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Why North America's killer heat scares me

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 193 posts

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#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

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#3
So one question I've had for a while is if we are currently facing such a catastrophe with increased global heat why don't we go ahead and start conducting massive explosions to kick dust up into the air. When Krakatoa went off it caused global cooling throughout the entire world because of the amount of matter it introduced into the air so why don't we do the same right now at least as a stopgap measure if things are looking so dire?

I'm not trying to be argumentative I just don't understand why this is a bad idea?

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#4

"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

Solar works very well and is cheaper than coal. I have it on my roof right now, producing megawatt hours of energy per year. Millions of cars on the road today run on it. Don't be hysterical with statements like, "living without electricity".

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#5

"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

> seems a bit too convenient

What does this mean?

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#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 some additional damage is seen and felt by policy makers. Until then, I’ll use my resources wisely and encourage others to do the same.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#7
post #3

So one question I've had for a while is if we are currently facing such a catastrophe with increased global heat why don't we go ahead and start conducting massive explosions to kick dust up into the air. When Krakatoa went off it caused global cooling throughout the entire world because of the amount of matter it introduced into the air so why don't we do the same right now at least as a stopgap measure if things ar…

Significantly reducing the sunlight that reaches the surface also has the tiny issue of killing all the plants. Most grasses will survive, but crops?

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#8
post #3

So one question I've had for a while is if we are currently facing such a catastrophe with increased global heat why don't we go ahead and start conducting massive explosions to kick dust up into the air. When Krakatoa went off it caused global cooling throughout the entire world because of the amount of matter it introduced into the air so why don't we do the same right now at least as a stopgap measure if things ar…

I would think that would make the air dangerous to breath, among a host of other downsides.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#9
post #3

So one question I've had for a while is if we are currently facing such a catastrophe with increased global heat why don't we go ahead and start conducting massive explosions to kick dust up into the air. When Krakatoa went off it caused global cooling throughout the entire world because of the amount of matter it introduced into the air so why don't we do the same right now at least as a stopgap measure if things ar…

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.

Re: Why North America's killer heat scares me

#10

"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

There is no need to compare. The issue is that there is no safe anything.
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