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118 All-Time Heat Records Set Around the Globe (miamiherald.com)

"It's so hot, even parts of the Arctic are on fire," reports Vox, citing wildfires in Sweden, while Greece "has declared a state of emergency as raging forest fires have killed at least 81 people and injured more than 190."

But heat-related disasters are happening around the world. In Japan 86 people have been killed by heatstroke, while another 23,000 people have been hospitalized -- about half of them over the age of 65 -- in a heat wave forecast to continue for another two weeks. "Japan hit 106 degrees on Monday, its hottest temperature ever," reports the Associated Press, adding that "So far this month, at least 118 of these all-time heat records have been set or tied across the globe." An anonymous reader quotes their report. "We now have very strong evidence that global warming has already put a thumb on the scales, upping the odds of extremes like severe heat and heavy rainfall," Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said. "We find that global warming has increased the odds of record-setting hot events over more than 80 percent of the planet, and has increased the odds of record-setting wet events at around half of the planet..."

"The world is becoming warmer and so heat waves like this are becoming more common," said Friederike Otto, deputy director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

"Death Valley, California, has set three consecutive daily record-high temperatures of 127 degrees," reports the Washington Post, adding that "Sometimes, like right now in the Western U.S., it's too hot for airplanes to fly" because of heat-related changes in air density at high-altitude airports. In Europe, nuclear power plants in Finland, Sweden, and German were forced to cut electricity production because high temperatures heated the seawater needed to cool reactors.

In northern California 38,000 people fled their homes as an 80,900-acre wildfire spread through the Shasta-Trinity area. Reuters reports the wildfire was caused "by hot, dry weather and high winds" -- and that it's one of 89 large wildfires currently burning in 14 U.S. states.

18 of 503 comments (clear)

  1. And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People are so fucking stupid it is infuriating.

    1. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Luckily, we have that data, and it shows that not only is this year setting records for high temperatures, so did the previous three years in a row. And the longer term data shows a clear trend.

    2. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by Namarrgon · · Score: 5, Informative

      If the system was static, with constant average temperatures, then random events would produce an ever-decreasing number of new records each year, both high and low. The regular smashing of numerous high records (with the occasional low as well) is characteristic of a system with increased variability on top of a rising trend.

      But we already know that, not through statistics but because the science has been hammering it home since the 80s, with analysis of not only new measurements but 200 years of temperature records from all over the globe, and proxy records for the last few millennia.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    3. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by sjames · · Score: 5, Informative

      If the average is constant, you will record fewer new extremes as time goes on. We are recording more extremes suggesting that we have a real problem here.

      In other words, you should expect regression to the mean, not divergence.

    4. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

      To be fair, most of those predictions "use by" date are still in the future. You can't really complain that they haven't yet come to pass when they weren't expected to yet.

    5. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oh you know, the total mass of insects has fallen by nearly 80% in 40 years. Doesn't that figure ring a bell about something exceptional happening? Bet most people didn't even know that.

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    6. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Informative

      Additionally, back in the 70's it was Global Cooling too

      Not in the peer reviewed journals. But in pop-sci media.

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    7. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Funny

      In other words, you should expect regression to the mean, not divergence.

      You're talking to someone who just suggested using statistics to show the world isn't warming, I suggest you don't use such big complicated words.

    8. Re:And we still hear how global warming is a hoax by davesag · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Climate change and global warming are not the same thing. Human industrial activity is causing a rapid buildup of greenhouse gasses. This is causing the planet to warm. That's global warming. The global rapid increase in mean temperature is causing climates to change as more and more energy is shoved into the system, historical temperature regulators like the gulf-stream slow, move, or just change, reflective snow melts, permafrost melts releasing more GHGs, suboceanic clathrates collapse due to increased water temperature (also releasing more GHGs), and so on. These changes lead to things like "arctic vortexes" and regional drops in temperatures as well as other weather extremes. But the overall global trend is increased temperatures.

      So to sum up:

      1. Humans are causing global warming.
      2. Global warming is causing climate change.

      Global warming and climate change are related but they are not the same.

      Increased levels GHGs are also causing the oceans to change PH, becoming more acidic. That's almost as serious an issue as climate change IMHO.

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  2. As we watch the world burn by JMJimmy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We bicker about every stupid issue under the sun instead of taking the action we know is necessary.

    1. Re:As we watch the world burn by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Put less CO2 and methane in the air. And as a side effect you don't hear the oceans and fuck with their pH balance.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. Meanwhile, in America by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hopefully the American public will start to realize that the GOP and their current president are not representing ordinary citizens, but influential corporations, especially the ethically flexible ones, such as those highly invested in military and oil.

    This is why the GOP and their friends at FOX have been climate change deniers, and the current president is calling it a hoax. It's all about protecting profits right up until the point the entire world goes to shit.
    The US is the only country in the world where a large percentage of the population still does not believe in climate change even though 99% of scientists support it. This sick situation thanks to GOP politicians, lobbyists and the media that supports them, especially FOX News.
    Can you please tell them to fuck off before it is too late?

    1. Re:Meanwhile, in America by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Go look up 'Dominionism' and 'Dominionists', but don't yell at me when you get sick to your stomach. That's what, in part, is driving this bullshit.

    2. Re:Meanwhile, in America by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is that these Christian supremacist types and the libertarians were for a long time Conservatives' useful idiots. And then the useful idiots took over the party, and every dog whistle slogan Republicans had been using for a couple of generations to get that base to the polls suddenly is political reality. Now they're stuck between the reality they know is happening and a base that took what was a load of bullshit seriously.

      Not that governments that take the reality of AGW seriously are doing that much either, but even acknowledgment is something. But we'll do what we've done before, basically hand it off to our children and grandchildren, make them pay the economic and social price.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. The direct result of overpopulation by Quakeulf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With exponential growth in third world country populations as well as rapid industrialisation of China etc. this is only the beginning. What needs to be done is to make a choice: More humans helped into this world through aid and relief efforts for irreversible damage to the environment, or a sustainable future for those that will be left of us.

    Please prove me wrong.

    1. Re:The direct result of overpopulation by DavenH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You aren't using 'direct' correctly. More people are not heating the planet up directly, and hence your call to action about population is unsubstantiated. If you double population but quadruple resource efficiency, you do less environmental damage.

  5. Re:Yeah, it's summertime by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Interesting
    There is this sort of thing:

    "Here are a few maps that illustrate this. Over 1,100 daily record low temperatures have been broken this week alone -- over 1,800 in the last 30 days, along with over 1,100 snow records. The last week of records broken, tied, or approached is shown in this animation from CoolWx.com"

    --
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  6. Re:and yet.... by Uecker · · Score: 3, Informative

    That Germany is adding coal plants is a myth.

    This is power generation from coal and lignite in Germany from 1990-2017 in TWh.
    coal 140,8 147,1 143,1 138,4 134,6 146,5 140,8 134,1 137,9 142,0 124,6 107,9 117,0 112,4 116,4 127,3 118,6 117,7 112,2 92,6
    lignite 170,9 142,6 148,3 154,8 158,0 158,2 158,0 154,1 151,1 155,1 150,6 145,6 145,9 150,1 160,7 160,9 155,8 154,5 149,5 147,5

    Source: https://www.ag-energiebilanzen...