4 ms·
Extreme heat in the West could break 200 records and produce temps up to 127 deg
- caterama 5y agoThe situation is absolutely chilling and should give you goosebumps of fear. Watching the thermometer rise toward 100F today, I randomly thought about how terrifying it is to be an atheist. There is no entity watching out for us. No divine entity who will tip the scales in our favor and make sure things turn out okay. It's literally just us, out here on our own. Some days I'm not sure we can do it... and other days the nihilist in me doesn't care.
- cratermoon 5y agoYikes. Salt Lake City hit 107F (42C) today, setting a new record.
- hedora 5y agoIf you have a chance to visit a scenic overlook in Silicon Valley, you’ll see a large number of brown/red redwoods. In the last few years the Pacific coast of CA lost the underwater kelp forests, which were the same biomass as the redwood forests. I wonder what percentage of redwoods will survive this decade. :-(
- masonic 5y agoThose aren't redwoods. They are mostly native oak species. Kelp forest depletion was largely a result of sea otters being hunted to near extinction, resulting in urchin barrens (otters keep urchin populations in check).
- mint2 5y agoIn combination with the Sea star pandemic that essentially wiped out the other urchin predator.
- runamok 5y agoEven better go for a (challenging) bike ride or drive up Kings Mountain and down Tunitas Creek. It's one of my favorites due to the redwoods. Big Basin Park is also one of may favorites but most of it burned last summer.
- vegetablepotpie 5y agoThis follows a long term trend. The last 5 years have been the warmest in the past 170 years of measured temperature [1]. Like it or not, the earth is hotter and will continue to get hotter. This will have consequences for civilization in the form of declining agricultural output and mass migrations of people. There are somethings we can choose to do to minimize these consequences, such as eliminating carbon emissions and geoengineering (blocking sunlight with sunlight reflecting pollutants and sequestering carbon) and there are things we will have to do to adapt, such as reducing meat consumption, building sea walls, and changing how we grow food. Regardless, we’re looking at an expensive future. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51111176 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51111176
- secnono 5y agoIt's not about eliminating carbon emissions, or geoengineering, or reducing meat consumption or changing how we grow food. The underlying problem is over population. We have about 7 Billion people too many, if the earth had only 1 Billion we wouldn't have human induced global warming.
- vegetablepotpie 5y agoWe have 7 billion people now that all need food and shelter. I absolutely oppose any action to bring that number down. If we do nothing about global heating, that number may drop to 1 billion regardless through tremendous suffering.
- officialjunk 5y agoi would argue that would be a signal the population was too high. nature has a way to force a balance. it would be horrible, the amount of suffering, i totally agree, though. ultimately, there are a lot of other variables involved too, but the sheer scale of our impact on this earth is directly correlated with population. yes, there may be other ways to tackle the problem and i hope we find at least one of them.
- hedora 5y ago
- seventytwo 5y agoIt’s almost like people have been saying this would happen for, what, like 50 years now?
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoI wonder if we’ll oscillate between extreme heat killing populations off and reduced emissions from mass death allowing populations to grow again until the retained greenhouse gasses we generate put us on a Mars-like runaway temperate scenario.
- masonic 5y agoMars-like runaway temperate scenario Mars got cooler over time. Perhaps you meant Venus?
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoYes, thank you.