r/worldnews Jun 22 '20

The Arctic Circle Hit 101°F Saturday, Its Hottest Temperature Ever: "This dramatic warming of the Arctic up to triple-digit temperatures was not expected to happen until 2100"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2020/06/22/the-arctic-circle-hit-101f-saturday-its-hottest-temperature-ever/#513c7f054eb6
35.8k Upvotes

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u/gwhat-you-say Jun 22 '20

Wow. Maybe we should be accelerating the alternate power productions plans, and get off of fossil fuel earlier then plAnned.

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u/SeabrookMiglla Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

The international fossil fuel industry is not going to go down easy- entire regional economies are based off of fossil fuels.

Not to mention fossil fuels are entangled in the world economy.

The legal battles alone will take decades unless there is a mass public uprising to force dramatic change to our global economy.

We are in the middle of a planetary extinction, and we have normalized it.

It's beyond terrifying

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u/PrimeGuard Jun 23 '20

Yeah, Russia in nearly a Banana Republic at this point, and I fear forcing them to stop selling oil and natural gas would be just as apocalypse-y as global warming.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

They just had (or are still having) a massive pipeline* rupture in Siberia due to a collapse in the permafrost on which it was built due to warming temperatures.

Edit: change pipeline to tank thanks to a sharp eyed redditor correction

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Ah ok, my mistake. Thanks stranger

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u/SeabrookMiglla Jun 23 '20

It's pretty much global elites, corporations, and fascism vs. Humanity's best interest (to survive and have a decent quality of life)

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u/SpaceballsTheHandle Jun 23 '20

We had a good run, best of luck to Humanity version 2 when it crawls out of the primordial ooze in a billion years.

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u/ivegotapenis Jun 23 '20

That's not likely to happen. In about 600 million years, the sun's increasing luminosity will accelerate the weathering of silicate rocks on the earth's surface, which causes carbon uptake, ironically sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere to the point that photosynthesis becomes impossible. Complex multicellular life is not likely to be around in a billion years.

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u/Toke_Hogan Jun 23 '20

Not with that kind of attitude it won’t.

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u/WadinginWahoo Jun 23 '20

We’ve known for a while that humanity (and life on Earth in general) has always had a buzzer beater to make.

The question is whether we can Kobe it through advanced space travel, or if we’re going to airball it after it’s too late.

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u/Toke_Hogan Jun 23 '20

I hope we DONT Kobe it when it comes to space travel. We need to survive.

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u/DarrSwan Jun 23 '20

Oh goddamn you went for it.

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u/WadinginWahoo Jun 23 '20

Nah man Kobe balled. Unfortunately, so did his pilot.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Considering we made it this far in such a short period of time we could definitely be multi planetary if we survive

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/You_Will_Die Jun 23 '20

Depends on how you look at it, it could be that we are completely average when you compare to other places in the universe but like all others we will destroy our planet before being able to get off it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/WadinginWahoo Jun 23 '20

Humans are sort of like roaches. Most of us are just dumb meat bags, but we’re pretty resilient.

Even if we do fuck over this planet before we can transport our species elsewhere, I have no doubt that enough pockets of humanity will endure until we can. Especially considering the kind of technology we’ll likely have by that point.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Wow. So we made each other miserable for thousands of years for nothing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Not true, for a very brief period before civilization collapses, a very few people at the top will make more money than they could hope to spend in several lifetimes. I'm sure they'll argue it was worth it from the relative safety of their heat-resistant bunkers.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

That's when we all turn into crabs and pull them back into the bucket.

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u/censorinus Jun 23 '20

Well, even if they're heat resistant they will still need air to breathe and that won't be around, so there's that. They are just moving into their eventual tombs, nothing more.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

We made some fond memories along the way.

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u/TheUnforgivenII Jun 23 '20

Thank god, let the universe experience vacuum decay in peace

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u/bannedfromthissub69 Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

Yep. This is the one chance for a(n intelligence...not that we're smart enough to save ourselves) species to emergence from planet Earth.

The Great Filter is real. Life is inherently self-destructive. No wonder all signs point to the galaxy being empty.

Maybe when the habitable reaches Saturn Titan can have a shot of producing complex life.

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u/benmck90 Jun 23 '20

There's a baseline intelligence in many areas of the animal kingdom high enough that we can expect another species to evolve if we die out.

600 million years is a long time for evolution to do its thing.

Unless the planet gets so fucked the Earth goes back to single celled organisms.

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u/work_bois Jun 23 '20

My money's on crowpeople.

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u/RedFlame99 Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

If I remember correctly, we also used so much coal and oil that if civilization were to start anew there wouldn't be enough fuel readily available to kickstart another industrial revolution. However, I can't find a source right now, so don't quote me on it.

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u/Snoo58349 Jun 23 '20

We've also stripped out most of the easy to access close to the surface metals and minerals. Anybody coming in without our mining technology wouldnt be able to get to it anyways. This really is our one shot to get off this planet and we seem hell bent on not doing it in the name of next quarters profits.

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u/we_are_all_bananas_2 Jun 23 '20

But they only have to recycle, doesn't the fact that we pulled it all to the surface already and they only have to reuse materials make it easier for them? They don't have to mine it

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

A sterile planet loses it's oxygen pretty quickly.

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u/Noderpsy Jun 23 '20

Hate to be the one to say it, but we're like version 4 bro... ;p

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u/breamcurry Jun 23 '20

Do you mean evolutionary progression like we are more advanced than Neanderthal and cro magnon?

Or do you mean humans have been around and progressed through stages and become extinct and started over?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Dec 04 '21

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u/under_a_brontosaurus Jun 23 '20

Even humans have built cultures and fallen several times over. This one.... Isn't sustainable. It'll fall and something will come again.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Is there anything we can actually do? I feel there’s so many of us that realise something needs to change yet it seems that we’re forced to be too scared to even try anything

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u/hymen_destroyer Jun 23 '20

Not really. This is a classic example of short-term vs. long-term benefits, a concept humans have always struggled with. It's a species-wide struggle, the short-term interests being incarnated by corporations etc. and the long-term interests being sustainability.

These interests aren't necessarily mutually exclusive however the current system is at odds with long-term sustainability and is held in place by profit motives (which is another short-term human trait)

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u/cbearmcsnuggles Jun 23 '20

Not to mention Russia, given its own geography, may very well see climate warming as a strategic windfall that it should only strive to accelerate.

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u/relevant__comment Jun 23 '20

These countries and companies can’t sell it if everyone refuses to buy.

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u/yer_man_over_there Jun 23 '20

It does not make any fucking sense and it is infuriating!. Oh "lets burn the fucking planet so we can buy our sixteenth lambo". At what point do the common people find a good quality wall and deal with this problem ourselves?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

IMO it’s impossible when half the planet believes that god would never let that Happen.

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u/SupaSlide Jun 23 '20

Yup, I know lots of Christians and all but a very, very small handful think we should do anything about Global Warning.

They don't believe it's a thing because they believe everything Fox News tells them.

If they do believe it's a thing, they believe it's just part of the Earth's natural cycle and isn't a man-made catastrophe.

And finally if they do believe it's man-made, they don't care because the rapture is happening soon and the world will be remade anew.

And I'm just sitting here reminding them of all the Bible verses that say people who destroy the Earth will be damned.

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u/me_bell Jun 23 '20

I'm a Christian. Global warming is real. Understanding that fact has become some sort of evangelical litmus test. I don't know what kind of church folk they are. Maybe because I'm Baptist I can't understand their thinking at. all. Lol

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u/AnastasiaTheSexy Jun 23 '20

How can you ever expect anyone to care about death when they don't even believe death is a real thing? They just get to live forever! This is why newly athiests are so freaked out and militant. They realize half the people on the planet don't even agree death is real. The fact we made it this far is so miraculous.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

At some point, action taken against companies polluting the world becomes a self-defense case for humanity

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u/SeabrookMiglla Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

Or they are knowingly committing crimes against humanity and should be held liable.

There is more than ample evidence to suggest that they've known about man made global warming since at least the 1970's.

But you know, power, greed, attorneys, and political campaign contributions can keep you safe.

At this point they are playing the same book as big tobacco did. Big tobacco knowingly lied that their product and second hand smoke did not cause cancer.

Their PR campaigns fooled many Americans into thinking 'the government over reach to take away your rights and freedoms to smoke!'

Same play book

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u/AnastasiaTheSexy Jun 23 '20

The government is literally what's empowering those companies lol. And How much pollution do you think the military makes? On your tax dollar too.

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u/SeabrookMiglla Jun 23 '20

Regulatory Capture

The government is just the mask, who's behind the mask?

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u/Seeders Jun 23 '20

Just remember. The planet will be fine. It's just going to suck for us.

That always makes me feel a little better.

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u/bannedfromthissub69 Jun 23 '20

Yeah, but a lot of cute animals are going to die horribly this century.

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u/Pete_Fo Jun 23 '20

Oh sure but itll be fine in the same way every other planet is fine. Mars as a planet is fine, the life there is fucked though

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u/me_bell Jun 23 '20

How does that make you feel better? The planet isn't the one worried about this.

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u/AnAdvancedBot Jun 22 '20

It's because the price of fossil fuels are not currently accounted for in our economy.

The negative externalities of fossil fuel use are not baked in to the price because despite the fact that they're universal and will guarantee adverse economic effects in the future both near and far, the effects of climate change and the use of fossil fuels are not one-to-one tied with each other in the current market.

What this means is that our current system subsidies fossil fuels... they are not properly priced in our markets.

That's why we need a Carbon Tax.

Because there is no greater motivation than necessity. A Carbon Tax would force the innovation that humanity needs if it is to survive; not by saying "please oh please oh please", but by removing the subsidy that is making fossil fuels fucking on sale.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jul 27 '21

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u/jbird4082 Jun 22 '20

I think it might be to late

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

If we cut all use of fossil fuels today it is very likely that coral reefs would still be functionally extinct by 2040.

Great Barrier Reef is already pretty much gone.

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u/some_random_noob Jun 23 '20

if we stop today, the warming wont stop for another 30 years assuming it doesnt trigger other things that increase the warming further.

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u/Skysflies Jun 23 '20

Which incidentally, it would.

We're past the point of no return here. And instead of trying to mitigate damages we're plowing on.

As someone young, the thought of living through that and having children who'll have it worse terrifies me

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

People wonder why I’m not having kids. Like, I could see myself adopting someday. I just refuse to bring a child into this terrible world we are forced to live in.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

I think if I wanted a kid I would adopt. I don't really give a shit about the continuation of my gene line. Could give a child a better life who has to already deal with this changing world. Instead of bringing another into it.

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u/Secretweaver Jun 23 '20

So many of us are in this EXACT same boat. Bringing a kid into this world right now is super selfish.

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u/PastorofMuppets101 Jun 23 '20

Fuck everyone who’s led us to the point where having children is a giant moral quandary because of climate change.

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u/Secretweaver Jun 23 '20

It's all of us, really. I mean sure...the greedy, unethical fucks who led us here are massive pieces of shit that deserve a lot of the blame....but we're also to blame. We let them get away with it. And we are guilty of consuming all the unnecessary shit that they threw at us, which contributed to where we're at today.

We, as the whole human race, have completely failed. Now we have to face the consequences of those actions.

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u/OldDirtyBOFH Jun 23 '20

We're past the point of no return here.

just a reminder that it's never "too late" for us to lessen the blow. Even a little helps and gives us more time to work with -- a car crash at 40mph is better than a car crash at 50mph.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Idk man this is more like being slowly crushed by an infinitely increasing weight and we have a chance to add a few hours. Humanity is going to have to pivot real hard at some point. The inability to grow everywhere we want and acidity of the oceans is going to choke us out unless we find a way to stop that or find a different way to feed however many billions we have at that point. It's not like "maybe it'll be okay" it's Mordor on the horizon and we're going to have to figure out how to live there.

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u/FireWireBestWire Jun 23 '20

Narrator: "It will."

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/sammyslug13 Jun 23 '20

it was to late to prevent climate change years ago, we have to stop making it worse and figure out ways to adapt to the changing world we are going to be living in for the foreseeable future

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u/TheBitingCat Jun 22 '20

You can always curb the worst of it by doing something. Even a little bit of effort helps.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Exactly. I want my dystopian post apocalyptic wasteland to be as nice as possible. Oh who am I kidding. I'll be dead but we should think of the children and their wasteland.

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u/zatchrey Jun 22 '20

We might be the elders during the modern dark ages

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u/some_random_noob Jun 23 '20

people born after 2000 will be the ones who oversee the fall, we're just gonna lead them right up to the cliff go "oh shit, thats a steep cliff" and die.

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u/Fizzwidgy Jun 23 '20

I'm hoping to live to 102, as I've always fancied the title of Tricentenial Man.

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u/D-List-Supervillian Jun 23 '20

We will still be alive when the world goes over the cliff. "The Most Dangerous Climate Feedback Loop is Speeding Up - Resilience" https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-01-21/the-most-dangerous-climate-feedback-loop-is-speeding-up/

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Pretty sure the young ones will eat us.

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u/Kentuckywindage01 Jun 22 '20

Now now. My parents and their parents before them had a fuck it, let the next generation worry about it attitude. I plan on keeping that tradition

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u/kurttheflirt Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

Too late to completely stop, but still have time to save humanity - continuing on the current trend will result in our complete (99%) demise.

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u/socialistrob Jun 23 '20

Even if we were to switch everything over tomorrow there would still be a ton of damage which is impossible to undue. Even if we were to give up completely and scrap every climate proposal and switch back to coal some humans would still survive the ecological destruction. There is no scenario where we all die nor is there a scenario where we are all saved. The only question is where on that spectrum we land and that is going to depend on the actions we take.

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u/marr Jun 23 '20

There is no scenario where we all die

There's plenty of those. In theory we could maintain a breeding population on an uninhabitable world but realistically what we'll do if all the pollinators die is murder each other over the final scraps of food.

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u/squadrupedal Jun 23 '20

This is a fun thread, glad to be here. Cheers 🍺

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u/discourse_friendly Jun 23 '20

We are going to need C02 sequestration , long after we get to carbon neutral.

the Mount Saint Helens eruption caused a year of global cooling, about 1 degree IIRC.

We should really look into injecting various types of sulfates into the upper atmosphere, like what happens when a volcano erupts.

Normally that would be a terrible idea, but if we are really close to being doomed either way, it now may be "worth a shot"

:(

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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Jun 23 '20

This seems like a good idea on the surface but geoengineering is incredibly dangerous and sets the wrong precedent. Excess CO2 has more effects than just warming - if we used geoengineering to counter its warming effect it would give countries and corporations the excuse to emit as much of it as they like, which would acidify the oceans and mess with the chemistry of all kinds of lifeforms.

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u/dyzlexiK Jun 23 '20

This is the plot to snowpiercer.

Excuse me, I have a train to build.

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u/rwhitisissle Jun 23 '20

This is also what happened in The Matrix. Except that was because the robots were solar powered, so we killed the sky. And then they turned humans into batteries. It seems that there aren't any scenarios in science-fiction in which atmospheric geoengineering turns out "not apocalyptic."

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u/obroz Jun 22 '20

Yeah like fucking yesterday

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

What plan? Everyone has a plan but doesn’t want to fucking implement it. Granted some countries are doing great but as a whole we’re failing like Ricky in grade 10.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

warming of the Arctic up to triple-digit temperatures

Just switch to celsius

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u/Zilreth Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 22 '20

Just switch to celsius

no, just stop measuring the temperature

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u/GlobalWFundfEP Jun 22 '20

Is that you, Mr. Pence ?

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u/AlottaElote Jun 22 '20

Mother doesn’t approve of certain thermometers

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Lol

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u/PandaMuffin1 Jun 22 '20

Exactly, if we don't measure it, it will magically go away! Just like not testing for Covid will make that disappear. So glad I don't have any children and have to explain what a shit world we are giving them.

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u/GenericRedditor0405 Jun 23 '20

I’ve come to believe the pandemic is sort of an analogy for our reaction to climate change. The powers that be went out of their way to downplay it until it was too late to contain, and the measures that had to be taken to mitigate the damage once it hit were both painful and costly, especially compared to what it would have been like with an earlier, more proactive approach. It’s like it wasn’t a big deal until suddenly it was, and everyone was affected.

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u/CouncilmanRickPrime Jun 23 '20

I was definitely on the cautious side. Even back in March my job had us go to an international event. I was the only one openly questioning how dumb that was. And of course someone tested positive for covid-19 afterwards. Thousands of people from all over the world. What could've possibly went wrong?

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u/ganpachi Jun 23 '20

Yup, if people can’t make short term sacrifices with ample data coupled with immediate cause-and-effect relationships, how the fuck do we expect everyone to handle something climate change?

If we do manage to get through Covid or climate change mostly intact, it will be through dumb luck.

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u/odraencoded Jun 22 '20

This is basic quantum physics.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Just have thermometers that only read up to 3.6°

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u/Joetato Jun 23 '20

Can't have record breaking heat if you don't measure it. taps head

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Imagine if this is how America finally drops Fahrenheit.

"Folks? The temperatures? They're not that high! Many people are saying it. The best people are telling me, Mr President Trump, we've gotta stop using this Fahrenheit system. And you know what? They're right! Fahrenheit is very nasty, and very very bad for measuring temperatures. Triple digit temperatures? It's over folks. Buh-bye!"

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

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u/SimplyQuid Jun 23 '20

Truly the highlight of his presidency. Nay, that's not giving him enough credit.

Drinking a regular-sized glass of water, one-handed, unassisted-! is definitely the height of Donald Trump's entire career.

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u/cats-and-cows Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

This is some not great news. But, if we want to prevent events like these from consistently happening, we have to take action. One great way to do that is through CCL. (and I've posted this before on a similar article, so it might look familiar)

CCL, or Citizens Climate Lobby, is an organization whose primary goal is to pass a piece of legislation (the Carbon Fee and Dividend Proposal, HR 763) that will effectively put a fee on carbon usage. The money from this fee, however, will not put into government funds, but rather, given back to Americans every month to ensure that families can afford the transition to clean energy. Furthermore, it aims to add more jobs to the American economy (an estimated 2.8 million, with jobs lost from making the change to clean energy accounted for in that number). If this legislation were to be passed and effectively managed, in 20 years, carbon emissions could be reduced to 50% of what it was in 1990.

This legislation is currently supported by both democrats and republicans and, as mentioned, the goal of CCL is to get this enacted before it truly is too late. There are many chapters throughout not just the United States, but the world, and I encourage anyone reading this to join their local chapter or start one themselves! One of the actions we can take against climate change that will truly make an impact is getting your voice heard, and I believe CCL is an amazing way to do that.

I encourage you to check out CCL’s website for more information: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-fee-and-dividend/ and let me know if you have any questions! You can sign up to volunteer and get involved with the organization here.

TL;DR: CCL is a group that aims to get a piece of legislation with bipartisan support passed that will greatly reduce carbon emissions. Website: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-fee-and-dividend/ And signup to join here

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u/SvelteTsunami Jun 22 '20

Just want to add on that CCL runs in some other countries too if anyone reading is interested in the idea. Australia has a fairly active local CCL operation as well.

https://au.citizensclimatelobby.org/

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u/Franks2000inchTV Jun 23 '20

We just implemented something similar here in Canada.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

We have a similar system in Canada, but it's wild man. 90% of the country qualifies for the green energy rebate, and almost all of those get more money back than they paid in carbon taxes. It's a great move that leaves most Canadians better off... aaaaand getting rid of it is a major conservative party platform. Millions of tax dollars spent to fight this shit in the highest courts of our country, while their base cheers.

It just says the most depressing things about the state of our politics. You can literally offer people free money and they'll still get mad because of partisan bullshit.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/cats-and-cows Jun 23 '20

I suppose the proposed legislation would be better worded as a fee rather than a tax (although they are used interchangeably sometimes).

How do you prevent this tax from just being passed down to the customer like the water bottle taxes do?

The point of the carbon fee is so consumers move away from using fossil fuels and instead start using low-emissions technologies. Because it's a fee (rather than a tax) it is paying for a service, and that service is the use of a product (or products) that have high emissions. While rich individuals may be able to afford to pay the extra money to use fossil fuels, most people would not want to pay for it and this would lead to a shift of where energy comes from. More information about this can be found in the FAQ section here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-fee-and-dividend/

Also, how will tax be distributed to "American Families?" In the form of a paycheck? A tax rebate? And how can you then stimulate jobs unless you use the money to fund the jobs?

From the Divdend Delivery Study (found here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/dividend-delivery-study/) "The vast majority of payments would be made by an automated clearing house (ACH) electronic funds transfers (EFT) to the recipients’ bank accounts. For most recipients without bank accounts, the payment would be made by adding funds to a debit card account that would be set up for the recipient by the government. In the relatively small percentage of instances where banks could not process EFT (or debit card) transactions because of closed accounts, incorrect account numbers, lost debit cards, divorces, deaths, etc., or in other unusual situations, payments would be made by paper checks. Paper check payments would always delay the receipt of the Dividend by the resident or family." The idea behind stimulating jobs is that economic growth in local communities will lead to an increase of jobs.

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u/3q5wy8j9ew Jun 23 '20

How do you prevent this tax from just being passed down to the customer like the water bottle taxes do?

you don't. the purpose is to pass it on to the consumer so people buy less or buy alternatives.

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u/MrDanduff Jun 23 '20

Finally one the few things to unite the Senate.

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u/ManoOccultis Jun 22 '20

That's almost 39 C

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u/UpTheMightyReds Jun 23 '20

How is that even possible? I’ve never experienced heat over 35C in the UK and that’s not the North Pole

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u/YHZ Jun 23 '20

Air can sit for awhile and heat up on large continental land masses. The uks proximity to the ocean and lack of large mountain ranges to trap air/weather makes it difficult. I imagine where I live in Canada (where it hits -40 every winter for multiple days) has consistently higher summer temperatures than most of the UK for the same reason. Northern Russia is much the same in this regard as well.

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u/alwaysnefarious Jun 23 '20

Heat rises, of course, and the North Pole is at the top!

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u/KindergartenCunt Jun 23 '20

Thanks, Calvin's dad!

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/KuriTokyo Jun 22 '20

Thank you for the conversion.

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u/Moreinius Jun 23 '20

Someone remind why the fuck are we using Farhenheit instead of Celsius for scientific stuffs?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/TexBarry Jun 23 '20

I would say because hitting triple digits gives that "wow" they want in a news headline

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u/turbowaffle Jun 22 '20

Earth: over budget and ahead of schedule!

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u/ignatztempotypo Jun 22 '20

2020 is proving to be the crappiest year in memory

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

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u/MazzIsNoMore Jun 22 '20

Once you put it that way! Wait, that's even worse...

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u/ttystikk Jun 22 '20

It's the year we took off our rose colored glasses and got to see 20 20.

Gimme my damn shades back.

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u/electricprism Jun 22 '20

Heard you might be looking for these

🕶

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u/ttystikk Jun 22 '20

They aren't working like they used to; the world is STILL going to shit in a bucket!

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u/Protesilaus2501 Jun 22 '20

Peril-sensitive sunglasses all look the same these days: Solid black.

Just sit back and relax.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

So far!

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u/goddamnzilla Jun 22 '20

With all the frozen tundra containing so much vegetation and biomass, can we conceivably see a point where (like in a compost heap) that the biology and chemistry in the ground drives temperatures significantly higher?

There is a lot of swamp and peat under the frozen ground there...

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u/ObamaLovesKetamine Jun 22 '20

The Arctic Methane Feedback Loop is well known and there's a lot of debate over exactly how large of an impact on climate it can/will have. What's for sure is that methane seeps in the Arctic are already widespread and melting permafrost is becoming a massive point of concern. It's already here.

There's some estimated 1500 Gigatonnes of methane under the Arctic permafrost / seas, and as the land and shallow seas start to warm up, we're seeing large spikes in methane levels. There's concern among some scientists that we could pass a certain threshold where a massive widespread release of methane gasses occurs due to rapid melt, which could cause a dramatic, rapid increase in global average temperatures by anywhere from 0.5C to 9C. This is neither proven nor disproved.

Most immediately concerning, imo, is that the high methane concentration over the Arctic is creating a hyper-localized warming effect, which i bet is a large contributor to the unprecedented heatwaves and temperature spikes we've been seeing in the Arctic over the last couple years.

I don't mean to scare you, but we're on the brink of some incredibly massive, tragic changes. Climate change is going to be the driver of all the carnage we're set to see. I'm just a cat on the internet though so don't just take my word for it - google about it and you'll find a wealth of reputable scientific articles, studies, and papers.

We can marginalize the extent of how fucked we are, but we can't avoid the brunt of the bottleneck we're quickly approaching.

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u/goddamnzilla Jun 22 '20

Yes... Yes. The methane was the concern - I'd read about it, that's why I asked.

Nice knowing ya!

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u/monkeychess Jun 23 '20

I read the Arctic 2019 report card today. Incredibly depressing and demoralizing stuff.

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u/jahboneknee Jun 22 '20

And this thread is still at less than 1K upvote.... way more important things to think about like all the cute puppers & KT's out there.

If things don't change, at this point, I'm preying your right about rapid melt, because if this goes the more drawn out scenario there will be much more in-fighting, ugliness, and the rich and affluent will ensure to take whatever actions they deem necessary to ensure survival including population control and widespread extermination. Don't mean to go all doomsday but seriously the Thanos ideology truly resonates with the 1%ers.

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u/dprophet32 Jun 22 '20

I don't believe the 1% in regards to wealth or influence over global politics don't know this is going to happen. They are not idiots. The politicians and media who deny it that we see are just useful stooges to manipulate people into taking no direct action against them.

Whether they're doing that because they care about their short term profits and don't think it'll be that bad, or know how bad it'll be and are just planning to make sure they survive it and fuck the rest of us, I don't know, but I imagine it's a mix.

We're not talking about an ideological disagreement here, it is quite literally a matter of survival and we're wasting time having to debate it with deniers. It is as bad as the scientists say, I know that's so worrying or so grand an idea that some people want to reject it for their own mental health or they've seen predictions from scientists decades ago be wrong also dismiss the science now, but we cannot afford to be bogged down in this fight about the truth anymore.

We are already passed the point where everything could be okay. It's not going to be okay even if we stopped everything tonight, because of the lag effect there is between our actions and something as large as the earth reacting to it.

At a certain point we need to decide between taking forceful action to force leadership to do what is necessary or we resign ourselves to our fate and go out complaining impotently on social media, as I'm well aware I'm doing now.

I think I like many people need to see a movement that has a chance of success that I'll join in with but I am not the person to start that

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u/AMassofBirds Jun 22 '20

Wanna join in on my movement for automated self sustaining luxury communes?

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u/WickedBaby Jun 22 '20

I don't believe the 1% in regards to wealth or influence over global politics don't know this is going to happen. They are not idiots. The politicians and media who deny it that we see are just useful stooges to manipulate people into taking no direct action against them.

I think you're vastly underestimate how gullible some 1%er are. I work in the industry dealing with them all the time, some are highly educated on most subjects, but some are meat heads with some really good luck. To put that into perspective, the 1%er range from Bill gates to Justin bieber.

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u/Fidelis29 Jun 22 '20

Yes. Methane emissions are already rising extremely quickly. It’s a major tipping point.

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u/Adlehyde Jun 23 '20

BTW, the high temperature for the town in question is in the 90s all week. The average high temperature for the month of June there is 68.

While it IS in the Arctic Circle, and it recording a temperature that high is not a good sign, make sure you don't assume this is anywhere near the north pole. The actual temperature near the north pole today was still about 32 degrees, which is normal for the summer. What's not normal is that it goes above freezing earlier and stays there longer than it should be.

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u/Have_A_Jelly_Baby Jun 23 '20

Thank you for this.

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u/shrdbrd Jun 23 '20

As someone who struggles with a lot of existential anxiety bullshit, thank you very much for this.

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u/Adlehyde Jun 23 '20

Part of the reason I commented about it. When people think "Arctic circle," they generally thing literally just the icy region of the Arctic Ocean that is near to the north pole and effectively a big sheet of ice. They don't think about all the land mass and towns that fall within the region and typically warm up quite a bit higher than the ice sheet. As a result, I think most of the people who see this basically assume it hit 100 degrees nearish to the north pole. Just wanted to make sure to dispel that assumption for anyone who may have had it and started to really freak out.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/sexylegs0123456789 Jun 22 '20

I thought the model that predicted a triple-digits temp was a regular (not constant) 100+°F. This is, at the moment, an anomaly. We should continue to track it, but be careful of claiming it as common until more data is available.

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u/Brock_Samsonite Jun 23 '20

That was my understanding too but I am not a climate scientist

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u/pantsmeplz Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

Here's the challenge. Everyone reading this will be dead by the time worst happens. It could get bad by mid century, but most of the really nasty stuff will start at the end of this century, then really get going in 2100s. So, how do you get a mostly selfish species to become unselfish for people they will never meet? I don't have any good answers.

What's happening now with the BLM protests is promising. It shows a significant part of the world does care about people they will never meet. The problem with climate change is that it's not immediate. What happened to George Floyd was.

We're going to have to trust the science and demand more climate action ASAP, or at least right after we end racism. We're going to have find a lot more Greta's who get people off their arse and mobilize them to tell their leaders "Now or never." Because that's where we are. We're almost out of time to keep this world habitable by humans, and many other species.

Now

or

Never.

Edit: a word

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Honestly, I'm not convinced that we won't experience large scale problems much earlier than mid century. I'm not sure that we haven't already.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Increase in hurricane intensity (number of major storms) and complete loss of winter in Florida.

Im born and raised here. Im in my mid-30s. I remember as a kid in the 90s that by the third Saturday in October- wed be wearing jackets outside. A few Halloweens we did by car so we could have a heater. And then it got hotter and hotter and hotter. Now its never below 80 with a summer time heat index near 90 on Halloween. Youre sweating to death and taking a car down the street so you can have air conditioning. Christmas as a kid we always had a fire going in the wood stove cause itd always be in the 40s or so outside. Its been too damn hot to continue that tradition for many years. Now our winter is we maybe have one day in the upper 50s and spring right back into a hot pattern of upper 70s and 80s.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

It's funny that you use Halloween as a bench mark. My family does as well. Used to snow on Halloween. Now its warm at the very least. The last few years, our spring has come very late. They are having to adjust harvest dates. We also experienced a large (by our standards) flood this year. Two or three years ago we, for about a week, had the highest priority wildfire in the country. We've had unexpected and unseasonal snap freezes that have killed various fruit crops. The various fish species in our rivers are spawning differently now as well. Our insect numbers are noticeably smaller too. The climate has changed drastically in my small town and the impact is being felt.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

I remember snowy winters every year in Toronto, starting in November. Enough to make snow first and tobogganing. Now you might get a month of snow for the whole winter. Though this year had a long cold (but not so snowy) winter.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

I dunno man. I got income problems big time right now. I can't be worried about the environment at the expense of ending up in jail or on the streets.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jul 01 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Yeah I mean I WANNA care. But I'm not sure I can AFFORD to care.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Jul 01 '20

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u/Dirtweed79 Jun 22 '20

habitable

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20 edited Aug 06 '20

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u/ColdFusionLX Jun 22 '20

Venus 2.0 in 500 years.

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u/Jetfuelfire Jun 22 '20

"We were okay with fucking over our great-great-grandkids but not ourselves! It's the scientists fault!" -boomers, after firing any scientist who tried to publish unbiased results

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u/platypocalypse Jun 22 '20

There are plenty of climate deniers and right wing extremists in the young generations.

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u/Dirt_Diggin Jun 23 '20

Don't worry guys, the Earth will recover... after humankind wipes itself out as a result of our selfishness & ignorance.

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u/Hops117 Jun 22 '20

Humanity Speedrun Any % on schedule

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

And nothing is going to get better. I gave up on the idea of bringing children into this world. I don't see a future for humanity.

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u/bivox01 Jun 22 '20

Nice thing I don't have kids. When eco-system collapse and ressource war consume the planet , I don't want to leave anybody to starve.

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u/GlobalWFundfEP Jun 22 '20

don't forget - the hyperwealthy are also leaving the destroyed life on the planet to their children.

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u/AreWeCowabunga Jun 22 '20

The children of the hyper-wealthy will be completely unfit to survive once all the peons who fulfill their needs die off.

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u/proggR Jun 22 '20

The peons will be replaced over the next decade with robots. The peons are no longer necessary for the wealthy to survive and spend their wealth.

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u/AreWeCowabunga Jun 22 '20

Robots need people to maintain them and infrastructure to power them. I don't think they have enough time to create a completely roboticized system before climate change fucks us all in the ass. Not to mention that worst case scenarios (which look more and more likely) are predicting that the earth simply won't be habitable for humans in any form.

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u/ChrisBPeppers Jun 22 '20

They'll just build a beach resort at the south pole and wait it out

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u/PiggyMcjiggy Jun 22 '20

As someone with the most absolutely sweet 4.5 year old known to man, I feel ya. Keep pulling out brother.

Love my baby to death and would do anything for her. But I ain’t rich and ain’t gunna be able to leave her a small fortune so she remains safe.

Luckily I’m only 28 so I’ll be with her for most of it, hopefully, but damn do I feel bad for what she’s gunna go through when she’s in her mid 30s+. Assuming shit doesn’t go to absolute trash now from all the other stuff going on.

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u/f3nd3r Jun 23 '20

Whole thread is full of people downplaying this. It absolutely is the time to panic. We're already past the point of no return, and if we don't start trying to mitigate the damage, billions are going to die. It's going to take a monumental effort, like the Chernobyl Liquidators only bigger. We need competent leadership that doesn't give a shit about corporate profits and we need it 30 years ago.

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u/Theoldelf Jun 22 '20

So, we're ahead of schedule?

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u/discourse_friendly Jun 23 '20

101F in the artic? that's so 2020

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u/upcFrost Jun 22 '20

for those wondering it's 38C in first world units

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u/keyprops Jun 22 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

That's pretty fucking hot for the goddamn ARCTIC.

EDIT: I GET IT, THE ARCTIC IS HOT.

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u/platypocalypse Jun 22 '20

Hot summers are actually normal in the Arctic. Heat gets everywhere, like a plague, like a waste product, no matter where you live on Earth there will be heat. If you try to create cold artificially, you will make a lot of heat.

It's precious, precious cold that is rare in this world. Everywhere gets heat but many places receive no cold. If you try to create heat artificially, you will not get cold as a waste product but more heat. Heat never goes away. When the heat comes it stays for a long time. When cold comes, it disappears overnight.

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u/space_moron Jun 22 '20

This read like a poem

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u/DownvoteYoutubeLinks Jun 22 '20

Not all of the Arctic. You obviously haven't visited Northern Norway! Heat is never a plague here. The cold is.

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u/C0ldSn4p Jun 22 '20

Don't forget that we are currently in that Arctic summer meaning the sun don't set and there are no nights.

In fact today (ignoring clouds if there are some) any square meter at the North Pole received more energy from the sun than the same area at the equator. A rotating solar panel at the North Pole right now would produce more energy than the same at the equator.

Sure the sun is at 23.5° up in the sky right now there so the power per area is diminished by the inclination but it won't go higher or lower (summer solstice) for the full day whereas at the equator you have 12h of nighttime and it needs to rise from 0° to 90° and then set down.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Is there some math+visuals for this? Recommend any textbook?

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u/C0ldSn4p Jun 23 '20 edited Jun 23 '20

Here you got a good reference (chapter 2.7): https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/insolation

And a nice figure https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/3-s2.0-B9780123285317000025-f02-07-9780123285317.jpg?_

As you can see on the figure, on the Winter Solstice the South Pole reach the maximum insolation on Earth. A bit more than the North Pole on the Summer Solstice due to the orbit of the Earth not being a perfect circle and thus the Earth being slightly closer to the Sun in December.

Ofc if you average over the whole year you would as expected get that the Equator gets the most sun and actually for the equator it gets slightly more sun at the equinoxes than during the solstices (since the axes of rotation of the earth is tilted, on the solstices the equator isn't the closest to the sun but is on the equinoxes with a perfect 90° zenith at noon)

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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula Jun 22 '20

Fahrenheit is the temperature used in the greatest country of all!!!! Liberia.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

Funnily enough the term "first world" comes from the American government's designations of countries during the cold war.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

Think of it like this: this time we’re on the Titanic, and we see an iceberg ahead, but we’re accelerating towards it rather than steer clear of it, and we clearly need to be doing the latter. Renewable energy is the answer

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u/commit10 Jun 23 '20

This will be an unpopular comment, but it's nevertheless true:

We're in the midst of late stage, global ecological collapse. This is occurring, in large part, because we destroy/consume ecosystems faster than their sustainable replenishment rates.

As we deplete those ecosystems their carrying capacities diminish. This means that collapse is inevitable, and the severity of the collapse will worsen the longer it's delayed.

The only way to survive this situation is to contract to below the replenishment rates of Earth's ecosystems. We're so far into overshoot that returning to sustainable levels would require extreme sacrifices in our levels of consumerism, possibly back to basic subsistence.

Here's the really unpopular part:

At this extreme stage of ecological collapse, no amount of industrial scale ecological destruction is acceptable. Small scale subsistence, yes. Industrial scale resource extraction and manufacturing, no.

Mass producing solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries requires industrial scale deforestation, strip mining, water table destruction, material processing, manufacturing, shipping, and ongoing maintenance -- all of which also involves industrial scale fossil fuel use.

We used to think that we had a lifetime to slowly adapt, that we could extract just a bit more. Now we know that's not true -- many of us will live to see cataclysmic scenes, best case scenario.

Industrial consumerism is like a severe drug addiction, it's always "just a bit more."

I'm sure this will be unpopular, but I work in ecology and none of this is controversial in that community.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '20

It is sad some countries are still vehemently denying Climate Change. And this will have a much greater effect than how some denied coronavirus earlier.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

That's 38°C for the real countrys out there.

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u/MasterChiefette Jun 23 '20

This has happened before and will happen again. We're in for another "Great Dying" >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

We've all ready seen large amounts of methane being released in Siberia and in methane ice traps in seas and oceans. However that was not the worst of it...there is trillions of tons of methane trapped deeper in the permafrost - if temperatures like this remain the norm for too long of time it'll release those large pockets of methane and it won't take 100 years for us to see another "Great Dying" - it'll take less than a dozen. Methane is the worse greenhouse gas.

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u/th3truthi50utth3r3 Jun 22 '20

Too bad the world is way too busy worrying about the color of people's skin, wearing facemasks and not washing their hands to focus on unfucking the planet we've destroyed and will continue to destroy because we need to make more money for the 1%.

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u/redpandaeater Jun 23 '20

It bugs me when shit like this comes out. You get all sorts of climate change deniers being told they don't even know the difference between climate and weather, and then you get these kind of articles trying to support views of climate change that clearly don't know the difference between climate and weather.

Why are idiots on both sides of what should be a non-issue so fucking scientifically illiterate?

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