5 ms·
Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50M years
- radford-neal 6y agoAn quote from the article: This event, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, saw temperatures up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) above modern levels I think one cannot assume that anything in this article is correct.
- fallingfrog 6y agoThe original paper presumably does not have such errors; these most likely come from the journalist trying to be helpful and translate celsius into fahrenheit. An increase of 16 degrees C is of course 28.8 degrees fahrenheit.
- rosstex 6y agoI'm confused, why is this the case?
- netsharc 6y agoBecause they don't have the same zero point. 16 deg Celsius on the thermometer is 60.8 deg Fahrenheit, but if you're measuring difference, you have to do 16 - 0 C = 60.8 - 32 F = 28.8 F. Or to make it clear, 16 going to 32 C is 60.8 F going to 89.6 F, also a difference of 28.8 F. Or just do 16/5*9 without adding 32, so you'd get 28.8 F.
- rosstex 6y agoAh, silly me. Thanks!
- throw_away 6y agoDifferences in temperatures should be referred to as "$UNIT degrees", while specific temperatures are referred to as "degrees $UNIT".
- netsharc 6y agoGeez, on a website which URL has the word "science" in it, by a senior writer. Quite pathetic.
- fallingfrog 6y agoIt’s kind of dismaying, it’s no wonder that the public is confused about climate change when even educated people make silly math errors- imagine how much less educated the average person is than that? Education in the sciences is what I would normally recommend but it’s a bit late in the game for that with regard to climate policy.
- netsharc 6y agoI wonder if the conversions have been done by an automated script... FWIW, it's been corrected now.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ocbyc 6y agoThe sky is falling soon...promise.
- gnat 6y agohttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hpmmf https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hpmmf is an interesting and accurate discussion of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.