16 comments

  • childofhedgehog an hour ago ago

    We know that cutting down trees increases heat and intensifies drought but we continue to do it, how bad do things need to get before we reverse course?

    • antonymoose 26 minutes ago ago

      What’s the alternative aside from forced sterilization and starvation to decrease the human footprint?

      • scott_w 10 minutes ago ago

        Pretty sure there’s a middle ground between “forced sterilisation” and “boil humans to death in 50°C heat,” don’t you?

      • RunningDroid 9 minutes ago ago

        Hint: The birth rate of a population is inversely correlated with wealth.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility

      • prawn 15 minutes ago ago

        Educate women? Isn’t that broadly considered to reduce birth rate?

  • jyounker an hour ago ago

    "But global warming is a hoax. And even if it wasn't it's not our fault. People couldn't be the cause. And even if it is our fault there's nothing we could do about it."

    We have broken our world for the greed of a few. History will not be kind to us.

    • elcritch 31 minutes ago ago

      See I could agree with the first part. But then you add We have broken our world for the greed of a few. After that I sort of understand why so many folks reject the former – they're rejecting the empty moralizing.

      If you truly believe climate change is real then also admit that "We all have broken the world", except perhaps some uncontacted peoples in the Amazon.

      Anyone who has ridden in an automobile, a train, a plane, a powered boat has contributed. Anyone who has used or purchased goods transported with any of the above has as well. Anyone who's eaten crops grown with large amounts of industrial fertilizers has contributed (e.g. most of the world).

      The oil companies just produce what everyone in the world wants and wants cheap.

      • probably_wrong 3 minutes ago ago

        Not everyone's footprint is the same, though.

        If I cut down my plane flight in half that means I'll take a plane every two years, meaning I'll also see my family half as much. You'd also have to include that, since I travel economy, you'd divide my contribution by ~350.

        If Taylor Swift cuts her plane travel by half she'd "only" make 51 trips a year [1] on a plane that carries 12 and would still make more money in a year than what I'll see in my lifetime.

        IMO, saying that both of us are contributing equally as much to global warming is just unfair.

        [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-spent-160-hours...

      • genxy 24 minutes ago ago

        Not all participants are equal.

        You are conflating participation from equality, yes everyone participates in the system, it takes a lot of privileged to be able to disassociate ones self from the system itself. The power dynamic within the system favors the wealthy, whom have decided that this is the path we are going down.

      • baq 15 minutes ago ago

        two things can be true at the same time. oil and coal before it pulled billions of people out of extreme poverty, but the debt taken on in terms of CO2 will come due. if the gulf stream stops, we're all in for a ride - or worse, our grandchildren.

        I'm personally in the 'drill and burn as fast as possible in a mad rush to fusion power' camp so we get a way to fix this shit rather than the 'stop civilization from doing its thing overnight' camp. alas, neither is happening.

        • actionfromafar a minute ago ago

          But then why not "mad rush to build battery banks everywhere" instead of "mad rush to fusion power"?

          It can't very well be any more expensive.

          Batteries give returns right now, fusion only in the future. Maybe.

      • Kiterman 26 minutes ago ago

        If it weren't for oil companies going out of their way to sabotage alternative fuels through politicians, misinformation, and a myriad of other abuses I'd be more inclined to believe you. Not everyone is equally culpable in this, there are many who have been trying to get rid of oil as the main fuel source for a long time.

        • stavros 16 minutes ago ago

          Hell, even Greenpeace had a huge campaign against nuclear, ensuring we burn coal for decades more than we should have.

  • ourmandave an hour ago ago

    47 celsius is 116.6 fahrenheit.

  • newsclues an hour ago ago

    I wonder if data centres are as bad as cities for urban heat island effect

    • jl6 41 minutes ago ago

      The physical footprint of a data center is far smaller than a city, so that would limit heat island effects that arise from things like surface albedo (which are only material over large areas). In terms of raw heat dissipation though, an exceptionally large data center could compete with a small city.