this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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‘Unbearable’ heat in Delhi is testing limits of human survival (wapo.st)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Note that there are two common "wet bulb" temperatures used in discussion:

  • Wet Bulb Globe Temperature - this tells you that physical activity (including work) in unshaded locations can kill healthy adults and is used in this article
  • Wet Bulb Temperature - this tells you whether it is hot enough to kill the bulk of the population for just sitting still in the shade with access to plenty of water

A Washington Post analysis found that the wet-bulb globe temperature, which measures the amount of heat stress on the human body, reached 97 degrees to 100 degrees (36 to 38 Celsius) in Delhi on Tuesday. That is higher than the 89.6 Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) threshold that researchers have identified as posing a risk to human survival if such heat is prolonged. The wet-bulb globe temperature is based on a combination of factors including temperature, humidity, wind and clouds, and was calculated by The Post using data from a nearby weather station.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

what the hell are we going to do?

In the very long term, stop climate change.

In the long term - dig in and design heat shelters, most likely. Because it's cooler underground and heat waves will pass. When a bad one comes, people would stop working and find shelter from it. One can even accumulate cold in a thermal store during cool periods and distribute the cooling effect to premises during heat waves.

In the short term - those who can (there will be an equality and access problem) and those who must (who cannot stop working) would install air conditioners and similar stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You're going to run through your cold storage pretty fast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Well, a heat wave cannot last forever. And in terms of cold storage - it's +30 C over here currently already for a week, it has been 1.5 months since the last snowfall - and the last pile of snow on the local airport is still melting. Darkened, not recognizable as the substance it used to be, but existing, without people making the slightest effort to protect it. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

How likely are people going to wait until it's a heat wave. They're going to burn through it on normal 30 to 35 C days.