffee.

Just like all coffee shops and most supermarkets.

And under EU law fresh food fridges must target 4C and not exceed 8C, only food pantries are allowed go to 18 degrees.

I agree with the ACs, but then again in houses it usually wasn’t necessary until now. Most public spaces do have AC, and public transportation with AC are also quite common, at least in the developed parts of the EU

Re: Humanity Is Dangerously Pushing Its Ability to Tolerate Heat

#70

Post by masklinn »

hackerlight wrote: post #53
codebolt wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the hysteria was overblown, and we instead sabotaged an opportunity for many of the people living near the equator to become more prosperous.

Easy gamble to make when you don't live in a country with regular 33'c temperatures at 60% humidity. And if your gamble turns out wrong will you compensate the victims? Will you advocate for borders to be opened up as they have to flee their countries?

> Easy gamble to make when you don't live in a country with regular 33'c temperatures at 60% humidity.

I’d call it short-sighted rather than easy, over the last pair of decades it’s become rather clear that temperate countries are suffering from worsening heatwaves (longer and with higher temperatures).

Post reply on HN