
Greenhouse-gas emissions are increasing the frequency of heatwaves - pseudolus
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/07/25/greenhouse-gas-emissions-are-increasing-the-frequency-of-heatwaves
======
radicalbyte
I'm sitting here in the middle of The Netherlands. It's almost 40c outside
(104f) and 26.5c (80f) inside.

There's something seriously wrong with our climate and we need to take action
now. Not in 5 years, not in 10 years. Now. The developed and developing world
should be planning to decommission all coal power and replace it with
renewables over a 2-10 year period. We should be ramping up the planting of
forests now (we've got 50 years to work out how to sequester that carbon) to
give us breathing space to solve the hard issues like concrete and oil.

I'm sure that even the far right can see the benefit of living in a world
where we are free from the oil Sheiks and even totally free from the energy
monopolies and government? Where we can generate our own energy and use it to
power our transport, houses and lives?

We're moving to a larger house next year, I'm 100% going to get sun panels
installed and the insulation improved. I'll also see if we can do something to
actively cool the house (an airco is easy to install but it needs to be driven
by the panels to make sense).

~~~
Agustus
We need to first get serious about definitions and goals. The first step is to
move away from calling it climate change to climate affectation. Climate
change is a trap prone opening where people ask: do you believe in climate
change? If answering in the negative, you are branded anti-science when your
answer meant that you do not believe in significant anthropogenic climate
change or some variant therein, which allows for healthy debates. If we can
start from here we can start to have discussions.

Next, we need to lay out what we can and want to do: reduce CO2, capture CO2,
or not care about CO2 and put a sun visor up in space. Then we need to
identify what is politically feasible, not some Kyoto or Paris accords
nonsense, we are talking people are going to do it; a good example is CO2
reduction enforcement in China, no matter what we say the other countries are
doing, China does not care more than lip service, just like USSR and India,
about the environment at their developmental stage. If you are not willing to
go to war (economically or confrontationally) with China to make them follow
the world rules, then everything everyone else does is worthless. If you want
an example of the timidity you start at, look to Iran and its flouting of
rules it agreed to abide to on nuclear weapon development and this is a
country with a stated goal of destroying other countries.

Next, an honest discussion about energy sources. Solar and wind need to be
dropped as energy sources, it is perfect for people on their houses, but solar
kills natural landscapes and wind kills birds. The battery storage is not
going anywhere and we are not providing an answer with these technologies to
base generation. Nuclear energy may not be economically viable, but it is the
one that is environmentally viable and should be given the subsidies we funnel
to the companies; looking at you Solyndra.

Finally, as a thought experiment, what is the unaffected climate change that
would have occurred and if we go below that rate with our actions, do we undo
that?

~~~
Tade0
Nuclear energy suffers from heatwaves the same way all thermal power plants
do, so its reliability is questionable.

Recently France had to temporarily shut off 5GW(8% of total) of power due to
weather conditions:

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-electricity-
heatwa...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-electricity-
heatwave/heatwave-to-affect-french-nuclear-power-generation-beyond-
july-26-edf-idUSKCN1UK0HR)

Also the LCOE of nuclear is way to high. Currently a combination of renewables
and gas plants is the fastest and cheapest way to reduce emissions.

Past a certain point it won't help, but given how batteries are getting
cheaper at an exponential rate, we may not reach it before they become
commercially viable.

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eledumb
It's already too late.

The generally accepted climate models are watered down versions that were
acceptable to big business and politicians, it gave them the wiggle room to
pass the buck. "We still have time, someone else can fix it later."

The thawing of the permafrost will release massive amounts of CO2, and
methane, as well as nitrous oxide, way more than what was expected. The
thawing of the permafrost will continue to drive warming, causing more
permafrost the thaw, not to mention the burning of that thawed permafrost. The
earth and climate are already locked into a positive feedback loop and nothing
short of a super volcano or a large meteor strike will interrupt the loop.

What humans have set into motion can't be slowed or stopped by any human
activity, all we can do is be witness to what's happening. Our hubris, which
got us here in the first place, will continue to drive our belief that we can
fix this.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Maybe it can't be stopped, but it can obviously be slowed. And slowing climate
change can have a huge impact on people and the environment.

The interventions to slow climate change and to stop it are the same. A failed
attempt to stop climate change is a successful attempt to slow it.

Attitudes like yours cause people to throw up their hands and do nothing,
accelerating climate change instead of slowing it.

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jacquesm
In the midst of one here in NL at the moment. 39.3 celsius yesterday.

~~~
radicalbyte
It's worse today. I've given up working, it's too hot. And I need to cycle for
45 mins in this later to pick the kids up.

I'm going to do my best to join the Climate Strike in September
([https://globalclimatestrike.net](https://globalclimatestrike.net)) even
though it's going to be difficult with a newborn (due first week of
September).

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FrojoS
If you can't get through the paywall, you can use the following trick: Load
the page and immediately press Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C (or equivalent for other OS than
Windows). You can then paste the article elsewhere, e.g. pastebin.

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aszantu
I just wondered if it's really the CO², maybe we just generate too much heat
in general and that's what's warming the planet? Charging the phone, phone
heats up, having the laptop up -> heat. All the household appliances generate
heat. Germany. There was this one or two days in usa where no airplanes were
flying(after 9/11) and the temperature over there dropped by 1-2 degrees.

~~~
Bayart
The amount of heat we generate doesn't register compared to the sun.

