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We are not at the middle of this decade yet, but some climate indicators had a visible gap against previous years records since last year. If the next El Niño e

We are not at the middle of this decade yet, but some climate indicators had a visible gap against previous years records since last year. If the next El Niño event is stronger than what it was in 2016 we might get around there before 2030. Ice coverage sits in another positive feedback loop, as more (dark/heat absorbing) water is exposed compared with white ice, things become hotter, locally and globally. And the Arctic is one of the regions where the average of temperatures increased more.

jajko 3y ago
In Europe, we mostly didn't have a winter this year around the Alps. It snowed 3x as much in November (and thank god for that), but has been spring temperatures (up to +10C in the mountain valleys) most of january and february and almost no precipitation. Last winter was already very meh and extremely subpar re snowpack. Not even going into the increasing speed of glaciers melting, its up to 10m per year. Winters as we know are disappearing, summers are getting brutal heatwaves never seen even few years ago, not within 1 person lifetime but within one darn decade. To any climate change denier... I'd love to smash that idiocy out of your head if that would help, but unfortunately we all know it won't.
- verelo 3y ago
  Canada, very similar. We had days in January over 14C up by our cottage near Haliburton. Normally we see temps around -20C that time of year. I’ve never seen a warm winter like this. The snow mobile trails also never opened on the lake this year. Last year they opened for about 2 weeks, we all thought that was very short, until this year when they never opened.
- gottorf 3y ago
  > To any climate change denier... I'd love to smash that idiocy out of your head if that would help Well, one must balance the downsides with the positives. Cheap energy from fossil fuels allowed humanity to flourish like never before, raising standards of living globally. And in the 50-year span from 1970 to 2019, deaths from climate-related reasons decreased to one-third[0], even as the global population more than doubled. That's one-third the absolute number, not per capita! All this mostly due to the increasing ability of the developing world to deal with extreme weather events, again thanks to cheap energy. I posit it's entirely reasonable to disagree on what we should do about climate change. [0]: https://library.wmo.int/records/item/57564-wmo-atlas-of-mortality-and-economic-losses-from-weather-climate-and-water-extremes-1970-2019 https://library.wmo.int/records/item/57564-wmo-atlas-of-mort...
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    Unfortunately, your analysis of humanity "flourishing" ignores the mass extinctions of many other species and habitats. Ultimately, we depend on our ecosystems to survive, so it remains to be seen how sustainable humanity's population level will be.
    - thehappypm 3y ago
      Ecosystem destruction from human activity is way, way bigger than just climate change.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    You were downvoted, but I'm not sure why. To emphasize, your post as written is not denying human-induced climate change (at this point I think it's fair to call people that do this idiots, or at least impervious to evidence), it's just acknowledging that cheap energy has been responsible for a huge surge is standards of living (and lifespans) for humans. > I posit it's entirely reasonable to disagree on what we should do about climate change. I think maybe you could have argued that in the past, but not so much anymore. We know now that it is possible to fully decarbonize the vast majority of our energy sources without a significant decrease in living standards - we just need to ensure the infrastructure exists that incentivizes the transition as quickly as possible, and ensure that organizations/people with large vested interests in fossil fuel extraction aren't allowed to control the direction we, collectively, take.
    - Teever 3y ago
      It's denial of a different stripe. Instead of saying "It's not happening." the GP is saying "It's happening but it's no big deal. good stuff came from it." Which to be frank, is a complete waste of time not worth responding to. What they've said has been a meme for 30 years at this point. https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-planet-got-destroyed-tom-toro.html https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-planet-got-destroyed...
      - 3y ago
- minkzilla 3y ago
  Well, we have had a great winter in Utah this year and last year, average temperatures and all time record amounts of snow. I am not a denier of human caused climate change but winters disappearing in a decade is not true, at least broadly.
  - __s 3y ago
    El Nino causes a change in temperature distribution, rather than an overall change in global temperatures Thanks for taking Ontario's Canadian winter this year

jajko 3y ago

In Europe, we mostly didn't have a winter this year around the Alps. It snowed 3x as much in November (and thank god for that), but has been spring temperatures (up to +10C in the mountain valleys) most of january and february and almost no precipitation. Last winter was already very meh and extremely subpar re snowpack. Not even going into the increasing speed of glaciers melting, its up to 10m per year. Winters as we know are disappearing, summers are getting brutal heatwaves never seen even few years ago, not within 1 person lifetime but within one darn decade. To any climate change denier... I'd love to smash that idiocy out of your head if that would help, but unfortunately we all know it won't.

verelo 3y ago
Canada, very similar. We had days in January over 14C up by our cottage near Haliburton. Normally we see temps around -20C that time of year. I’ve never seen a warm winter like this. The snow mobile trails also never opened on the lake this year. Last year they opened for about 2 weeks, we all thought that was very short, until this year when they never opened.
gottorf 3y ago
> To any climate change denier... I'd love to smash that idiocy out of your head if that would help Well, one must balance the downsides with the positives. Cheap energy from fossil fuels allowed humanity to flourish like never before, raising standards of living globally. And in the 50-year span from 1970 to 2019, deaths from climate-related reasons decreased to one-third[0], even as the global population more than doubled. That's one-third the absolute number, not per capita! All this mostly due to the increasing ability of the developing world to deal with extreme weather events, again thanks to cheap energy. I posit it's entirely reasonable to disagree on what we should do about climate change. [0]: https://library.wmo.int/records/item/57564-wmo-atlas-of-mortality-and-economic-losses-from-weather-climate-and-water-extremes-1970-2019 https://library.wmo.int/records/item/57564-wmo-atlas-of-mort...
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  Unfortunately, your analysis of humanity "flourishing" ignores the mass extinctions of many other species and habitats. Ultimately, we depend on our ecosystems to survive, so it remains to be seen how sustainable humanity's population level will be.
  - thehappypm 3y ago
    Ecosystem destruction from human activity is way, way bigger than just climate change.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  You were downvoted, but I'm not sure why. To emphasize, your post as written is not denying human-induced climate change (at this point I think it's fair to call people that do this idiots, or at least impervious to evidence), it's just acknowledging that cheap energy has been responsible for a huge surge is standards of living (and lifespans) for humans. > I posit it's entirely reasonable to disagree on what we should do about climate change. I think maybe you could have argued that in the past, but not so much anymore. We know now that it is possible to fully decarbonize the vast majority of our energy sources without a significant decrease in living standards - we just need to ensure the infrastructure exists that incentivizes the transition as quickly as possible, and ensure that organizations/people with large vested interests in fossil fuel extraction aren't allowed to control the direction we, collectively, take.
  - Teever 3y ago
    It's denial of a different stripe. Instead of saying "It's not happening." the GP is saying "It's happening but it's no big deal. good stuff came from it." Which to be frank, is a complete waste of time not worth responding to. What they've said has been a meme for 30 years at this point. https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-planet-got-destroyed-tom-toro.html https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-planet-got-destroyed...
    - 3y ago
minkzilla 3y ago
Well, we have had a great winter in Utah this year and last year, average temperatures and all time record amounts of snow. I am not a denier of human caused climate change but winters disappearing in a decade is not true, at least broadly.
- __s 3y ago
  El Nino causes a change in temperature distribution, rather than an overall change in global temperatures Thanks for taking Ontario's Canadian winter this year