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Onion headlines aside*, we kinda do? This summer's European heatwave is due to emissions worldwide**; while the historical record has the early emissions from E
by ben_w 2mo ago
Onion headlines aside*, we kinda do? This summer's European heatwave is due to emissions worldwide**; while the historical record has the early emissions from Europe, all the other inhabited continents have also contributed to it since then.
* https://theonion.com/solar-power-investment-skyrockets-upon-discovery-of-mas-1849458050/ https://theonion.com/solar-power-investment-skyrockets-upon-...
** There's also a big El Niño event, the Wikipedia page on the heatwave currently expressly denies that this contributed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_European_heatwaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_European_heatwaves
- dyzone 2mo ago> Onion headlines aside Well technically speaking crude oil is a form of solar energy. (Sun -> plants -> animals -> crude oil)
- MikeNotThePope 2mo agoWhat energy sources do we have that don't ultimately derive from either solar of radioactive decay? Residual heat from object formation perhaps.
- ben_w 2mo ago> solar of radioactive decay We can do fusion, but given the only large sources of that are fusion bombs and nobody wants a bomb-based power plant… :P
- anabab 2mo ago> nobody [citation needed]. Project Pacer might be controversial and uneconomical, but still interesting.
- ben_w 2mo agoOK, not *literally* nobody at the human level, just *metaphorically* nobody at the human level (or literally at the level of nations) given that even normal boring fission plants make voters stick their tongues out and complain.
- _joel 2mo agoGravity, just ask Jupiters' Moons.
- stingraycharles 2mo agoSo tidal power, basically?
- x______________ 2mo agoIsn't solar derived from nuclear fusion? Nukes for the win!
- nisegami 2mo ago>There's also a big El Niño event, the Wikipedia page on the heatwave currently expressly denies that this contributed But isn't that accurate? The ENSO is a specific phenomenon in the Pacific and it's not clear to me how that would impact the EU in such a direct manner.
- roryirvine 2mo agoYes, the main effect of a strongly positive ENSO on Europe may be a reduction in polar vortex instability, resulting in a milder, wetter, and more storm-prone winter. But given the remoteness of the Pacific and all the other sources of variation in European weather, it's a fairly weak signal with lots of uncertainty (and there's no clear signal at all for summer weather).
- acdha 2mo agoI guess you could see it that way but I don’t think that quite fits because the extra heat retention isn’t due to a failure in the solar power system, and was happening before those even existed. Maybe if there was something like a brushfire caused by someone’s system overheating?