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Are some of these events happening a sign of Day After Tomorrow heading our way? It’s seems like we’ve had reports of record temps. All the drought stories. Th

Are some of these events happening a sign of Day After Tomorrow heading our way? It’s seems like we’ve had reports of record temps. All the drought stories. The recent Lake Powell story. Other supply issues. Baby Formula shortages. These are classic headlines where all the signs are there, but are only obvious when looking back in time that these were classic signs humanity should have noticed. My examples aren’t only for extreme weather. More so that we’re not heading in the right direction and we only seem to really notice once it’s too late.

lazide 4y ago
This stuff is always going on somewhere, you’re just primed to notice it more than before.
- harry8 4y ago
  That's a very reasonable thing to consider. Dunno about you but I've been primed to notice it for a couple of decades. I used to rationalize it in a similar way by noting that sending video of extreme weather to show on the news had become increasingly fast, easy & cheap so we hear of more of it. That hasn't changed much for a long time now and there does seem to be a lot more extreme weather about for the past 5 years so. How to quantify it to be sure is another question.
- heywoodlh 4y ago
  Yeah, if we couldn't observe it before effectively it seems like it would be tough to nail it down just to climate change. I would be super interested to see some data that correlates the two, though.
jrockway 4y ago
This is probably not the end of the world. For this particular event, we have the best lightning observability in human history right now. So it's likely that once-rare events become more common now that we are watching. The space-based lightning detector (GLM) launched in 2016 (GOES-16), for example. Before that, we didn't have this kind of real-time lightning information. (Random aside: you can look at the data here: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16&band=EXTENT3&length=12&dim=1 https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16.... My favorite "was that thunder last night" answer.) Climate change and supply change problems caused by the pandemic are both real things. It's likely that humanity can survive drought, record temperatures, large lightning storms, and baby formula shortage. I think it's funny that you specifically mention baby formula; humans can produce milk for their babies and if shit gets really bad, that will probably keep working.
kzrdude 4y ago
"should have noticed" sounds strange when we have already noticed, we're just not acting decisively. I'm thinking of climate change.

lazide 4y ago

This stuff is always going on somewhere, you’re just primed to notice it more than before.

harry8 4y ago
That's a very reasonable thing to consider. Dunno about you but I've been primed to notice it for a couple of decades. I used to rationalize it in a similar way by noting that sending video of extreme weather to show on the news had become increasingly fast, easy & cheap so we hear of more of it. That hasn't changed much for a long time now and there does seem to be a lot more extreme weather about for the past 5 years so. How to quantify it to be sure is another question.
heywoodlh 4y ago
Yeah, if we couldn't observe it before effectively it seems like it would be tough to nail it down just to climate change. I would be super interested to see some data that correlates the two, though.

jrockway 4y ago

This is probably not the end of the world. For this particular event, we have the best lightning observability in human history right now. So it's likely that once-rare events become more common now that we are watching. The space-based lightning detector (GLM) launched in 2016 (GOES-16), for example. Before that, we didn't have this kind of real-time lightning information. (Random aside: you can look at the data here: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16&band=EXTENT3&length=12&dim=1 https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16.... My favorite "was that thunder last night" answer.) Climate change and supply change problems caused by the pandemic are both real things. It's likely that humanity can survive drought, record temperatures, large lightning storms, and baby formula shortage. I think it's funny that you specifically mention baby formula; humans can produce milk for their babies and if shit gets really bad, that will probably keep working.

kzrdude 4y ago

"should have noticed" sounds strange when we have already noticed, we're just not acting decisively. I'm thinking of climate change.