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The 2003 heatwave killed 70.000+ in Europe. But nobody seems to remember/know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave https://en.wikipedia.org/wi

The 2003 heatwave killed 70.000+ in Europe. But nobody seems to remember/know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave

saalweachter 3y ago
And also made European forests a net CO2 producer for the year, IIRC. Photosynthesis doesn't work well at high temperatures, so instead plants switch to respiration, burning their stored sugars for energy while taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. Which, you know, is why plants produce those sugars in the first place, not to magnanimously produce oxygen/scrub CO2 for us. Heat-waves, with lots of days over 40C/100F, will also wreak havoc on our agriculture.
cogman10 3y ago
The issue there is a lot of homes throughout europe at the time had no air conditioning, just heaters. This included things like nursing homes. They were basically relying on the fact that historically above 90F (32C) temperatures were unheard of. Now it's so common that there's been a rush to install AC and heatpumps throughout. https://www.eurodev.com/blog/europe-hvac-market https://www.eurodev.com/blog/europe-hvac-market
- tsss 3y ago
  They're pushing heatpumps out of some misplaced effort to reduce emissions, not to improve climate control in homes. Nobody I know in Germany has AC except commercial buildings and rich people. They couldn't afford to run it anyway with the highest electricity prices in the world.
- throwaway392021 3y ago
  Most of the deaths happened in southern Europe, where temperatures above 32 °C are common in July and temperatures reaching 40 °C are not unheard of.
richrichie 3y ago
Extreme cold kills far more. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/07/19/excessive-summer-heat-can-kill-but-extreme-cold-causes-more-fatalities/?sh=590085951d88 https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/07/19/excessiv...
- mempko 3y ago
  You know what's wild? Global Warming will create more extreme cold events in places that don't have them! Why? Because global warming is causing the jet streams to weaken and cold air in the arctic escapes more to the south. Isn't that interesting?
  - richrichie 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - Faaak 3y ago
      You should read the IPCC reports, educate yourself on how it works overall, before saying absurdities like this one :).
      - richrichie 3y ago
        I have read 5 and whatever is available on 6. I am good friends with a reviewer for the technical section. IPCC is a “governmental” report that is driven by political and big money interests. The tech section is nothing close to a honest, blind review of science that exists. If you take IPCC as a gospel of climate science, you, sir, are naive about the workings of the real world where money interacts.

The 2003 heatwave killed 70.000+ in Europe. But nobody seems to remember/know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave

saalweachter 3y ago

And also made European forests a net CO2 producer for the year, IIRC. Photosynthesis doesn't work well at high temperatures, so instead plants switch to respiration, burning their stored sugars for energy while taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. Which, you know, is why plants produce those sugars in the first place, not to magnanimously produce oxygen/scrub CO2 for us. Heat-waves, with lots of days over 40C/100F, will also wreak havoc on our agriculture.

cogman10 3y ago

The issue there is a lot of homes throughout europe at the time had no air conditioning, just heaters. This included things like nursing homes. They were basically relying on the fact that historically above 90F (32C) temperatures were unheard of. Now it's so common that there's been a rush to install AC and heatpumps throughout. https://www.eurodev.com/blog/europe-hvac-market https://www.eurodev.com/blog/europe-hvac-market

tsss 3y ago
They're pushing heatpumps out of some misplaced effort to reduce emissions, not to improve climate control in homes. Nobody I know in Germany has AC except commercial buildings and rich people. They couldn't afford to run it anyway with the highest electricity prices in the world.
throwaway392021 3y ago
Most of the deaths happened in southern Europe, where temperatures above 32 °C are common in July and temperatures reaching 40 °C are not unheard of.

richrichie 3y ago

Extreme cold kills far more. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/07/19/excessive-summer-heat-can-kill-but-extreme-cold-causes-more-fatalities/?sh=590085951d88 https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/07/19/excessiv...

mempko 3y ago
You know what's wild? Global Warming will create more extreme cold events in places that don't have them! Why? Because global warming is causing the jet streams to weaken and cold air in the arctic escapes more to the south. Isn't that interesting?
- richrichie 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Faaak 3y ago
    You should read the IPCC reports, educate yourself on how it works overall, before saying absurdities like this one :).
    - richrichie 3y ago
      I have read 5 and whatever is available on 6. I am good friends with a reviewer for the technical section. IPCC is a “governmental” report that is driven by political and big money interests. The tech section is nothing close to a honest, blind review of science that exists. If you take IPCC as a gospel of climate science, you, sir, are naive about the workings of the real world where money interacts.