Written By:
weka - Date published:
1:52 pm, July 16th, 2022 - 68 comments
Categories: climate change, disaster -
Tags:
But what ever you do, don't look up ….. https://t.co/Yq8kPkO4BN
— Lynn Williams (@LynnW192) July 15, 2022
England braces for 40C temperatures as experts warn thousands could die
Thousands of people could die in the coming heatwave, experts have warned, as the government triggered the first ever national emergency heat red alert with a record 40C (104F) temperature forecast for south-east England on Tuesday.
Health officials fear people living alone on upper floors of buildings are among those who could perish, as people did in Paris in 2003. Last year two lesser heat episodes caused about 1,600 excess deaths, according to official figures.
The level 4 heat alert announced for Monday and Tuesday by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) means “illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups”.
The Met Office described the forecast heat that is coming from France and Spain as “absolutely unprecedented” and urged people to treat it like a storm warning and consider changing plans.
Rail passengers urged to avoid train travel in extreme UK heatwave
Network Rail says safety restrictions will include slower trains amid possible buckled rails and trackside fires
England heatwave: what is a level 4 national emergency?
The government first published a heatwave plan for England in 2004 after a devastating pan-European heatwave in 2003, and updated it in 2012. Level 4 is the highest of five levels (0-4) in the “heat-health alert system”. It “is reached when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system, such as power or water shortages, and/or where the integrity of health and social care systems is threatened”.
…
What else are they worried about?
Melting roads could cause congestion and leave people stranded in cars. Railways could buckle. Extreme heat on the London Underground could require bottled water to be supplied. Rising demand for electricity as people use air conditioning and fans at the same time as the heat reduces the power-carrying capacity of the system because it is harder to cool conductors.
Water shortages are a fear but if the mains supply is lost water companies are required to provide no less than 10 litres per person per day, with special attention given to the needs of vulnerable people, hospitals and schools.
We cannot say we haven’t been warned.
UK HEAT WAVE EMERGENCY DECLARED
This global warming, June global +1.12°C,
Northern Hemisphere 1.31°C (NASA GISS)https://t.co/BZJ5jGr0YS
Fight fossil fuels or the future dies #climate #heatwave pic.twitter.com/I1KD3Pl1yv— Peter D Carter (@PCarterClimate) July 15, 2022
That’s global warming at 1.12C in a cooler year. Now consider what it will be like at 2C or 5C warming. We are not adapted for this biologically or technologically or psychologically.
We do still have time to change and at this point should be doing everything we can, all of us.
Want inspiration on the proactive pathways through the crisis to something better? We’ve never had so much good choice about things that can make a difference. The key here is that taking proactive pathways makes us feel better and empowers us to make the changes needed. The trick is understanding that it’s not green BAU that will save us, but system change to regenerative models is what will drop fossil fuel usage fast.
The challenge now is to create local to global economies that ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials – from food and housing to healthcare and political voice – while safeguarding Earth’s life-giving systems, from a stable climate and fertile soils to healthy oceans and a protective ozone layer. This single switch of purpose transforms the meaning and shape of economic progress: from endless growth to thriving in balance.
Kate Raworth, on Doughnut Economics.
I don’t allow climate denialism of any kind under my posts. That includes arguing the Bart defense (‘humans didn’t do it’), or the Gosman defense (BAU capitalism must reign supreme/change is too hard) or the McPherson defense (‘it’s too late’).
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
As posted on Open Mike today (and by Gosman yesterday), a (im)practical way to tackle climate change. Impractical because the BAU people will never buy into it! But it could work if the world wakes up in time!
“Fossil fuels account for three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions, and they have to go. A new campaign, endorsed by 100 Nobel laureates and several thousand scientists, calls for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to do just that: an international agreement to end fossil fuels on a fair and binding schedule.”
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/11/what-would-it-look-like-if-we-treated-climate-change-as-an-actual-emergency
This article demands further study and comment.
I've been trying to coin a term for the idea that we can not act on climate change because it will cause too much disruption, which ignores the worse disruption that runaway climate change will bring anyway. Must be a fair amount of denial going on there, although some people have great faith in capitalism and/or science to get us out of the mess.
If you were stuck on a very high bridge with a train coming down the line sometime in the future would you jump off the bridge now because sooner or later the train is going to run you down?
I'd walk calmly to the end of the bridge then step to safety but I wouldn't much around for too long, anguishing about whether to act or not.
And there's the crux of it. People lack the imagination to see how we could get off the bridge in time without killing ourselves, so instead stay where they are and get killed by the train instead. There are more than jump to our deaths vs run over by a train.
At this point I'm calling it willful ignorance, there really is no excuse for not acting now that we know how serious it is and that there are pathways we can take that will make the difference.
I said stuck for a reason….calmly walking off the bridge isnt an option (any more)….and nor did i say jumping to our death, rather that the bridge was very high (and jumping involves considerable risk)
sure, but I still maintain that that's because you personally see our options are akin to getting off a high bridge at substantial risk, whereas Robert and I both see that we still have time to walk off the bridge. We're never going to be able to cross the bridge again, so there will be loss and change, but we both have the experience of living differently and understanding that it doesn't have to be a catastrophe.
I doubt youd appreciate me expressing my opinion on the options…the analogy I used was to demonstrate why I think most people are reluctant to make the radical change the situation demands.
if you don't want to lay out what you think the options are, that's on you not me. The point of the discussion is to grapple with the gnarly issues, can't do that if people won't say what they think.
"I don’t allow climate denialism of any kind under my posts. That includes arguing the Bart defense (‘humans didn’t do it’), or the Gosman defense (BAU capitalism must reign supreme/change is too hard) or the McPherson defense (‘it’s too late’)."
My point stands. You believe that it's too hard, or too late. That belief inhibits seeing a way forward (or a safer way off the bridge). And thus action isn't taken. This is pretty much why I won't allow those arguments under my posts, they advocate not acting even though there is no way to know if the position is true or not.
If you want to argue that other people believe that and thus won't support change, you can do that, you just have to produce some evidence that that is what is stopping most or a significant number of people from acting. This would be a useful debate, because then we can test which is true: jump off the bridge at big risk, or walk off and never go back.
time stamp please for support for this claim,
btw Pat, if you stick to the threaded replies it will make the conversation easier to follow. Once you run out of reply buttons, just scroll up to the first available button in line with the comment you are replying to. Doesn't matter whose name is on that comment, this is how you keep the conversation in a single thread (people in the conversation will know to look at everyone's replies).
I started watching. Around 2m 20 she says that none of the systems are sustainable according to the three biophysical necessities (and the socioeconomic one).
https://donellameadows.org/sustainable-systems-videos/
This isn't solely an issue of fossil fuels, she's talking about true sustainability. It applies also to do with waste and pollution, and all the resources we use not just FFs.
The point here isn't that we can't transition, it's that our current systems aren't sustainable. That is something we can change.
Inherent in the necessities is the idea that it's not about getting rid of (eg FFs), it's about the principles governing our relationship with the natural world.
That we are completely dependent on fossil fuels currently, doesn't mean we cannot transition to sustainable systems. It means we're not yet.
If you say that it won't work because no-one has done it fully yet, this makes me think you don't understand systems change. The whole point is that we have a myriad of interconnected systems, and we're just not very good atm at doing those sustainably.
Quite simply we will not reduce our carbon outputs by any significant degree until the wherewithal to continue it collapses either due to environmental or societal collapse…we are incapable of supporting our overshot population without the use of fossil fuels as surely as we are incapable of continuing to use them.
The only question is whether the planet remains capable of supporting mammalian life.
that's not an argument, it's simply your asserted belief. As I said, this belief stops people from seeing other futures.
You refute we are unable to support 8 billion without fossil fuel use?….thats the argument, for 8 billion we currently are.
I don't think it's true. I haven't refuted it yet, because it's such a broad and vague statement. But let's try this as a start:
The biggest impediment is people's inexperience and therefore their belief that only industrial global food chains can feed people. Whereas those of us in communities where it's completely normal to grow a lot of food, can see much more easily how it could work.
The biggest impediment is people's inexperience and therefore their belief that only industrial global food chains can feed people.
Yet prior to industrialisation – and with millenia of experience – human population barely got to 800m and was not rising at all.
Now this does not gainsay the experience you speak of in growing plenty of food locally. But I would argue that you have discounted much of the invisible subsidy that is supporting your efforts because you are inevitably embedded in an industrialised society. And this society provides a myriad of services in a multitude of dimensions that cannot be ignored if you want to scale up to a global scale. (And that is the only scale that makes sense.)
Or if you don't like me reaching back into time to make my case, then consider the remnant populations of subsistence agricultural people still living today outside of the industrialised food chains. All of them living in absolute poverty or close to it.
Now this does not mean your approach is impossible, or that I even oppose it in principle. But there is a substantial energy and technology hurdle to leap over before it stacks up in my view.
@Redlogic.
Indeed, less than a billion and a life expectancy of 32 (high mortality rate)…fossil energy is ubiquitous in all that we do and it is that which provides our current abilities….each barrel of oil does the equivalent of 25,000 hours of hard human labour….we may be able to farm locally using regenerative techniques but we wont be supporting 8 billion…and we will be spending a lot of time fighting over the ever diminishing resources…something that Id suggest most realise even if only subconsciously.
Good comment pat. I like it when we agree on something.
each barrel of oil does the equivalent of 25,000 hours of hard human labour
That was such a startling claim I went and searched on it. A barrel of oil contains roughly 1700 kWhr of energy, and converting that into human hours of labour equivalent relies on a bunch of assumptions. But yes this thread pretty much confirms that 25,000 hours is in the ball park.
There are various methods of calculation, I grabbed the first to confirm, but one thing they all share is a similar order of magnitude.
You would be wrong though. I came to this debate from Peak Oil analysis and debate over a decade ago. The ways in which industrialised societies are utterly dependent on fossil fuels was the ground upon which Peak Oil theory existed, and its where I cut my teeth.
The question then becomes why you would assume my argument discounts that when it actually takes it into account. Transitions Towns and permaculture (among other) both have clear analysis of both the problem and the transition away from fossil fuels and how that might happen. TT arose out of the twin crisis of Peak Oil and Climate Change, the reality of being embedded in industrial society is embedded in transition theory and practice. That's why it's called transition.
Actually it's not. We can think global and act local. Rather than trying to come up with global solutions, we can work with common principles that are enacted locally accord to the needs of the situation. This is a core principle of sustainable design. What works in Southland NZ, isn't going to work in Perth.
The beauty of that is that local resiliency and sustainability design is well adapted to solving such problems. We can support each rohe to figure out food, shelter, health, education, industry and so on. How much can be produced locally, how much needs to be imported (from other parts of the country, from other parts of the world), how much can be exported, where it's better to work locally (this area needs this sized school) vs nationally (education curriculum, but still adapted locally) vs globally (using politics and aid to make sure that poorer countries have access to education tech and knowledge bases).
Don't actually understand this argument. Obviously we are in a much better position than either people pre-industrial, or in current subsistence situations. Why would we give up all the advantages of the industrial and technological revolutions? This doesn't make sense. Our knowledge bases and technologies aren't inherently dependent on fossil fuels.
Unless we powerdown. If you think that means subsistence and poverty, you've missed what is being argued and I would say that like Pat, this is a failure of imagination, or perhaps attachment to an ideology.
And then there is the dilemma that I was trying to name. If you think the powerdown is bad wait until you see what climate collapse is like. Given that climate collapse is very likely on our current trajectory, why would we not explore fully options like the Powerdown. Pat argues people won't want to do that transition, but what I see is an unwillingness to have the conversation, and this seems defeatest given what is at stake. I find the argument self-serving – oh people won't want to do that, so we shouldn't try, let's just wait for catastrophe.
why not? What number of people could regenag feed?
Abstract reductionist ideas about how many human energy units there are in a barrel of oil completely ignore that regnerative agriculture, by definition, relies on nature to do the heavy lifting. It's not only human power, it's the power of the microbes in the soil, the techniques that increase that, then the mutually beneficial interaction of different forms of life and how they lift the whole. Whole system design increase efficiencies.
Permaculture btw is based on doing less work for more output. Have you watched much Bill Mollison? His global gardener series is worth tracking down. Might drive you nuts if you want global figures, but the principles are the thing to get to grips with.
"Pat argues people won't want to do that transition, but what I see is an unwillingness to have the conversation, and this seems defeatest given what is at stake. I find the argument self-serving – oh people won't want to do that, so we shouldn't try, let's just wait for catastrophe."
If you think you have the solution then your path is simple…convince enough people your solutions will work and they will adopt them.
Ive yet to see anything that passes the most cursory examination , including transition towns, the inhabitants/developers of which admit without the nearby support of fossil fueled communities they are non viable. Even Donella Meadows, who walked the talk said as much.
8 billion
This is a very neoliberal response. Transition will never come from such individualistic framing.
citation needed. Bearing in mind no-one was saying give up FF overnight. Of course we need to use the tools and resources we have now to transition. This is what transition is (am beginning to wonder if the concept of transition needs to be explained)
citation needed.
as an example of what transition is.
Geoff Lawton, a highly regarded permaculture designer, has said that we should use the technology available now to set up the systems that will be less dependent on that technology and more resilient and sustainable (I'm paraphrasing). Use a fossil fuel powered digger to create swales so that you don't need industrial irrigation.
Holmgren (one of the co-originators of permaculture), says that we don't have to solve all the problems now of a post-carbon, powered down world. People that come after us will be able to see solutions that we cannot. What we have to do is the things within our power that set us on the right course. We have to turn around and start walking off the bridge.
Pat and RL’s arguments sound like they’re based in the idea that transition is going from fossil fuels to no fossil fuels, as if we can’t use fossil fuels now for the transition, and as if the transition isn’t a regenerative process but simply one of loss.
this again is a failure of imagination. It's not 8 billion stock units that have to be fed. It's a huge range of people, communities, cities, skills, technologies, and land bases with a vast array of ecologies. Therein lies the way to feed so many people, you put them in context of their local bioregion and you look at what that bioregion can sustain. Once you start thinking about moving food around the globe you have lost.
Casting pejoratives dosnt advance your case.
The most convincing argument for your position would be in the demonstration….when there are successful sustainable communities living the ideal then you will find the task easier.
Hasnt happened yet.
what pejoratives? 🤔
Yes, it really has. Transition Towns are a good example (again, the point isn't to give up fossil fuels overnight, it's to transition). There are plenty of people growing most of their own food. There are regenerative agriculture farms.
Still waiting for your citations.
Why would we give up all the advantages of the industrial and technological revolutions? This doesn't make sense. Our knowledge bases and technologies aren't inherently dependent on fossil fuels.
This. We underestimate our ancestors terribly; they lived in a much tougher lives than us. They were smart and adaptable and knew very well how to make the best of their land and climate to grow food – yet without access to cheap plentiful energy they were always constrained to the strict limits of sunshine. And all the attendant evils of empire and slavery.
As someone who has worked his entire life in heavy industry I am viscerally aware of just how everything about our built environment has it's origins from either farm or a mine – and utterly depends on cheap, reliable energy to be transformed and transported to us. And complex objects like these computers we type on, or fancy vaccines require an astonishing complexity of steps and linkages to come into existence and to be maintained.
Including all of the knowledge base and technologies that accompany it. There are many prior examples of how societies lost knowledge when the economy that utilised it collapsed.
Without cheap, reliable energy all of this goes away, either quickly and catastrophically or slowly and erratically, And there will be no choice in the matter. If you think this improbable, just consider the supply chain disruptions we have seen this past two years, from a relatively minor disturbance,
My argument all along is that fossil fuels were always the transitional technology – and were our one shot only chance to move from a pre-industrial low energy world to one based on high tech, high energy nuclear world. That does not exclude many of the ideas you promote, including renag and circular economies, but it does place them in a wholly more expansive context that might bring prosperity, longevity and unimagined possibilities to the whole of humanity.
why would ALL of it go away? If we powerdown, why would we lose the ability to grow food? Or, say, build houses?
Citation for D.Meadows is in the first 5 minutes of the posted lecture.
The transition town citation i will have to refind, but believe it was in an in depth interview with Rob Hopkins discussing Kinsdale.
There are no transition towns in NZ, simply community initiatives such as community gardens and food forests etc all operating within a fossil fueled society and all that provides.
The concept of 'transition' loses all meaning when it relies on that which you seek to transition from.
There is a very good reason why the worlds population didnt exceed 1 billion until we exploited fossil energy…its called work, and we couldnt do enough of it to consistently feed and shelter anymore than that….even on an unexploited and relatively unpolluted planet.
The pejorative…"This is a very neoliberal response. Transition will never come from such individualistic framing."
It is worth noting that the Donella Meadows lecture was given in 1999 when the world population was 6 billion.
I reiterate, you will find the task of convincing people to make the change you desire if you can demonstrate it….Donella Meadows (and many others) have spent decades working on it and yet we have no community to hold up as a model….as she said, her farm is NOT sustainable…but she learned a lot.
The final thing I will say is , as is demonstrated in the lecture, we are already in overshoot….so we will get our transition whether we choose it or not.
Not following that – a semi-orderly transition (over a few generations) from the current massive use of fossil fuels to a less FF-dependent (different) civilisation would (obviously) require gradual substitution of FFs with non-FF energy sources to support (equitably shared) critical (life-sustaining) enterprises, and a concomitant progressive cull of non-essential consumption (super-yachts, long-distance mass tourism, cryptocurrencies, eating meat, etc. etc.)
Some will characterise calls for consumer 'sacrifices' as envy-driven and/or infringements of (God-given) freedoms and conveniences (the human exceptionalism/entitlement problem), and resist with every fibre of their being. That's OK – free-loading behaviour is inevitable.
THEMATIC SECTION – Lifestyle transformation and reduced consumption: a transformative learning process [2022]
Transitions happen – always have, always will. I'm picking that transitioning the current iteration of human civilisation on spaceship Earth to something more sustainable will involve widespread environmental and societal collapse – whether that vague prediction is realistic or unduly pessimistic only time will tell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_supply_and_consumption#Outlook
@Drowsy
"Not following that – a semi-orderly transition (over a few generations) from the current massive use of fossil fuels to a less FF-dependent (different) civilisation would (obviously) require gradual substitution of FFs with non-FF energy sources to support"
Except we do not have generations and everything in play for the so called transition town ideal is currently facilitated by those fossil fuels…everything. Even, as we are witnessing, a reduction in that availability is causing untold disruption to the system that currently (almost) supports the 8 billion.
That should demonstrate how vulnerable the system is…as was noted in the lecture things look fine…and fall off a cliff.
The luxury of time was frittered away years ago.
Agree that spaceship Earth has shifted (past a tipping point) from the practical possibility (50 years ago) of a semi-orderly transition to a low-carbon civilisation – looks to me increasingly like a theoretical possibility only, due to a mix of behavioural and technical issues.
Sadly yes….as Donella Meadows notes in that lecture the 'rational' individual and group behaviours create feed back loops that made the right thing to do almost impossible…and her focus was not solely climate change which is important to remember, climate change really is only one outcome of a much bigger problem.
Actually the majority of people do not have strong visionary ability and will not change their ways much because of this. The other problem is, as covid has proved, they all want to get back to normal FREE life, not rearrange their lives to help reduce our impact on the environment. Travel, for example should stop, but that suggestion would appall most people. All unnecessary imports should stop now to cut the manufacturing of un-needed good , and so on and so on. The government is going to have to lead the way through this by relentless regulating, otherwise the majority will not change their ways to meet the need.
I don't think it's needs the majority to start with. It needs a significant minority who can see the pathways and act accordingly. People will be attracted to attractive stories if the future. People want BAU, but do they want petrol at $5/L and a massive grocery bill? At some point the pressures become big enough to make alternatives look like the better option.
The rich capitalists I know would snigger and say that most trains run terribly late, or turn out to have been cancelled..
lol. Next week in the UK at least, some of them will run slowly because the tracks are buckling from the heat. If we're going to get off the bridge now is a good time.
Not a rich capitalist. But trains in Auckland are unpredictably unreliable as a regular form of transport. There are continual outages and closures over holiday periods for maintenance. You cannot rely on a train service running as scheduled.
Buses used to be better – but not during this Covid outbreak
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129272751/bus-train-cancellations-hit-2000-a-day-as-covid19-bites-in-auckland
So we need someone to come along who can make the trains run on time?
Apparently we need someone who can make the trains run at all.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/trains-across-aucklands-main-lines-cancelled-delayed-due-to-britomart-signal-issue/FSSYPTH3NG4PGF2NRNZEVTWRVY/
And, to address the point you're actually making – have a think about *why* Mussolini was voted in – and was incredibly popular in his first years. How many of those conditions apply now in NZ? How many might apply in 5-10 years? If that's not something that worries you, then it should.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Economic-and-political-crisis-the-two-red-years#ref27760
Yes, he and his Blackshirts engaged in open intimidation of electoral opponents – but he remained highly popular for at least a decade.
"If that's not something that worries you, then it should."
Indeed it does which is why the comment was made.
Living in a rural area it horrifies me the level of sheer loathing that is directed to the Left … we are well down the Blackshirt road if that is anything to go by. Some are convinced that there can be no coexistance and eventually one wing or the other must eradicate the other to live in eventual peace.
Not helped by many of the Left's dismissal of contrary views and refusal to engage or listen BTW
I prefer to see us fly with BOTH wings!
Carbon capture on a scale significant enough to save the world is just a capitalist billionaire's wet dream.
We need comprehensive, binding and co-operative action from all world governments, along the lines of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty as mentioned above, if we are to have any hope.
Climate double-do, inspired by 'double-think'.
Not my best but I'll keep thinking on it.
oh, my, god, great to see you Lanthanide.
An interesting article about types of climate change denial. It is based on the types of genocide denial, so might seem a bit over the top for some, but I thought it was a good description.
To summarise the article, there are three types of denial:
Literal denial – there is no climate change
Interpretive denial – interprets facts in a way that allows conclusions of climate change being a normal planetary phenomenon, or there is climate change but it's not caused by humans
Implicatory denial – climate change is happening and it's serious, but the implications of that change are not accepted (either outright or by under-acceptance)
I think the term "implicatory denier" would cover someone who said that we can't act on climate change or need to act more slowly because it would cause too much disruption. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue though.
I was working in England during the early 2000s heat wave we hit about 43 on the work site. London when the wind stops is like a green house except smog is the roof 🙃
Worst part was the tube home insanely uncomfortable on the deeper lines.
I'm useless by the mid 30s, and that's inside hiding. Was in Melbourne once when it hit 40. I was in an airconditioned house, and couldn't understand how people could to work outside. I expect some of the problems in the UK will be due to lack of acclimatisation (whereas the Aussies are more used to it)
Found that I can cope with dry heat (e.g. Canberra) more than damp humidity (Sydney).
But can't say that I enjoy either….. Definitely happier in temperate climates.
My brother in London tells me that the numbers of people retrofitting air-conditioning into apartments (units on balconies) is insane – tradies booked up for months, bribes to jump the wait list apparently common.
Working on the bauxite sites at Weipa, Cape York during the run up and through the rainy season, the Caribbean coast of Panama, or the tropical rain forests of Colombia takes the idea of 'damp heat' to a whole other level. At this level of saturated humidity the temperature rarely exceeds 34degC, but is incredibly uncomfortable. By 10am your boots are squelching with sweat and by the end of 12 hour shift I was utterly drained. I’d barely make it back to my room, stand under a lukewarm shower, then collapse on the bed.
I found the the correct temperature to set my room's aircon was 24degC. Any higher and it's hard to sleep, lower and the contrast to outside gets too large. You know it's going to be a tough day when you step out of your room at 4am, the temperature is still 29degC and your glasses immediately fog up because they are still a few degrees cool enough to condense the super humidity out of the air.
On the other hand the dry heat in the interior, when it gets into the mid-40's or higher is like stepping into an oven. The upside is the nights are usually very cool, or even sub-zero and sleeping is much less of a problem. If you stay outside from morning onwards and acclimatise through the morning, and then stay out of the worst of the sun during the afternoon you get through the day in much better shape.
But there are definitely people who prefer to cold and low humidity and those who prefer the heat and lots of humidity. Acclimatisation is part of it, but only plays a modest role over time. Even now after five years in Brisbane for example I still hate the summer months.
Born and bred in Auckland – and still hate the summer humidity. As you said – you can survive during the day, but it's the hot humid nights that are the killer.
Unsurprising that virtually everyone I know has invested in heat pumps. What that does for the climate, God only knows….
(1) swordfish on Twitter: "Mildly Interesting Factoid #312 (At the very great risk of sounding like some sort of anorak-wearing trainspotter) https://t.co/430F3wGCxK" / Twitter
https://twitter.com/swordfish7774/status/1457249297825615874
-3 degrees C down South (WINTER!) 43 degrees up North (SUMMER!)
The "average" temperature is a nice, livable 20 degrees C
How silly "average" temperatures are!
The impact of AGW on aquaculture is particularly noticeable, with salmon, one of our biggest earners, suffering significant losses when water temperatures creep over 15 degrees.
With AGW slated to deliver 2-3 degrees by 2050, but with droughts and/or floods to become more frequent, the odds of a major dieoff or a total farm loss increase significantly with each decade to 2050.
Mind, the airfreight export route can be expected to contract as we come to terms with a need to wean off petroleum – though lighter than air freight to Oz may remain feasible.
We are to reliant on fossil fuels.Big carbon have to much power ie the US the repugnants and one or two democrats have control over congress forcing the Biden administration to stop counter measures.Covid and the War in the Ukraine have highlighted how fragile the Worlds economies are.
US co2 emissions have decreased 7% since 1990,
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
Nat voter here.
Oddly enough I once read that we still have the legislation on the books which permitted things like the carless days and other fuel economy measures. All the government needs to do is write the regulations. That said Carless days never saved much petrol.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1548777973821480960
Throughout human history we have always been surrounded by those who are prepared (nay! eager) to kill us and take that which we have. To rely upon others to defend us simply means we create a force which is also capable of that; particularly when times get tough and surpluses are reduced or eliminated.
It is extremely wistful … and dangerous to think otherwise!
A proportion of our society are often "going a-Viking" presently.
Ram Raiding!
Huh? WTF has that got to do with this Thread?
Surely this shows that the future is already dying?
Rwnj, I find your lack of imagination disturbing.
Hi Weka. Rosemary Penwarden sounds extremely Interesting : ) ! Have you heard of/know her?