7 ms·

Can someone help me understand how we aren’t totally screwed? We’re on track to pass the limits set by the Paris agreement so why shouldn’t we expect to see re

Can someone help me understand how we aren’t totally screwed? We’re on track to pass the limits set by the Paris agreement so why shouldn’t we expect to see record temps near 150-175F by the end of the century?

pmichaud 5y ago
Climate is a complex system of feedback loops, you shouldn't expect to see arbitrary, linear increases in temperature.
asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Why would a rise of 2-4F on average increase record temps by 30-65F? I don't understand the leap you're making there. Edit: to all repliers: I understand that the distribution is widening, but 150F is a far more extreme widening than I have seen contemplated by any experts. That is what I am reacting to. I do not dispute that heat waves will get somewhat worse.
- thedmstdmstdmst 5y ago
  Climate is a complex system, and averages are just averages. Feedback loops and all that.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    Ok, that still doesn't answer the question of why a small average rise in temperature would lead someone to expect a large rise in peak temperature. Is it possible to make the statistics work? Yes. Is it likely to happen this way? Not as far as I can tell.
    - dleslie 5y ago
      We expect a larger variance in regional temperatures and a higher global average.
    - coldpie 5y ago
      Have you read much about climate science? The IPCC Summary for Policymakers report is a really great introduction to what's happening: https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/ https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/ Relatively easy and quick read, with references back to the full report if you'd like to go deeper on some topic.
      - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
        I've read a bit about it. I'm aware that there will be more heat waves, but I have seen no expert claim anything remotely like 150F. There are concerns that some parts of the world will begin to exceed a wet bulb temperature of 98 degrees more regularly, which would be very bad, but still a far cry from actual oven temperature heatwaves.
        coldpie 5y ago
        As shown in this article, we're seeing heatwaves in the 120F range now, with "only" 1C increase in warming. While I can't find any specific estimates in the IPCC reports (section 2.2 in the full report seems the most relevant section), the report frequently mentions more extreme heatwaves. It doesn't seem radical to me as an uneducated observer to extrapolate that out to 150F with another 2-3C increase, especially in the context of a casual conversation like we're having here.
        thehappypm 5y ago
        Heatwaves up to 120F aren't exactly unheard of -- they're just unheard of in northwestern North America.
        ehnto 5y ago
        It's worth remembering it's also an unfolding situation, and what I mean to say by that is if you think a 65c peak is unlikely then unfortunately there's no-one you can ask that can give you a totally verified answer. Even still only 5c above current peaks in some places puts us at 55c which is pretty bloody spicy. At that temperature you need to be actively protecting yourself, even a healthy adult might not survive a wave without some kind of proactive protection. Given that I live in a very hot climate, which already hits 45-50c each year, I'm sitting in the "Better safe than sorry" camp and I am thinking about precautions I can take to make sure me and my family stay healthy long term. One of the longer term thoughts is making sure it's possible to move if it looks like the climate will become particularly challenging.
    - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
      How much has the temperature increased so far? Lytton broke the previous record by 4.6 degrees Celsius(!). Clearly the world hasn't increased by 4.6 Degrees so the peaks are much larger than the average increase. As more energy enters the system is gets more turbulent, leading to wild swings up and down with greater extremes at both ends. Normally stable systems are becoming wildly disrupted. "The North Atlantic Jet Stream fluctuates between the Balkans to the south and Scotland to the north. Some 300 years of tree ring samples taken in both places show that the jet stream has become far more variable in the last six decades and more extreme in its positions, which results in more severe climate events and a more rapid shifting between extremes on yearly, monthly, and weekly timescales."[1] [1] https://www.wired.com/story/wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-are-rising/ https://www.wired.com/story/wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-a...
      - swader999 5y ago
        This is just weather. Zoom out to chunks of thirty years to say anything about climate. It's akin to saying warming is overblown because there was a big deep freeze this winter. We saw -38C which was a record low since my thirty years in Alberta.
        SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
        This is an expected effect of climate change. It's not evidence of climate change, and I wasn't claiming it as such, but it is a possible result of climate change.
- enqk 5y ago
  One way to think about it is that the global average temperature is the average of winter and summer times in the whole earth. So an increase of a few degrees is not what you will experience, which is the local weather.
- bregma 5y ago
  The rise of 2 C is the difference between a global annual mean of local daily median temperatures over a 30-year period and an adjusted global annual mean of local daily median temperatures over a 30-year period at the end of last century. It says nothing about variance and does not include precision or accuracy. It could very well be that everywhere will be 20 or 30 C above the 20th century climatology and the average will still be only 2 C if you truly believe and have faith in the message.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Ever wiggle a tiny bit back and forth in a bathtub to make giant waves as a kid?
  - diggernet 5y ago
    As a kid? Was I supposed to stop when I grew up?
- ohgodplsno 5y ago
  If you take one bath a week with water at 10°C, but on the last week you take a 90°C bath, your average over the year is only 1.5°C rise, but you're still dead. Average is just that. We have a lot of water that is much harder to drastically change the temperatures over, but the land can have wild swings. 2°C of average change is about 10°C swings in temperate climates.
- kerng 5y ago
  Its complex, for instance one scenario for Europe in the long time is actually a drastic cool down, incl. Something like a possible ice age due to global warming. The gulf stream (of Mexico) is what keeps parts of Europe warm. With melting ice, oceans are diluted which will cause the flow of gulf stream to slow down and not be able to reach Europe which will have "interesting" effects.
- kergonath 5y ago
  Climate changes shifts the average by a couple of degrees C (in the short term; more than a couple in the longer term). It also destabilises the weather patterns, which results in more extreme events. Basically, it both shifts and widen the distribution of temperatures.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  The systems that determine local temps and weather are greatly dependent on small changes over very very massive areas so if you mess those up with small changes local climates will change drastically.
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  Average vs standard deviation, basically. Honestly that's what we should be emphasizing to climate doubters more than anything else. The average temperature going up here in Canada may not sound terrifying to people. But if the 95th or 99th percentile is 10-15C higher than they are used to or than the local ecology or population can handle... maybe they'll finally listen? But I'm not optimistic.
alexgmcm 5y ago
Yeah, even if these are still freak events on the edge of the bell curve - they only need to happen once to kill huge numbers of people. And we are shifting and broadening that bell curve.
- monkeybutton 5y ago
  That increase in variance and the instability that comes with it is going to be super fun. We've already been having record cold winters due to the "polar vortex" (caused by weakening of the northern jet stream), now we get a "heat dome" on the other end of the extreme. One of the most annoying and ignorant dismissals of climate change you can hear from denialists in Canada is "oh it won't be so bad for us, we could really use the warmer weather up here in Canada lol". Maybe these events will get them to understand that no, it won't be beneficial for us at all, but I've already seen comments elsewhere on the internet that are questioning the accuracy of the reports. Stating things like that weather station has been having "problems" in the past. It sounded so much like the covid and election conspiracies I wanted to scream. If people can't or won't trust in scientists or the institutions that are the foundation for our countries, how will we make any progress addressing climate change?
  - jfim 5y ago
    > One of the most annoying and ignorant dismissals of climate change you can hear from denialists in Canada is "oh it won't be so bad for us, we could really use the warmer weather up here in Canada lol". You can always ask them if they're also looking forward to dozens of millions of climate migrants from South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa, once those places become warmer. Emphasize that those migrants would move into their province or town.
    - Vecr 5y ago
      Canada is a sovereign nation, it has no obligation to accept any of those migrants. Under current agreements it would accept asylum seekers from the US, but it could easily withdraw. You could have winged UAVs with small arms paroling constantly at very low time increments at any possible land entrance point, and dropping demolition satchels from helicopters is a very easy method to handle attempted landings. Or you could use the UAVs again if that gets too costly in resources. The current government would probably not try this, but a lot can change over the coming decades. I don't find this position very novel, as MAD, The Samson Option, and the Korean DMZ were considered and at least implemented in a posturing way, even if the first two are quite overblown.
pluc 5y ago
We are. Grab a chair.
qayxc 5y ago
This is still "just" a weather phenomenon, not a change in the local climate. Events like this happen every so often and it's really hard to get some actual statistics on this, because reliable measurements only started about 150 years ago. This means that extreme weather with occurrence rates of say once every 500 years and below are incredibly hard to classify and evaluate for statistical relevance. Whether this is just a fluke or a recurring pattern with increasing frequency cannot be ascertained from a singular event like this. > so why shouldn’t we expect to see record temps near 150-175F by the end of the century? There are certain limits and differences in where and how temperature is measured (air vs ground, shade vs unshaded, etc.) so it could be argued that such temperatures have already been recorded in the past (see [0]). Such isolated phenomena, while being great at scaring the crap out of people, aren't the most dangerous or impactful consequences of climate change and ruthless exploitation of natural resources, though. The loss of drinking water and arable soil is far more critical than a few days of unbearable heat... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_temperature_recorded_o...
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  One of the things I noticed with global warming (still prefer this term) is that local extremes that are supposed to be super rare are not so rare anymore. Back home, a freak storm + strong wind damaged large parts of the forest around highest mountains around. Pine trees literally broken some 5-10 meters above ground in a wide area. It was supposed to be once-in-a-century event. Few years after that another one came. And then another. I think of global warming more like general equilibrium being broken by heating things up. Overall higher temperature with local changes in every direction (even cooling), and more frequent extremes.
  - wait_a_minute 5y ago
    Is there hard data on it though? I want to see what the hard data shows and how we know what will happen in the future. With what level of confidence, too. I’m not denying the problem, I want to know if we should all start planning to live in a war-torn hellscape or if that’s just corrosive negativity from doomsayers. For example you can see other people in the comments saying we’re all screwed, to pull up a chair and watch, etc.
xwdv 5y ago
It’s starting to look like the end mate. The only people who will be left are the ones who can survive.
1970-01-01 5y ago
You need to better define "we" and "screwed" People without access to clean water and cool shelter (air conditioning) have and will continue to die. People with access to it will survive for awhile, until their access is denied or breaks from the intense stress of novel weather. Other life on the Earth will adapt, just as it adapted when the dinosaurs went away 60+ million years ago.
psychometry 5y ago
It's not just the temperatures to be worried about. Our species has distributed itself around the globe and built infrastructure dependent on the climate effecting certain predictable weather patterns. Those patterns have ostensibly been breaking down, and this is just one the results.
Aperocky 5y ago
The hard cap on temperature is placed by solar irradiation and Earth thermal radiation. To make a place hotter, a location solar irradiation for the day need to exceed the combined thermal radiation for both day and night. CO2 helps capture some of that thermal radiation but even at 500ppm it's not doing that much. And all of this is not considering the movement of air and the effect of ocean which tends to act as a huge circulating heat sink. The hottest place achieve those temperature by: not being next to water/plants, having no air movement, and sun directly above. The only param that changed with time is small amount of CO2 concentration, the effect on the maximum temperature on Earth should be minimal. It's the wild swings in random location, change in weather pattern that will be more trouble. That and the rising sea level.
- baix777 5y ago
  It is more complex, and worse than that due to heat domes. Air, when it descends, heats up. And a high pressure heat dome results in air descending, so the amount of heat is higher than the amount of solar heat input - earth heat output.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
DrFell 5y ago
Because we're living now. It's our descendants who are screwed. Just don't have kids.
boringg 5y ago
We've been screwed since 1997 and the lack of political will power to do anything effectively. I've worked in climate tech since 2005 and it has been an emotional slog. Most of the people who work in the space end up burnt out and move into other industries. I think the best we can hope for at this point is try to dent the upcoming damage. We could ostensibly reverse some of the worst impacts but there just isn't any political will power to really do what is necessary.
pjerem 5y ago
I sometimes have a dream where I check my weather app to see that 80°C (175F) is expected for the week to come and that everyone around me is living their lives like everything is ok. Yeah I'm a little anxious.
jansan 5y ago
If you look at the hottest temperatures in Canada, you will see that many records are from the first half of the 20th century. What would people have thought at that time about their future? Maybe there was a guy who asked how we are not all totally screwed? Almost one hundred years later, we are still here, enjoying life whenever governments don't lock us up. Outside my window it is pissing all day and it's let than 20°C at the end of June, so maybe we are not as screwed as you are thinking. Here is a list with extreme temparatures from Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_i...
digislave 5y ago
Local records are normal. There is variation in weather, and there are many "local" spots on earth. There are also coldness records every year, but there is less reporting on it.
- koops 5y ago
  There are many more record highs recorded since the 1980's than record lows. That's climate change.
  - digislave 5y ago
    Climate always changes, the question then is, is it extraordinary change because of CO2. I don't think merely counting record events is a good way to determine that 40 years is also not a very long time span.. Also it seems likely that more measurements are being taken (at more locations). And cities are expanding, changing local weather.

pmichaud 5y ago

Climate is a complex system of feedback loops, you shouldn't expect to see arbitrary, linear increases in temperature.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago

Why would a rise of 2-4F on average increase record temps by 30-65F? I don't understand the leap you're making there. Edit: to all repliers: I understand that the distribution is widening, but 150F is a far more extreme widening than I have seen contemplated by any experts. That is what I am reacting to. I do not dispute that heat waves will get somewhat worse.

thedmstdmstdmst 5y ago
Climate is a complex system, and averages are just averages. Feedback loops and all that.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Ok, that still doesn't answer the question of why a small average rise in temperature would lead someone to expect a large rise in peak temperature. Is it possible to make the statistics work? Yes. Is it likely to happen this way? Not as far as I can tell.
  - dleslie 5y ago
    We expect a larger variance in regional temperatures and a higher global average.
  - coldpie 5y ago
    Have you read much about climate science? The IPCC Summary for Policymakers report is a really great introduction to what's happening: https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/ https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/ Relatively easy and quick read, with references back to the full report if you'd like to go deeper on some topic.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
      I've read a bit about it. I'm aware that there will be more heat waves, but I have seen no expert claim anything remotely like 150F. There are concerns that some parts of the world will begin to exceed a wet bulb temperature of 98 degrees more regularly, which would be very bad, but still a far cry from actual oven temperature heatwaves.
      - coldpie 5y ago
        As shown in this article, we're seeing heatwaves in the 120F range now, with "only" 1C increase in warming. While I can't find any specific estimates in the IPCC reports (section 2.2 in the full report seems the most relevant section), the report frequently mentions more extreme heatwaves. It doesn't seem radical to me as an uneducated observer to extrapolate that out to 150F with another 2-3C increase, especially in the context of a casual conversation like we're having here.
        thehappypm 5y ago
        Heatwaves up to 120F aren't exactly unheard of -- they're just unheard of in northwestern North America.
      - ehnto 5y ago
        It's worth remembering it's also an unfolding situation, and what I mean to say by that is if you think a 65c peak is unlikely then unfortunately there's no-one you can ask that can give you a totally verified answer. Even still only 5c above current peaks in some places puts us at 55c which is pretty bloody spicy. At that temperature you need to be actively protecting yourself, even a healthy adult might not survive a wave without some kind of proactive protection. Given that I live in a very hot climate, which already hits 45-50c each year, I'm sitting in the "Better safe than sorry" camp and I am thinking about precautions I can take to make sure me and my family stay healthy long term. One of the longer term thoughts is making sure it's possible to move if it looks like the climate will become particularly challenging.
  - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
    How much has the temperature increased so far? Lytton broke the previous record by 4.6 degrees Celsius(!). Clearly the world hasn't increased by 4.6 Degrees so the peaks are much larger than the average increase. As more energy enters the system is gets more turbulent, leading to wild swings up and down with greater extremes at both ends. Normally stable systems are becoming wildly disrupted. "The North Atlantic Jet Stream fluctuates between the Balkans to the south and Scotland to the north. Some 300 years of tree ring samples taken in both places show that the jet stream has become far more variable in the last six decades and more extreme in its positions, which results in more severe climate events and a more rapid shifting between extremes on yearly, monthly, and weekly timescales."[1] [1] https://www.wired.com/story/wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-are-rising/ https://www.wired.com/story/wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-a...
    - swader999 5y ago
      This is just weather. Zoom out to chunks of thirty years to say anything about climate. It's akin to saying warming is overblown because there was a big deep freeze this winter. We saw -38C which was a record low since my thirty years in Alberta.
      - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
        This is an expected effect of climate change. It's not evidence of climate change, and I wasn't claiming it as such, but it is a possible result of climate change.
enqk 5y ago
One way to think about it is that the global average temperature is the average of winter and summer times in the whole earth. So an increase of a few degrees is not what you will experience, which is the local weather.
bregma 5y ago
The rise of 2 C is the difference between a global annual mean of local daily median temperatures over a 30-year period and an adjusted global annual mean of local daily median temperatures over a 30-year period at the end of last century. It says nothing about variance and does not include precision or accuracy. It could very well be that everywhere will be 20 or 30 C above the 20th century climatology and the average will still be only 2 C if you truly believe and have faith in the message.
ceejayoz 5y ago
Ever wiggle a tiny bit back and forth in a bathtub to make giant waves as a kid?
- diggernet 5y ago
  As a kid? Was I supposed to stop when I grew up?
ohgodplsno 5y ago
If you take one bath a week with water at 10°C, but on the last week you take a 90°C bath, your average over the year is only 1.5°C rise, but you're still dead. Average is just that. We have a lot of water that is much harder to drastically change the temperatures over, but the land can have wild swings. 2°C of average change is about 10°C swings in temperate climates.
kerng 5y ago
Its complex, for instance one scenario for Europe in the long time is actually a drastic cool down, incl. Something like a possible ice age due to global warming. The gulf stream (of Mexico) is what keeps parts of Europe warm. With melting ice, oceans are diluted which will cause the flow of gulf stream to slow down and not be able to reach Europe which will have "interesting" effects.
kergonath 5y ago
Climate changes shifts the average by a couple of degrees C (in the short term; more than a couple in the longer term). It also destabilises the weather patterns, which results in more extreme events. Basically, it both shifts and widen the distribution of temperatures.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
The systems that determine local temps and weather are greatly dependent on small changes over very very massive areas so if you mess those up with small changes local climates will change drastically.
cmrdporcupine 5y ago
Average vs standard deviation, basically. Honestly that's what we should be emphasizing to climate doubters more than anything else. The average temperature going up here in Canada may not sound terrifying to people. But if the 95th or 99th percentile is 10-15C higher than they are used to or than the local ecology or population can handle... maybe they'll finally listen? But I'm not optimistic.

alexgmcm 5y ago

Yeah, even if these are still freak events on the edge of the bell curve - they only need to happen once to kill huge numbers of people. And we are shifting and broadening that bell curve.

monkeybutton 5y ago
That increase in variance and the instability that comes with it is going to be super fun. We've already been having record cold winters due to the "polar vortex" (caused by weakening of the northern jet stream), now we get a "heat dome" on the other end of the extreme. One of the most annoying and ignorant dismissals of climate change you can hear from denialists in Canada is "oh it won't be so bad for us, we could really use the warmer weather up here in Canada lol". Maybe these events will get them to understand that no, it won't be beneficial for us at all, but I've already seen comments elsewhere on the internet that are questioning the accuracy of the reports. Stating things like that weather station has been having "problems" in the past. It sounded so much like the covid and election conspiracies I wanted to scream. If people can't or won't trust in scientists or the institutions that are the foundation for our countries, how will we make any progress addressing climate change?
- jfim 5y ago
  > One of the most annoying and ignorant dismissals of climate change you can hear from denialists in Canada is "oh it won't be so bad for us, we could really use the warmer weather up here in Canada lol". You can always ask them if they're also looking forward to dozens of millions of climate migrants from South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa, once those places become warmer. Emphasize that those migrants would move into their province or town.
  - Vecr 5y ago
    Canada is a sovereign nation, it has no obligation to accept any of those migrants. Under current agreements it would accept asylum seekers from the US, but it could easily withdraw. You could have winged UAVs with small arms paroling constantly at very low time increments at any possible land entrance point, and dropping demolition satchels from helicopters is a very easy method to handle attempted landings. Or you could use the UAVs again if that gets too costly in resources. The current government would probably not try this, but a lot can change over the coming decades. I don't find this position very novel, as MAD, The Samson Option, and the Korean DMZ were considered and at least implemented in a posturing way, even if the first two are quite overblown.

pluc 5y ago

We are. Grab a chair.

qayxc 5y ago

This is still "just" a weather phenomenon, not a change in the local climate. Events like this happen every so often and it's really hard to get some actual statistics on this, because reliable measurements only started about 150 years ago. This means that extreme weather with occurrence rates of say once every 500 years and below are incredibly hard to classify and evaluate for statistical relevance. Whether this is just a fluke or a recurring pattern with increasing frequency cannot be ascertained from a singular event like this. > so why shouldn’t we expect to see record temps near 150-175F by the end of the century? There are certain limits and differences in where and how temperature is measured (air vs ground, shade vs unshaded, etc.) so it could be argued that such temperatures have already been recorded in the past (see [0]). Such isolated phenomena, while being great at scaring the crap out of people, aren't the most dangerous or impactful consequences of climate change and ruthless exploitation of natural resources, though. The loss of drinking water and arable soil is far more critical than a few days of unbearable heat... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_temperature_recorded_o...

saiya-jin 5y ago
One of the things I noticed with global warming (still prefer this term) is that local extremes that are supposed to be super rare are not so rare anymore. Back home, a freak storm + strong wind damaged large parts of the forest around highest mountains around. Pine trees literally broken some 5-10 meters above ground in a wide area. It was supposed to be once-in-a-century event. Few years after that another one came. And then another. I think of global warming more like general equilibrium being broken by heating things up. Overall higher temperature with local changes in every direction (even cooling), and more frequent extremes.
- wait_a_minute 5y ago
  Is there hard data on it though? I want to see what the hard data shows and how we know what will happen in the future. With what level of confidence, too. I’m not denying the problem, I want to know if we should all start planning to live in a war-torn hellscape or if that’s just corrosive negativity from doomsayers. For example you can see other people in the comments saying we’re all screwed, to pull up a chair and watch, etc.

xwdv 5y ago

It’s starting to look like the end mate. The only people who will be left are the ones who can survive.

1970-01-01 5y ago

You need to better define "we" and "screwed" People without access to clean water and cool shelter (air conditioning) have and will continue to die. People with access to it will survive for awhile, until their access is denied or breaks from the intense stress of novel weather. Other life on the Earth will adapt, just as it adapted when the dinosaurs went away 60+ million years ago.

psychometry 5y ago

It's not just the temperatures to be worried about. Our species has distributed itself around the globe and built infrastructure dependent on the climate effecting certain predictable weather patterns. Those patterns have ostensibly been breaking down, and this is just one the results.

Aperocky 5y ago

The hard cap on temperature is placed by solar irradiation and Earth thermal radiation. To make a place hotter, a location solar irradiation for the day need to exceed the combined thermal radiation for both day and night. CO2 helps capture some of that thermal radiation but even at 500ppm it's not doing that much. And all of this is not considering the movement of air and the effect of ocean which tends to act as a huge circulating heat sink. The hottest place achieve those temperature by: not being next to water/plants, having no air movement, and sun directly above. The only param that changed with time is small amount of CO2 concentration, the effect on the maximum temperature on Earth should be minimal. It's the wild swings in random location, change in weather pattern that will be more trouble. That and the rising sea level.

baix777 5y ago
It is more complex, and worse than that due to heat domes. Air, when it descends, heats up. And a high pressure heat dome results in air descending, so the amount of heat is higher than the amount of solar heat input - earth heat output.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

DrFell 5y ago

Because we're living now. It's our descendants who are screwed. Just don't have kids.

boringg 5y ago

We've been screwed since 1997 and the lack of political will power to do anything effectively. I've worked in climate tech since 2005 and it has been an emotional slog. Most of the people who work in the space end up burnt out and move into other industries. I think the best we can hope for at this point is try to dent the upcoming damage. We could ostensibly reverse some of the worst impacts but there just isn't any political will power to really do what is necessary.

pjerem 5y ago

I sometimes have a dream where I check my weather app to see that 80°C (175F) is expected for the week to come and that everyone around me is living their lives like everything is ok. Yeah I'm a little anxious.

jansan 5y ago

If you look at the hottest temperatures in Canada, you will see that many records are from the first half of the 20th century. What would people have thought at that time about their future? Maybe there was a guy who asked how we are not all totally screwed? Almost one hundred years later, we are still here, enjoying life whenever governments don't lock us up. Outside my window it is pissing all day and it's let than 20°C at the end of June, so maybe we are not as screwed as you are thinking. Here is a list with extreme temparatures from Canada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_i...

digislave 5y ago

Local records are normal. There is variation in weather, and there are many "local" spots on earth. There are also coldness records every year, but there is less reporting on it.

koops 5y ago
There are many more record highs recorded since the 1980's than record lows. That's climate change.
- digislave 5y ago
  Climate always changes, the question then is, is it extraordinary change because of CO2. I don't think merely counting record events is a good way to determine that 40 years is also not a very long time span.. Also it seems likely that more measurements are being taken (at more locations). And cities are expanding, changing local weather.