Climate Change - a poll

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k1103vljqo

 

A second spell of temperatures well over 30C before we've even got to the end of June - how unusual is this and how much is climate change to blame?

Temperatures of 34C are possible on Monday or Tuesday in south-east England.

They've been triggered by an area of high pressure getting "stuck" over Europe, known as a heat dome.

But climate scientists are clear that the heat will have inevitably been boosted by our warming climate.

Some people might feel these temperatures are "just like summer" – and it's true they are a lot cooler than the record 40C and more the UK hit in July 2022.

But it's important to be aware just how unusual mid-thirties temperatures are for the UK.

In the second half of the 20th Century, one in ten years saw highs of 35C or more, BBC analysis of Met Office data shows.

But this heat is becoming more common. Between 2015 and 2024, half of the years saw 35C or above.

 

A good plain-language explanation of what's going on right now. I would hope that garden-variety ignorance is becoming less of an excuse on this matter, which leaves only the wilful and rather more damaging kind. 

[FoxesDeb]

Spain records highs of 46C and France under alert as Europe swelters in heatwave | Europe weather | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/C09QIjyu2Va5HsQQw

 

 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

Spain records highs of 46C and France under alert as Europe swelters in heatwave | Europe weather | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/C09QIjyu2Va5HsQQw

 

 

It's almost as if these events aren't "just weather" and are part of an overall trend that is more and more rapidly becoming normalised, isn't it?

 

I'm glad at least 70% of pollsters here at least are on board with that and roughly another 20% are at least on board with the fact that there is a problem even if they're not necessarily cogent of the cause and solution.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg33r1xgymo

 

From Somalia to mainland Europe, the past two years have seen some of the most ravaging droughts in recorded history, made worse by climate change, according to a UN-backed report.

Describing drought as a "silent killer" which "creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion" the report said it had exacerbated issues like poverty and ecosystem collapse.

The report highlighted impacts in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of this year.

 

....By January 2023, the worst drought in 70 years had hit the Horn of Africa, coming from years of failed rainy seasons in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

This followed the deaths of an estimated 43,000 people in Somalia in 2022 from drought-linked hunger.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd0v29vydx4t

 

Much of Europe and parts of the UK have been in the grip of an intense heatwave over the last few days, with temperatures continuing to soar today.

Pictures coming in from across the continent show people attempting to find some relief from the heat at public water fountains and water distribution points.

Temperatures exceeded 40C in both Portugal and Spain, days after both countries experienced their hottest June days on record.

France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Italy also experienced scorching temperatures which saw Paris under a red heatwave alert and two deaths recorded in the Italian cities of Bologna and Bardonecchia.

Wildfires continued to rage on the western coast of Turkey as more than 50,000 people have been evacuated from impacted areas.

England also had its warmest June on record, according to the Met Office, while the UK saw the second warmest June since records began in 1884.

Temperatures are expected to fall significantly in the UK from Wednesday, but will remain high in parts of Europe.

 

Good news first, the world's in great s- ...uhhh, never mind. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

5 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg33r1xgymo

 

From Somalia to mainland Europe, the past two years have seen some of the most ravaging droughts in recorded history, made worse by climate change, according to a UN-backed report.

Describing drought as a "silent killer" which "creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion" the report said it had exacerbated issues like poverty and ecosystem collapse.

The report highlighted impacts in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of this year.

 

....By January 2023, the worst drought in 70 years had hit the Horn of Africa, coming from years of failed rainy seasons in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

This followed the deaths of an estimated 43,000 people in Somalia in 2022 from drought-linked hunger.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd0v29vydx4t

 

Much of Europe and parts of the UK have been in the grip of an intense heatwave over the last few days, with temperatures continuing to soar today.

Pictures coming in from across the continent show people attempting to find some relief from the heat at public water fountains and water distribution points.

Temperatures exceeded 40C in both Portugal and Spain, days after both countries experienced their hottest June days on record.

France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Italy also experienced scorching temperatures which saw Paris under a red heatwave alert and two deaths recorded in the Italian cities of Bologna and Bardonecchia.

Wildfires continued to rage on the western coast of Turkey as more than 50,000 people have been evacuated from impacted areas.

England also had its warmest June on record, according to the Met Office, while the UK saw the second warmest June since records began in 1884.

Temperatures are expected to fall significantly in the UK from Wednesday, but will remain high in parts of Europe.

 

Good news first, the world's in great s- ...uhhh, never mind. 

iT's cAllEd sumMer!

[CornwallFox]

Struggling to comprehend that 28 people on this one website don't think it's real. Proper head in the sand stuff. 

 

Given the existential nature of the threat, a shame a further 20% don't think it's human caused, despite a wealth of evidence to show it is. Oil money is doing a very good job of muddying the waters, having people churn our the most basic of basic arguments against to convince some. 

 

For anybody interested the last IPCC report it is at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/ 

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Struggling to comprehend that 28 people on this one website don't think it's real. Proper head in the sand stuff. 

 

Given the existential nature of the threat, a shame a further 20% don't think it's human caused, despite a wealth of evidence to show it is. Oil money is doing a very good job of muddying the waters, having people churn our the most basic of basic arguments against to convince some. 

 

For anybody interested the last IPCC report it is at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/ 

For what it's worth, this is actually a pretty good representation of wider UK polling data - from the stuff that I've seen in UK polls, around 8-10% of the UK population at large share the same belief, so it tallies. 

 

It's just unfortunate that might be a big enough number to shape policy now and in the future. 

 

And yes, Brandolini's Law applies a lot in this case. 

[Dahnsouff]

It’s easy to stick your head in sand and just carry on regardless, and this is made even easier when those vested interests backup these theories (can they even be called theories once debunked?).

 

Unless those that benefit financially from their alternate opinions plan to live on

• the Moon
• under the sea
• A space station
• Some other planet

then the only conclusion I can see is that they don’t believe tree’s will grow beyond their own eyesight.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c15np18yy24t

 

Flash floods costing a lot of lives in Texas.

 

The powers that be offering their usual "thoughts and prayers" while of course dodging the more important matter of understanding why these events happen in the first place and why there wasn't enough advance warning of this one. Because that might make them look rather bad.

[st albans fox]

12 hours ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c15np18yy24t

 

Flash floods costing a lot of lives in Texas.

 

The powers that be offering their usual "thoughts and prayers" while of course dodging the more important matter of understanding why these events happen in the first place and why there wasn't enough advance warning of this one. Because that might make them look rather bad.

The conspiracists promoting that weather manipulation has made this incident happen to this extent  ………..

an argument you’re never going to win 

[leicsmac]

22 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

The conspiracists promoting that weather manipulation has made this incident happen to this extent  ………..

an argument you’re never going to win 

Against the fully committed, absolutely. 

 

However, it is still necessary to stop them from convincing the uncommitted into their way of thought or simple indecision/apathy, and that requires presence and action.

[Zear0]

3 hours ago, st albans fox said:

The conspiracists promoting that weather manipulation has made this incident happen to this extent  ………..

an argument you’re never going to win 

Weather manipulation like man made climate change..? 

[leicsmac]

17 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Weather manipulation like man made climate change..? 

It's rather darkly hilarious that such folks appear to buy into every theory about humans affecting the climate except for the most obviously proven one. 

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, Zear0 said:

Weather manipulation like man made climate change..? 

You know that this is not what I mean 😀

Edited 7 July 2025 by st albans fox

[WigstonWanderer]

6 hours ago, st albans fox said:

The conspiracists promoting that weather manipulation has made this incident happen to this extent  ………..

an argument you’re never going to win 

What a weird crackpot world we live in, especially since Covid.

[st albans fox]

52 minutes ago, WigstonWanderer said:

What a weird crackpot world we live in, especially since Covid.

Interesting point you make - Covid has certainly had an effect. Perhaps it brought a big chunk of like minded people together under one umbrella (mistrust of vaccines and govt). 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Interesting point you make - Covid has certainly had an effect. Perhaps it brought a big chunk of like minded people together under one umbrella (mistrust of vaccines and govt). 

Interesting angle. 

 

I personally think it magnified a problem that was already there, and the acceleration of social media has additionally magnified it. 

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Interesting angle. 

 

I personally think it magnified a problem that was already there, and the acceleration of social media has additionally magnified it. 

That’s undoubtedly true 

but would have taken time for them to have all found each other and they may well have remained quite fractured under different groupings concentrated on various issues.  

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

That’s undoubtedly true 

but would have taken time for them to have all found each other and they may well have remained quite fractured under different groupings concentrated on various issues.  

Agreed.

 

But if that (and now) is a model of how our species acts under low-to-not-quite-moderate strain from an act of nature, we'd better get better at it. Rapidly. 

[CornwallFox]

I think if UK TV showed more world news we'd have less of an issue with climate change denial.

Couple of years ago Pakistan had an area the size of Britain flooded.

There's been hugely increased temperature peaks across the globe. 

Freak weather events are becoming more frequent and bigger in scope, exactly as expected. But we don't see it on TV unless it happens here, or to a lesser extent, the US. 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cd0vy9gmdg4o

 

Temperatures are forecast to increase across the UK over the next few days - reaching above the official heatwave threshold in some places for the third time this year.

Highs of 34C are likely on Friday and possibly Saturday, with the sweltering temperatures continuing into early next week.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended yellow heat health alerts to cover every region in England, which will remain in place until 10:00 BST on 15 July.

The warnings mean that health and social care services could be significantly affected by the weather – through increased demand or a rise in deaths.

 

Bit of a trend developing...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gdd6jdm42o

 

As the world races to cut carbon emissions in the fight against climate change, a potentially game-changing milestone may have been reached.

China - currently responsible for some 30% of global emissions - saw its emissions decline in the 12 months up to May 2025.

Crucially, this would be the first time emissions have fallen even as demand for power across the Chinese economy grew rapidly. Previous drops have only ever taken place during shocks like the Covid pandemic, which slowed the country's economy.

Given the outsized role the country - home to more than a billion people - has played in increasing global emissions in recent years, it is a moment to celebrate.

 

But it seems like a reasonably major player is finally at their own peak. 

 

I wonder who the do-nothing talking heads in the UK and elsewhere will blame and how they will justify inaction and the consequences that ensue as a result of it now.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cwyrw66jkkko

 

2025 is already shaping up to be an extraordinary year for weather records in parts of the UK.

Spring 2025 was the UK's warmest and sunniest on record. Hot on its heels, June became the warmest month on record for England. And now, we're already experiencing the third heatwave of the year—and it's not even mid-July.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN body responsible for assessing climate change - it is now "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land", external .

As temperatures continue to rise, the likelihood of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, has increased dramatically.

 

 

A good primer on current events.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cwyrw66jkkko

 

2025 is already shaping up to be an extraordinary year for weather records in parts of the UK.

Spring 2025 was the UK's warmest and sunniest on record. Hot on its heels, June became the warmest month on record for England. And now, we're already experiencing the third heatwave of the year—and it's not even mid-July.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN body responsible for assessing climate change - it is now "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land", external .

As temperatures continue to rise, the likelihood of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, has increased dramatically.

 

 

A good primer on current events.

Summer's heading the same way.

[leicsmac]

Just now, Trav Le Bleu said:

Summer's heading the same way.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74w1gyd7mko

 

The UK is breaking heat and rainfall records increasingly frequently as its climate continues to warm, the Met Office has warned.

The country's changing weather patterns mean the UK now experiences a "notably different" climate to what it was just a few decades ago, its State of the UK Climate report says.

We now have many more very hot days and many fewer extremely cold nights, according to this latest assessment.

It shows just how much global warming caused by the vast emissions of greenhouse gases our civilisation creates is reshaping the country's climate.

Climate change is bringing more severe weather events like storms and flooding - and inevitably the country's changing climate is having an impact on the natural world, with some species suffering.

The report focuses on 2024, when the UK experienced its second-warmest February, warmest May, warmest spring, fifth-warmest December, and fifth-warmest winter since records began in 1884.

The Met Office highlights that some of these records have already been surpassed in 2025 - more evidence of this trend towards more extreme weather.

 

The alarm keeps going off, and the message is clear - the laws of thermodynamics and their consequences will not suffer denial or ignorance of them. They will cause death and suffering, in the UK and elsewhere, and the only thing that matters to them is what we do to mitigate that.