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davieG

Technology, Science and the Environment.

By davieG, in General Chat

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leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Sparrowhawk said:

And - Tuesday has beaten Monday as the globally hottest day ever...

Did you think the future would be quite that near?

Oh dear.

 

Not quite that near.

 

Still, it's great for the Earth to be a record breaker... right?

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted

And on this auspicious day...

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66108553

 

"Cutting oil and gas production would be "dangerous and irresponsible", the boss of energy giant Shell has told the BBC.

Wael Sawan insisted that the world still "desperately needs oil and gas" as moves to renewable energy were not happening fast enough to replace it."

 

Bloke profiting hugely from status quo at expense of future tries to reinforce status quo by pushing false dichotomy.

As per Mdme Fyson in the article: "The idea that it's a choice between our addiction to fossil fuels or working by candlelight is a gross misrepresentation of reality, when we know renewables are cleaner, cheaper and better for public health."

 

 

dsr-burnley

dsr-burnley

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, leicsmac said:

And on this auspicious day...

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66108553

 

"Cutting oil and gas production would be "dangerous and irresponsible", the boss of energy giant Shell has told the BBC.

Wael Sawan insisted that the world still "desperately needs oil and gas" as moves to renewable energy were not happening fast enough to replace it."

 

Bloke profiting hugely from status quo at expense of future tries to reinforce status quo by pushing false dichotomy.

As per Mdme Fyson in the article: "The idea that it's a choice between our addiction to fossil fuels or working by candlelight is a gross misrepresentation of reality, when we know renewables are cleaner, cheaper and better for public health."

 

 

If renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy, why is the government reintroducing a £170 tax on electricity bills from this month?

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, dsr-burnley said:

If renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy, why is the government reintroducing a £170 tax on electricity bills from this month?

Good question. Where is that tax going, exactly? I don't know.

 

NB. Economic concerns, on this matter, as difficult as they may seem, are the easiest ones to solve. Dustbowl land and dried-up water sources serving countless millions of people are a bit trickier (depending on one's ethical compass, of course).

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66129200

 

"Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell by 33.6% in the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's term compared with the same period in 2022, the government says.  Its suggests the rainforest shrank by 2,649 sq km this January-June, down from 3,988 sq km in those six months last year under President Bolsonaro."

 

Amazing how much things can change for the better when a country doesn't have a self interested sociopath in charge.

  • Like 2
leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66141559

 

"US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called on China to work with Washington to fight the "existential threat" of climate change.

 

...While Ms Yellen wants China to join the US in funding the worldwide transition to renewables, the sticking point is China's insistence that it is still a developing country.  Beijing says it is up to the US and Europe to pay for the energy transition, because they have historically created most of the emissions."

 

.... for pitys sake, do we really have the time on this global problem to bitch about who is going to pick up the tab and exactly who did fvck knows what fvck knows when? Come to an agreement and get on with it.

 

Nationalism is a puerile disease, Einstein had it right. And it will lead to no good end.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66143682

 

"Texas and part of the south-west of the US are enduring a searing heatwave. At one point, more than 120 million Americans were under some form of heat advisory, the US National Weather Service said. That is more than one in three of the total population.  In the UK, the June heat didn't just break all-time records, it smashed them. It was 0.9C hotter than the previous record, set back in 1940. That is a huge margin.  There is a similar story of unprecedented hot weather in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.  No surprise, then, that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather forecasts said that globally, June was the hottest on record."

 

"...It's easy to think of this exceptionally hot weather as unusual, but the depressing truth is that climate change means it is now normal to experience record-breaking temperatures."

 

Well, it's probably going to get a bit worse before it gets better, then. Exactly how much worse is still in the hands of our species.

  • Sad 1
Zear0

Zear0

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66143682

 

"Texas and part of the south-west of the US are enduring a searing heatwave. At one point, more than 120 million Americans were under some form of heat advisory, the US National Weather Service said. That is more than one in three of the total population.  In the UK, the June heat didn't just break all-time records, it smashed them. It was 0.9C hotter than the previous record, set back in 1940. That is a huge margin.  There is a similar story of unprecedented hot weather in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.  No surprise, then, that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather forecasts said that globally, June was the hottest on record."

 

"...It's easy to think of this exceptionally hot weather as unusual, but the depressing truth is that climate change means it is now normal to experience record-breaking temperatures."

 

Well, it's probably going to get a bit worse before it gets better, then. Exactly how much worse is still in the hands of our species.

Good job I've just fitted a 3.5kW domestic air conditioning system. The definition of positive feedback...

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Good job I've just fitted a 3.5kW domestic air conditioning system. The definition of positive feedback...

To be honest,  the UK (in new builds anyway) might have to get used to the idea of aircon as standard purely as a resilience measure given what's coming.

 

Of course, that then increases energy demand further, so it had better be generated the right way.

The Bear

The Bear

Posted
Posted

The current El Nina has exacerbated the current weather patterns but the underlying climate change has meant it has had a much greater effect than its previous cycles. 

  • Like 1
Zear0

Zear0

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, The Bear said:

The current El Nina has exacerbated the current weather patterns but the underlying climate change has meant it has had a much greater effect than its previous cycles. 

Can I be the pedant and say El Nino (no idea how to squiggle the n)... 

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66132769

 

"Crawford Lake, a small body of water in Ontario, Canada, is being put forward as the location that best records humanity's impacts on Earth.

Scientists are trying to define a new geological time period to recognise the changes we've made to the planet, and Crawford is their model example.

Its sediments have captured fallout from intense fossil fuel burning, and even the plutonium from bomb tests."

 

For better or worse, humans have changed the Earth so much in recent times it does deserve a designation as a new era, I think.

 

As an aside, it's fascinating how we can utilise ice cores, rocks and mud (in this case) to gain sharp snapshots of historical conditions. Sometimes folks wonder about how we can be so sure about historical levels of...well, anything. This is how.

Jon the Hat

Jon the Hat

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66132769

 

"Crawford Lake, a small body of water in Ontario, Canada, is being put forward as the location that best records humanity's impacts on Earth.

Scientists are trying to define a new geological time period to recognise the changes we've made to the planet, and Crawford is their model example.

Its sediments have captured fallout from intense fossil fuel burning, and even the plutonium from bomb tests."

 

For better or worse, humans have changed the Earth so much in recent times it does deserve a designation as a new era, I think.

 

As an aside, it's fascinating how we can utilise ice cores, rocks and mud (in this case) to gain sharp snapshots of historical conditions. Sometimes folks wonder about how we can be so sure about historical levels of...well, anything. This is how.

It is very clever stuff, although as this shows it can only tell you about a specific area, so no doubt there must be many such cores being measured.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It is very clever stuff, although as this shows it can only tell you about a specific area, so no doubt there must be many such cores being measured.

Global atmospheric effects and temperature changes can be measured pretty much anywhere with the means to record them, like this place. There are many cores being measured, but mostly just to confirm what other ones say and to perhaps add a little bit more to the overall picture.

  • Like 1
FoxesDeb

FoxesDeb

Posted
Posted

We're currently staying in a little town called Albir in the Alicante region, and I can confirm it's definitely very hot here, outside it feels like a hairdryer is on :unsure:

 

Also many people who have lived where we do further south in Mojácar for much longer than we have are suggesting that the current heat here is not normal for this time of year.

 

I am well aware though that the plural of anecdotes does not equal data @leicsmac:thumbup:

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

We're currently staying in a little town called Albir in the Alicante region, and I can confirm it's definitely very hot here, outside it feels like a hairdryer is on :unsure:

 

Also many people who have lived where we do further south in Mojácar for much longer than we have are suggesting that the current heat here is not normal for this time of year.

 

I am well aware though that the plural of anecdotes does not equal data @leicsmac:thumbup:

In this case, the anecdotes are very much backed by the data. :thumbup:

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