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Extremely hot day? World is going to end. Extremely cold day? One day is not a pattern. This is why fewer and fewer people actually believe in global warmin

Extremely hot day? World is going to end. Extremely cold day? One day is not a pattern. This is why fewer and fewer people actually believe in global warming.

imtringued 3y ago
Good thing it was always called climate change and both extreme hot and cold days are part of it. Also, even if we correct the terminology in your post, climate change denial is what is dying out. Denial was all the rage until ten years ago.
deredede 3y ago
Extremely cold days can be part of global warming, which is why it is now called "climate change" to avoid confusion. It's not that everything gets hotter: while average temperatures rise, the system as a whole gets deregulated, leading to an increase in extreme phenomena, some of which are extremely cold days. There are also, of course, local patterns that can cause extremely cold days. Averages and quantity also matters, of course. How many extremely cold days for each extremely hot day?
- deadeye 3y ago
  If you examine your initial statement, you would see that the answer to your ending question does not matter. If an extremely cold day is climate change, and an extremely hot day is climate change, what is the point of the ratio?
  - deredede 3y ago
    I did not say that all extremely cold (or hot, for that matter) days are climate change. Climate change is both an increase in global temperature (increased average), and an increase in extreme conditions (increased variance) The number of extremely cold days increases, but the number of extremely hot days increases more, and both are relevant.
ben_WG 3y ago
Global warming is not a matter of belief, but of trust in the scientific community. What you may be criticising is how some media report on the climate catastrophe, which itself has been scientifically studied since the 1970s and has been concluded to be caused by humans as much as scientists can agree on anything. Whether people "believe" in global warming is only relevant in terms of policy, just like it took some time in the late 19th century for people to accept that some illnesses are caused by bacteria and implement policy accordingly. Understanding the mechanisms of a threat is the first of many steps, but the threat itself doesn't care about whether you believe in it.
- golemiprague 3y ago
  There is a difference between accepting bacteria which is something that is happening at the present to accepting predictions about the future of the climate and the state of the world which is something that might happen in the future. Predicting the future is always harder, especially when trying to predict complicated systems like climate, so there is here an element of believing.
  - ben_WG 3y ago
    That's a good point regarding scientific claims about the future, thanks. You are right that the future of a complex system is impossible to predict precisely, and maybe that's often misleadingly communicated. I think in terms of negative consequences, though, the effects of anthropogenic climate change are already here in the present. Although it is scientifically debated to what extent one can attribute single weather extremes to co2 emissions, it's not really disputed that today's climate, which is already severely impacting humans negatively, is due to past human emissions. Basically: it's already happening right now, and to identify the mechanisms responsible for the present climate does not require belief that goes beyond other scientific insights that are otherwise widely accepted.
    - deadeye 3y ago
      Is there a specific example that you could cite about weather extremes? Most of these claims I've seen are either wrong or fail to take into account several obvious factors. For instance, claims of rising property damage amounts or lives lost fail to account for the amount of property that has accumulated in these locations or the population explosions in these places.
syspec 3y ago
Actually the opposite is true, more and more people believe it, as they feel climate change in extreme local weather. Extremely cold days are part of climate change, more extremes

Extremely hot day? World is going to end. Extremely cold day? One day is not a pattern. This is why fewer and fewer people actually believe in global warming.

imtringued 3y ago

Good thing it was always called climate change and both extreme hot and cold days are part of it. Also, even if we correct the terminology in your post, climate change denial is what is dying out. Denial was all the rage until ten years ago.

deredede 3y ago

Extremely cold days can be part of global warming, which is why it is now called "climate change" to avoid confusion. It's not that everything gets hotter: while average temperatures rise, the system as a whole gets deregulated, leading to an increase in extreme phenomena, some of which are extremely cold days. There are also, of course, local patterns that can cause extremely cold days. Averages and quantity also matters, of course. How many extremely cold days for each extremely hot day?

deadeye 3y ago
If you examine your initial statement, you would see that the answer to your ending question does not matter. If an extremely cold day is climate change, and an extremely hot day is climate change, what is the point of the ratio?
- deredede 3y ago
  I did not say that all extremely cold (or hot, for that matter) days are climate change. Climate change is both an increase in global temperature (increased average), and an increase in extreme conditions (increased variance) The number of extremely cold days increases, but the number of extremely hot days increases more, and both are relevant.

ben_WG 3y ago

Global warming is not a matter of belief, but of trust in the scientific community. What you may be criticising is how some media report on the climate catastrophe, which itself has been scientifically studied since the 1970s and has been concluded to be caused by humans as much as scientists can agree on anything. Whether people "believe" in global warming is only relevant in terms of policy, just like it took some time in the late 19th century for people to accept that some illnesses are caused by bacteria and implement policy accordingly. Understanding the mechanisms of a threat is the first of many steps, but the threat itself doesn't care about whether you believe in it.

golemiprague 3y ago
There is a difference between accepting bacteria which is something that is happening at the present to accepting predictions about the future of the climate and the state of the world which is something that might happen in the future. Predicting the future is always harder, especially when trying to predict complicated systems like climate, so there is here an element of believing.
- ben_WG 3y ago
  That's a good point regarding scientific claims about the future, thanks. You are right that the future of a complex system is impossible to predict precisely, and maybe that's often misleadingly communicated. I think in terms of negative consequences, though, the effects of anthropogenic climate change are already here in the present. Although it is scientifically debated to what extent one can attribute single weather extremes to co2 emissions, it's not really disputed that today's climate, which is already severely impacting humans negatively, is due to past human emissions. Basically: it's already happening right now, and to identify the mechanisms responsible for the present climate does not require belief that goes beyond other scientific insights that are otherwise widely accepted.
  - deadeye 3y ago
    Is there a specific example that you could cite about weather extremes? Most of these claims I've seen are either wrong or fail to take into account several obvious factors. For instance, claims of rising property damage amounts or lives lost fail to account for the amount of property that has accumulated in these locations or the population explosions in these places.

syspec 3y ago

Actually the opposite is true, more and more people believe it, as they feel climate change in extreme local weather. Extremely cold days are part of climate change, more extremes