February Shatters Monthly Temperature Record

Lexicus

Lexicus

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It's been time to do something for quite some time.

The problem is that it's a giant collective action problem, and those tend to go unresolved in the absence of a strong central authority that can strongarm the most egregious offenders (who have the most to lose) into compliance.

I'd be very surprised if climate change isn't the major casus belli of the latter half of this century.
 
We've known since 1992 that there was a limited per capita buffer available for CO2 emissions. And cohorts have been focused on consuming as much of that buffer as they could, for fun and profit, hoping to leave everyone else paying the bill.

It's been one of the greatest property thefts in history.
 
+1.35 C above the 1951-80 average - that's impressive! It just goes to show that when industrial civilization and ENSO work together, we can accomplish great things. Not good things, but great things. ;)
 
It is too late for much of the harm reduction. There will be thousands of lives lost around the globe because of our inaction and trillions of dollars lost when all is said and done.

I have noticed a shift, anecdotally, in people talking about it. There isn't really anywhere on earth that has been unscathed by the warm-up over the last couple years, so there's a growing acceptance of "this is wrong." In areas of the world where its damage is already causing things like routine flooding and property damage (Miami, for one example), there's general political agreement over something need to be done. By the time the effects become too severe for any kind of denial, it will be too late.
 
GoodEnoughForMe said:
I have noticed a shift, anecdotally, in people talking about it. There isn't really anywhere on earth that has been unscathed by the warm-up over the last couple years, so there's a growing acceptance of "this is wrong." In areas of the world where its damage is already causing things like routine flooding and property damage (Miami, for one example), there's general political agreement over something need to be done. By the time the effects become too severe for any kind of denial, it will be too late.
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Maybe not - maybe it's already too late :)
 
Oh, it's not truly too late for harm reduction. We've already built in the harms up to 450ppm, and decided that the net externalities can easily balance to the positive.

It's mostly a function that we don't allow the historical theft to go uncompensated.
 
Well, it's certainly too late to avoid significant climate change, and it's quite unlikely we'll hit the 2 C target. On the other hand, the difference between a peak temperature increase of 2.5 C vs. 4.5 C is enormous, and it's worth trying to minimize our impact even though serious disruptions are going to occur no matter what.

edit: x-post with El_Mac
 
Who needs winter anyway? It's cold, people get sick. The amount of car crashes goes up. And you can't grow stuff when there's snow everywhere.

I say let's turn up the heat some more.
 
Bootstoots said:
Well, it's certainly too late to avoid significant climate change, and it's quite unlikely we'll hit the 2 C target. On the other hand, the difference between a peak temperature increase of 2.5 C vs. 4.5 C is enormous, and it's worth trying to minimize our impact even though serious disruptions are going to occur no matter what.
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True enough, but it may even be too late to avoid 4.5. That's kind of the problem with using the atmosphere as a giant laboratory.
 
Lexicus said:
True enough, but it may even be too late to avoid 4.5. That's kind of the problem with using the atmosphere as a giant laboratory.
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We're not that far gone. Equilibrium climate sensitivity is estimated to be 3 +/- 1.5 C per doubling of CO2. Even at the upper end, we would have to double CO2 from pre-industrial levels (from 280 to 560 ppm) in order to get an increase of 4.5 C, only part of which would occur quickly. The best estimate would be 3 C. We're 'only' just above 400 ppm now, increasing at about 2.2 ppm/year, so avoiding the 560 ppm mark should be achievable.
 
Ryika said:
Who needs winter anyway? It's cold, people get sick. The amount of car crashes goes up. And you can't grow stuff when there's snow everywhere.

I say let's turn up the heat some more.
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:nope: When I moved here, there'd only been one minor typhoon in this part of the Philippines in the last generation. In the past few years, we had a supertyphoon aimed right at my house that veered off to the north, another aimed right at my house that veered off to the south, and a small one that popped up one night at 9 p.m., ripped across the sea just south of my house and was gone by the next morning.

Zkribblers don't like typhoons.
 
There's been a lot of storms here too, and there was a big drought that put the water supply of tens of millions of people under threat.
 
Since 1992. I know many here are too young to realize. But we had knowledge of the credibility of the risk since 1992.

I remember changing my buying habits in the late nineties (when I first got 'adult' money) assuming we'd see govt action moving to post-carbon, and I was making game-winning investments

This year is an anomaly like 1998 was. So now we have a decade of "no warming since 2015!" denialism. People older than you stole wealth and spent it on buying whatever they wanted.
 
It's really been a bizarre winter, we usually have snow in late November at the latest and it usually lasts until April or so, with temperatures in the -10 to -25 range in January and February.

Well, this year around we had mild weather until January and that's when we got the first snow. It didn't last long, we'd have a week of mild weather, then a week of weather hovering around 0 degrees, etc. And it's felt like spring for weeks now.

I wouldn't mind it if every winter was like this, tbh, but I don't expect any future winters to stick to any sort of pattern like this. Weather around here has been pretty unpredictable
 
Here in DC the weather has been immensely unstable, an expected consequence of injecting massive amounts of energy into the climate system.

We had 70 degree temperatures within a few days of snow last week, and temps are forecasted to hit 71F tomorrow with snow predicted for the weekend.
 
warpus said:
It's really been a bizarre winter, we usually have snow in late November at the latest and it usually lasts until April or so, with temperatures in the -10 to -25 range in January and February.

Well, this year around we had mild weather until January and that's when we got the first snow. It didn't last long, we'd have a week of mild weather, then a week of weather hovering around 0 degrees, etc. And it's felt like spring for weeks now.

I wouldn't mind it if every winter was like this, tbh, but I don't expect any future winters to stick to any sort of pattern like this. Weather around here has been pretty unpredictable
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Mild winters means more bugs in the spring! The spiders are already out in force where I am out, which is a bit unusual.
 
Bugs are fine, I can deal with them, as long as they're not wasps. And I mean, I can even deal with wasps, but they just suck. I have pear trees, and 2 years ago I forgot to take the pears down down, which lead to fermented pears all over the place, which lead to hordes of drunk wasps flying everywhere, screwing with everyone. I got out there with bugspray and I killed hundreds of them. Didn't get bitten once. I don't want to do that again, but I don't mind more bugs, as long as the wasps stay away. And I mean, even if the wasps come again, I'll be ready
 
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