
Paris breaks all-time high temperature as deadly heat wave grips Europe - spking
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/scorching-heat-produces-all-time-record-highs-in-belgium-netherlands-as-western-europe-swelters-under-heat-wave/70008886
======
kareeeem
Climate change isn’t disputed by logic. It’s being disputed by the commercial
entities that are protecting their $billion/$trillion industries who,
otherwise, would have to face big losses. We all know the industries that are
negatively impacting the environment. Their selfish stakeholders have managed
to successfully create a reality distortion field of denial. This article,
with lack of mentioning global warming, is proof.

~~~
gridlockd
It's pretty short-sighted to blame individual companies for providing what
_the people_ want: Affordable energy and transportation.

You see what happens if you drive up prices for gasoline in France: People
start rioting in the streets.

If you had gasoline prices like that in the US, whole states would stop
functioning.

Also, most CO2 emissions are from countries where people are far poorer than
in developed nations. Are you expecting them to become even poorer?

If you don't have a solution to these _economic_ concerns, don't be surprised
when world leaders adopt a "devil may care" attitude.

~~~
kgabis
Please see [https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/10/CO2-emissions-
by-...](https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/10/CO2-emissions-by-income-
and-region.png).

86% of CO2 emissions are created by people in upper-middle income and high
income groups.

~~~
gridlockd
This doesn't contradict what I said. The OECD defines "upper-middle-income"
countries as 4000$-12,000$. This includes major developing countries such as
Russia, Brazil and China, all of which have far lower incomes than the US or
most of Europe.

For reference:

[http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/archive/2017/images...](http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/archive/2017/images/figures-
png/WLD-income-map.png)

------
gilbetron
Not only broke it, destroyed it: +2.2C (+4.0F). That's incredible, in a
terrifying, "well, I guess this is going to happen" kind of way.

~~~
criddell
If every disaster contains opportunities, what are they here?

The obvious thing would be investing in green technology, but what else? Are
HVAC equipment producers about to see a big uptick in sales?

~~~
sangnoir
Vast swathes of land in Russia that have been frigid are becoming arable. Lots
of formerly inland properties will become seafront all around the world -
invest wisely!

~~~
bodyfour
Temperate, not necessarily arable. Arable implies soil conditions, etc which
most of these areas probably don't have.

~~~
sangnoir
I meant _arable_ : the soil (not) being frozen is one of the factors affecting
arability, right? Russia has this to gain (with precipitation being possibly
at risk) [https://phys.org/news/2018-05-climate-
arable.html](https://phys.org/news/2018-05-climate-arable.html)

------
hleszek
In 2014, there was a fake weather report to imagine what would the temperature
be in 2050.

[https://www.rtbf.be/info/medias/detail_canicule-un-
bulletin-...](https://www.rtbf.be/info/medias/detail_canicule-un-bulletin-
meteo-fictif-pour-2050-se-realise-avec-30-ans-d-avance?id=10279052)

Seems like we are 30 years too early

------
codegrappler
For me it’s easy to accept that climate change is happening but predicting
what will unfold in the next 30-50 years seems nearly impossible. Humans have
historically been bad at predicting what will happen even 20-30 years in the
future. The media is even worse ([https://skepticalscience.com/ice-age-
predictions-in-1970s-in...](https://skepticalscience.com/ice-age-predictions-
in-1970s-intermediate.htm)). Articles can be found from at least the sixties
predicting the end of the earth in X years due to climate change. Can you
really blame people for being skeptical given what they’ve been told over the
years? On top of that, climate change isn’t the only existential threat that
humanity faces. How do you rank its importance, and thus the level of focus
and resourcing it gets, relative to other threats? I understand that we
shouldn’t do nothing. I also understand that some of the extreme climate
change proposals likely over estimate the magnitude of the problem.

~~~
sp332
Some of that was misinformation spread by Exxon, whose scientists predicted
global warming fairly well (as a global average anyway) 40 years ago.
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-
about-...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-
climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/) So the real science is not as fickle as
was reported.

------
mettamage
Pro tip for people who do not have airconditioning in their houses:

1\. Go to universities

2\. Go to co-working spaces

Go to any place to flee the heat.

I'm at my university right now, and I'm not even noticing it's as hot as it is
since the airconditioning is doing an amazing job here.

~~~
floatrock
I know you're in triage mode helping the immediately-affected get safe, but
given the climate change undercurrents of all this, a statement like

> I'm not even noticing it's as hot as it is since the airconditioning is
> doing an amazing job here.

...just leaves a frustrating and poor taste.

What's powering all that air conditioning? It's not free.

Get safe now, but don't lose sight that it's all inter-related.

~~~
post_break
If your alternative is to just stay hot, it doesn't really help. Those places
will be in AC whether this person goes there or not.

------
rb808
I like the viewpoint that while yes its the hottest summer for the last few
decades, its also the coolest summer for the next few decades.

~~~
chewz
It is actually pretty cold July here in Poland, after hot June. Few nights
before I have used electric blanket. We have northern circulation for 4th
week.

------
AdamJacobMuller
> French energy company EDF stated that it would shut down two nuclear
> reactors in an attempt to limit the amount of heating water used to keep the
> reactors cool at Golftech nuclear power plant.

I don't see why that would be a necessary or even good thing? Surely they must
have higher demand for power from AC loads with the heat, even if AC isn't
quite as prevalent in the EU as the US.

~~~
Brakenshire
Because reactors need a lot of water as coolant, and they were designed with
assumptions about how high the temperature of the water would be, which are
now being broken. They started building that reactor in 1982, before they
understood that temperatures were in the process of rising 1.5C (up to now).

~~~
nraynaud
The more accurate answer is that to not cook everything downstream they are
forbidden from releasing to hot a water. If the upstream is already hot, they
have no margin to not cook the fish downstream so they close shop. (It’s a bit
more complicated since it depends also on the River size, but the main factor
is downstream temp.)

~~~
penagwin
Also to add, the water doesn't have to be hot enough to literally cook fish to
be an issue - a big concern is how the different micro-
organisms/plants/fish/etc react to the temperature change of there normal
habitat.

------
henrik_w
No mention of climate change in the article.

~~~
y4mi
I was talking about climate change with a co-worker on Monday.

He still doesn't "believe" in it. "Nobody can know if it's happening" and
"earth went through countless high and low temperature passes over the years.
It's nothing special"

It was a great example of today's reality we live in. It's truly an age of
misinformation.

~~~
lordnacho
It's a funny kind of fooled by randomness, the argument that there is
variation, so it wasn't caused by a specific effect.

Suppose Iceland were to win the World Cup. Would people be saying that Iceland
had spent a bunch of effort training players, or would they be saying that
it's natural for different teams to win, and that it had to happen eventually?

One major issue is that probability and statistics are very far down the
pecking order of what is considered part of a good education. A huge number of
people think "it varies randomly" means the same as "there's no way to know
any more".

~~~
user5994461
>>> Suppose Iceland were to win the World Cup. Would people be saying that
Iceland had spent a bunch of effort training players, or would they be saying
that it's natural for different teams to win, and that it had to happen
eventually?

People would be saying both and they would all be right. It takes both luck
and training to win.

------
vbuwivbiu
Climate Crisis

Any news source that reports "record-breaking temperatures" is, deliberately
or not, making these dangerously increasing temperatures sound like a good
thing.

This extreme heat is costing us $$$

~~~
kbenson
No, record-breaking means it broke a record. If it was used almost exclusively
for positive things, you might have a point, but it is routinely used for
negative things as well. For example, "storm" is the third most related topic
based on Google trends.[1]

1: [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=record-
breaking&g...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=record-
breaking&geo=US)

~~~
vbuwivbiu
There's no universal law that declares it has to be reported as such

------
b_tterc_p
Do heatwaves pose a threat to local fauna and flora?

~~~
xyzzy_plugh
Yes, they can be devistating to agriculture as well. Animals are just as
susceptible to heat stroke and dehydration.

Plants are of course similarly susceptible to extreme temperatures. There are
tactics farmers can apply such as coating their crops but there are limits.

~~~
saalweachter
One thing that should worry you in particular is that there is a temperature
range photosynthesis happens in, and that temperature range ends at about 40C.

This isn't necessarily an immediate problem for plants, because plants store
extra calories generated from photosynthesis for future use, and when the
temperature is too hot they can switch from photosynthesis to respiration,
consuming their stored sugars for energy. During this time, plants become net
producers of CO2 instead of net consumers, taking in oxygen, burning their
sugars (in the same slow chemical burn we use) and releasing the CO2 at the
end.

This is an immediate concern for _us_ , because those stored calories are what
_we_ wanted to eat. Plants may _survive_ higher temperatures, but they produce
fewer stored calories in the form of delicious fruits, vegetables and grains
for us to eat. Climate change is complicated for agriculture, but extra days
above (or close to) 40C is just bad, bad, bad.

------
geddy
We're seeing record shattering temperatures in different parts of the world a
lot this yet - yet the article doesn't even mention climate change. As long as
we keep shoveling meat into our faces 5x per day and the population keeps
expanding at break-neck rate, we have massive heatwaves and endless storms to
look forward to. And then that road will come to an end, and it won't be
pretty.

~~~
bad_user
> _As long as we keep shoveling meat into our faces 5x per day_

Right, because that's your biggest problem.

It couldn't be the fossil fuels used for transportation (29%) or the industry
that produces the goods and the raw materials like cement (22%), the
production of electricity (28%), or even the commercial and residential
emissions (12%).

Oh no, our biggest problem has to be agriculture (9%). And let's not talk
about the use of fertilizers, or of the transportation of food for thousands
of miles before it reaches the table. Let's also not talk about the practice
of burning crop residues, or of the seas of plastic.

The problem has to be meat and the solution is to shame meat eaters.

~~~
geddy
Yes, meat and meat eaters are a very big problem here. Not the only one as you
pointed out, but look at is this way:

\- Industrial regulations will take years if not forever to be reformed to
offset the damage in that sector. You also have big money in keeping things
"business as usual", so good luck with that. Things need to be made.

\- Transportation: it will take years to get all the gasoline-fueled vehicles
off the road, although there are some good strides being made here. However,
the biggest issue is that electric cars are prohibitively expensive, and
people still need to get to work.

\- Production of electricity: again, good strides being made in this
department but it's still years away. We need electricity.

\- Meat eating: you, the people next to you, _everyone_ can immediately decide
this very second to do their part. Here's the thing about food though - human
beings don't need to eat meat. There is plenty of plant-based food out there
and at this day and age and depending on your location, highly restricting
your meat and dairy use is the easiest it's ever been.

Out of the list of issues you described contributing to climate change, the
one you are annoyed at me for bringing up is the only one that you personally
can fix, entirely by yourself. Yet, you choose not to, and I don't really
understand why.

tl;dr: All those other issues require change at a massive level that the
"average Joe" can't do a whole lot about. But eating no or less meat requires
minimal effort, everyone can do it starting right this second, and it has a
huge payoff. Not just on a climate impact scale, but on a global health level.

If people won't even make that first step that can be done for no effort, how
do you think any of those huge issues will get figured out?

~~~
bad_user
> _you, the people next to you, _everyone_ can immediately decide this very
> second to do their part_

Or, with all due respect, I can tell you to fuck off.

My problem with environmental movements is people basically bring their own
beliefs and agendas in, with no support from science and then rub it in other
people's faces, trying to turn their religion into policy.

We could have a chat about how most vegans are deficient in certain vitamins
and proteins, making the vegan diet, in fact, more challenging than any other
diet. We could also talk about how animals and plants could be raised
sustainably. But there would be no point to it because your mind is already
set.

And it's incredibly frustrating to see the minds of Silicon Valley invest in
fake meat instead of solving problems that actually matter, but that's not
new.

------
olivermarks
[http://www.weatheraction.com/resource/data/wact1/docs/PiersC...](http://www.weatheraction.com/resource/data/wact1/docs/PiersCorbynSWINDONisFAB220619CHALLENGEtoWARMISMafterPortoPresI.pdf)
Piers Corbyn's latest (June 22nd) deck

~~~
etrautmann
well that's disturbing but interesting to be aware of. I'm surprised that this
doesn't innately trigger any reader's quack detector

~~~
olivermarks
We are bombarded daily with hysteria about the world ending due to climate
change caused by humans. There are lots of opposing views but they are almost
invariably laughed off because 'it's been decided'. I'm on the fence about
Corbyn but he's serious enough to warrant attention

------
tehjoker
Cut the military and substantially cut emissions. Consumer decisions aren't up
to this task: consumers accept what is sold to them, and what is sold is
driven by profitability - the ability to make something that can be made
exclusive and sold repeatedly. That is a requirement which walls off most good
ideas and forces unlimited consumption of natural resources.

[https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-
standard/2010s...](https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-
standard/2010s/2019/no-1373-january-2019/material-world-the-military-
contribution-to-climate-change/)

------
stirfrykitty
Meanwhile here in Texas, that level of heat is business as usual. I get that
most places in the EU don't have aircon, as they rarely need it, barring
southern EU, which I have spent considerable amounts of time in. I far prefer
the misty moors of England over anything with tons of sun.

Having grown up in Europe, I do prefer their weather when it's normal for
them. If only I could convince my wife to move somewhere with a proper 4
seasons rather than this hideous backwater of heat and humidity.

~~~
tsneed290
A major difference is most Texans make use of air conditioning. Paris largely
does not.

~~~
hestipod
Growing up in the US then living for quite some time in Europe it was
initially weird for me to not see AC everywhere, but I quickly realized it was
much more comfortable for me. Something about being in a cold building and
then going out into a swamp heater just makes it more miserable. Maybe its
slow acclimation or some subjective thing.

~~~
stirfrykitty
Not really acclimation, but willingness to suffer through it. I hate it when
my children want to play outside because I'm out there for less than five
minutes and my shirt is soaked through with sweat, it's unbearably hot, and
the insects are legion. When I leave work in the late afternoon, it's so hot
my car takes 10 minutes to cool down to where it's comfortable inside. By then
my Right Guard has gone left and I'm having cold air blowing on wet skin. It
really does suck.

