UK facing it's hottest weather ever, wildfires in Spain and France

Yeah basically you just stay inside all day, and hope the TX electric grid doesn’t crash.

 

They just had a little blip on our local newsreader station, average temps have risen 1 degree since 1975 in Jax. Climate emergency!!

 

My thoughts exactly

 

I worked in Ketchikan Alaska for a few summers a while back. Rainforest capital of the U.S I think. June of 2004 it got into the mid 80s which I'd really rare out there. People were installing window shakers because no one has AC up there. I just peaked at some random statistics to see what has happened before and after that summer. Just picking June as a reference point it hardly if ever touched 80 again. Interestingly enough their record high of mid 90s was in the 1970s.

I'm not denying climate change but I'm not sure what to make of weather anomalies and I definitely wouldn't start a business on it.

 

Even if they ever admit it, they will go directly to "there is nothing that we can do about it so why bother."

 

Media plays its part, definitely. 24 hour news, needs something to talk about. Definitely dramatise.

But yesterday was our hottest on record. That top graphic also isn't accurate - it peaked over 40 in several places. I live near the '31' to the north of Liverpool and it was actually recorded at 36 here. Keep in mind our seasonal average for July is 19/20 degrees.

Look I get it - people will look after their own best interests when it comes to holding a view on global warming. Me? I don't know enough but I know the overwhelming majority of experts in the field think it's an issue, so I'm going to listen to them. I'm sure those who saw their houses literally burn to a crisp yesterday in the UK may feel the same - it happened to a number of families. I read that the Fire Service had its busiest day since WW2. That's not normal and to suggest it's just scaremongering alone feels naively self-centred...

 

Much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Kevin Drum and Paul Krugman - the public just won't do what is necessary. This is a bit like Covid issues, where the GOP rhetoric is unserious and horrible, but the biggest problem is human nature
I've been watching the climate change fight for 20 years now, waiting and waiting for evidence that the public takes it seriously enough to do something about it. Not just say it's important when a pollster calls, but demonstrate a real-world willingness to make lifestyle sacrifices that would make a difference. By chance, Paul Krugman wrote about this today:


It has long been painfully obvious that voters are reluctant to accept even small short-run costs in the interest of averting long-run disaster. This is depressing, but it’s a fact of life, one that no amount of haranguing seems likely to change.... Emission taxes are the Econ 101 solution to pollution, but realistically they just aren’t going to happen in America.


Geoengineering is (probably) in our future - Kevin Drum

 

what was the source of the fires? I can see more fires when cold causes space heaters, etc. Are fans overloading electrical circuits in houses or ??

 

I don’t blame them for doing it, but the people installing air conditioners will contribute to more GW. First from the emissions from power generation and then from the heat given off by the AC unit.

This is the crux of the problem with dealing with climate change. People want something done but with someone else to pay for it.

 

When there is an aberration in weather that gainsays climate change and a conservative comments on it all the liberals say, "there is a difference between weather and climate" (you ignorant morons). But when a heat wave hits all the liberals forget about the difference between weather and climate.
Iboy I am 63. When I was a boy I visited my Uncle Doc in Dallas It was 110. I remember being in shock thar it could get that hot. It was probably over 50 years ago. After thst we met at the beach in Florida when we got together. Dallas in the summer was not fun.

 

Since I was in college (in the late 80s) the Climate Change scientists were saying that it wasn't just that the world would be a bit hotter, it was that the extra heat in the system was going to cause weather extremes to be exacerbated.

Heat waves would be hotter and longer, floods would be floodier, and droughts would be droughtier. To that, cold snaps and snow events would also be more extreme, which deniers like to point to as disproving climate change, but actually is predicted.

That is exactly what we are seeing now 40 years later.

So while it is true there is a difference between climate and weather, there is certainly a relationship between the two.

 

There is an issue with the sort of n=1, it is cold in Texas in February 2021 stuff. But we are seeing heat records far outpace cold records.

Heat records are far outpacing cool records across the globe - CNN

92 heat records so far compared to 5 cold records in the US. 188 globally for heat records compared to 18 for cold records.

 

Cinque Terre on the northern coast of Italy was unbearably hot - 96 degrees. We cut the day short to move inside. Hopefully nice tonight. No raging fires though.

 

Extreme weather events occur every year. They are not new. The difference is that they are both more frequent and more extreme.

 

One of our favorite places on earth!

 

Looks terrible. You should probably head home and switch your reservations to "Tilly" .

 

"When the weather is cold, it's the weather, when the weather is hot, it's climate change."

 

Hey, it's not my fault nobody has good answers.

I (and most voters) just happen to think the the economy is a higher priority than "climate change," not that "climate change," is no priority at all.

Climate change is also a global problem that requires global commitment. As long as India and the Chinese don't care, even our best efforts are a bandaid on a gaping wound.

But I'm all for free market solutions. I love Teslas. I love nuclear energy.

 

What do you suggest?