The Climate Change Thread

[Retro]

Thanks man, I feel so reassured that our dynamic tory government has everything in hand!

And Johnson didn't even bother with the emergency COBRA meeting. Why should he care now? He barely cared before, so now just ain't gonna happen.

What a shower of shit, the lot of them. Bring in Labour, the sooner the better.

 

[Retro]

It's very hot right now where I live and the problem is getting worse. And yes, it's man-made. Just look at this heat map comparing the 1976 heatwave to now. The difference is huge.

UK heatwave: How do temperatures compare with 1976?

People have been comparing the current temperatures with 1976 heatwave. What does the evidence show?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

Good map @Retro; sobering.

I know y'all are living this heat, but I thought I'd add this article as a reference point for future discussion. Totally can't believe Heathrow Airports temp reading.

UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

LONDON (AP) — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe — and the national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill prepared for such extremes .

apnews.com

 

[Arantor]

BuT iT’s JuSt LiKe 1976 aNd We GoT oN wItH iT, wE eNjOyEd ThE sUnShInE.

-sigh-

 

[Tiffany]

@Arantor I put a laughing emoji to your post because I know it took effort to type out your phrase.

I'm not laughing at your heat though.

We will be 109F today. I will only be outside briefly for my dogs benefit. We will also be 14% humidity, which is dangerously low, and reasons to watch out for potential fires. I watered my lawn last night. I just might bend the rules and water again tonight. We are only allowed to water two specific days of the week. Water restriction's have been the new normal for the past decade. It's very frustrating, though if you wanted to you could just hand water. Yeah, ah-no, don't think so.

 

[Arantor]

I’m on an iPad, too! But I have grown tired of the people comparing it to 1976’s heatwave because it’s not the same, not the temperature, not the circumstances, not any of it but denialism is real enough.

 

[Tiffany]

iPad even more challenging!

Funny, here in Texas, in 1976, we had a massive snow and ice storm. No power for three days. My dad stoked a fire constantly, we cooked over the fire and I sketched by a Coleman lantern for light to stay busy.

 

[Retro]

BuT iT’s JuSt LiKe 1976 aNd We GoT oN wItH iT, wE eNjOyEd ThE sUnShInE.

-sigh-

I’m on an iPad, too! But I have grown tired of the people comparing it to 1976’s heatwave because it’s not the same, not the temperature, not the circumstances, not any of it but denialism is real enough.

Here's an article that debunks the climate change deniers you're talking about.

Yes, Britain had a heatwave in 1976. No, it was nothing like the crisis we’re in now | Ella Gilbert

As a climate scientist, I’m tired of hearing about that summer. The extreme heat we’re experiencing globally has no precedent, says Ella Gilbert of the British Antarctic Survey

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

@Retro Great article on distinguishing the difference between the UK's 1976 heatwave and now. I enjoyed reading the weather history of the UK too!

 

[Tiffany]

Is everyone doing okay, safe, have HVAC or staying cool somehow? We are getting all kinds of news of fires, deaths, airport issues, trains, streets buckling ect. vastly across the UK and Europe?

 

[Retro]

Thanks Tiffs, I'm rather hot, but otherwise fine. No natural disasters round this way.

I did walk out of work this afternoon into a wall of heat like I'd never felt before as at 40C, it's above body temperature. The sun on my skin was searing, but thankfully I had shade after a minute.

And scientists say there's worse to come. I'm actually scared of this now. It's no joke.

 

[Tiffany]

Agreed, there's no joke about this heat, it's world wide, and very extraordinary. Thank goodness, we have the invention of Air Conditioning and fans. Then there's always the freezer, ice packs. If you feel overheated, cool off your head first with an ice pack. Head and feet are temperature regulators. Sometimes too much heat can give you exertion headaches/migraines. The only way out of it for me is Tylenol and rest for about two hours because I can't move my head once it gets started. (Sorry, it's the mom coming out of me)

Yeah, there's nothing like that wall of heat when it hits you. It's very unpleasant, you almost can't breathe, and if you are not used to it rather dangerous. I'm glad so far where you live it's all calm. I'm just seeing so much news coming in on it and it just looks like Armageddon.

My little secret to keeping my skin burning from the hot sun, is wearing long sleeves. I know it's sounds antithetical, but a long sleeve shirt made of of thin jersey fabric works really well. The sun won't burn my skin and I don't heat up, I actually stay cooler.

I have an Earth Stewardship Group and one of my members posted this website today. I thought it was really interesting.

Interactives – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

climate.nasa.gov

When does your heat wave end?

We are at 109 to 110 degrees right now.

 

[Retro]

I got a bit of a heat headache at around 6pm and was going to take a pill for it, but I waited a bit and then I was lucky enough for it to go away on its own. Thanks for the cooling tips. I'm sorry you got a more severe headache, though. Hope you're ok now?

I just saw the news and it showed your area with the one of the highest temperatures at 39C.

 

[Tiffany]

I'm glad your headache passed. Heat headaches can be really painful. I'm good at the moment, thank you!!

We hit 109F to 110F degrees today. I can literally hear the vultures swirling above.....no just kidding....we are under a red flag warning too (severe fire danger), with the low humidity. I just hope we don't have someone fling a cigarette out of their car. We are surrounded by pastures though less because of homes being built, but it would be a terrible blaze, if one got started. I'm sooooooo ready for us to have a break in the heat. This has been going on since May; no rain either. Extremely rare summer. We are in a La Nina pattern (cooler water in the Pacific also less wind shear) but I've never seen it like this before.

 

[Retro]

Glad you're ok, Tiffs.

We've had some rain now which has taken the edge off it, thankfully and temperatures should keep dropping through the week. It looks like these two days of red zone heat emergency were it for now. Don't know when the next one will be, perhaps in a month or two, or hopefully next year.

 

[Tiffany]

@Retro You are so lucky to have had rain! We haven't had any rain since early May. I'm hoping when August gets here, the tropical moisture from the Atlantic tropical storm activity will make it's way inland from the Gulf of Mexico and give us some relief. I'm glad your temps will be dropping now and you are at least out of the red zone of heat. Hopefully, your roads, trains and airports will normalize a bit too.

 

[Retro]

Tiffs, today was much cooler after the rain and the cloud cover really helps too.

Hope you get some rain too. It's always an inconvenience until it's desperately needed.

 

[Tiffany]

Glad it was cooler! We haven't had cloud cover either for months, except the other day when I looked out of my kitchen window and I saw morning clouds for the first time. A possibility of a stray thunderstorm tonight. Ha...I believe it when I see it. Our lakes are needing the rain too. They are getting pretty low.

 

[Retro]

Here's an article which helps to explain why positive action against climate change has been held back so much: big, corporate interests clubbed together to ensure that it was blocked at every turn. Corruption much?

And now we're really suffering the effects of climate change. Not in a few year time. Right now.

Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem. The little-known meeting - between some of America's biggest industrial players and a PR genius - forged a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the consequences of which are all around us.

The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change

Thirty years ago, a bold plan was hatched to persuade people that climate change was not a problem.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Arantor]

Can’t say I’m in any way surprised. When it comes to doing the right thing or making money… well, as they used to say, “greed is good”.

 

[Retro]

This all happening due to climate change. Just because the general public didn't notice anything since the UK just about made it, doesn't mean that we can stick our heads in the sand about it.

Once we start having blackouts, they will be sudden, dramatic and severe. We must brace ourselves for future blackouts.

London narrowly avoided post-heatwave blackout

The hottest UK days on record led to extreme constraints in the power system amid hiked up demand.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Arantor]

It wasn't as consequence-free as people think, actually. Aside from a record number of callouts to the fire services, the tech world happened to notice.

Google, Oracle cloud servers suffer outage in UK heatwave

Clouds burst as nation hits 40C

www.theregister.com

Google, Oracle clouds still affected by UK heatwave

Some hard disks appear to have cooked, along with bit barn designers' best laid plans

www.theregister.com

If Google has trouble keeping their datacentre cold in this heat, what does that say about the situation?

As for blackouts, don't worry, no-one will be able to afford electricity soon anyway once the October price rises kick in. Unless they're heating stables, of course, that's *fine*.

 

[Retro]

I better start planning those NerdZone articles now.

You know, I was thinking of writing a satire article on NZ going down sometimes to save power, but it might actually not be so ridiculously far fetched if AWS start imposing restrictions on their customers.

 

[Arantor]

These bigger DCs have generators and whatnot to cope with power connection issues. I don't think AWS is the one at risk here; they were flawless the entire heatwave, both the ones in Ireland and London were fine throughout - I happened to be working on things in both of them.

But I had to do an emergency migration out of the Google DC where Siteground was hosting a business site... needless to say I am getting our disaster recovery processes and policies sorted out...

 

[Retro]

Yes, NZ stayed up flawlessly, too. I did notice that. I'm surprised at Google though, who are in the same class of size as AWS.