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Arctic Posts Second Warmest Year On Record In 2018, NOAA Says (reuters.com)
According to a new report released on Tuesday by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Arctic had its second-hottest year on record in 2018. "Arctic air temperatures for the past five years have exceeded all previous records since 1900," according to the annual NOAA study, the 2018 Arctic Report Card, which said the year was second only to 2016 in overall warmth in the region. Reuters reports: The study said the Arctic warming continues at about double the rate of the rest of the planet, and that the trend appears to be altering the shape and strength of the jet stream air current that influences weather in the Northern Hemisphere. "Growing atmospheric warmth in the Arctic results in a sluggish and unusually wavy jet-stream that coincided with abnormal weather events," it said, noting that the changing patterns have often brought unusually frigid temperatures to areas south of the Arctic Circle. Some examples are "a swarm of severe winter storms in the eastern United States in 2018, and the extreme cold outbreak in Europe in March 2018 known as 'the Beast from the East.'"
The medieval warm period. Really. C'mon. Don't want to go back to the dinosaurs as usual to show just how warm earth can be and still sustain life?
But ok. The MWP. First of all, even during the MWP it wasn't as warm as it is today. It was about 0.2 to 0.4 degrees Celsius warmer than before. Today we're at about 1.0 degrees warmer than it was in the 800s. Second, the MWP was not an uniform climate change as we experience today. It was mostly a localized phenomenon with various areas experiencing warmer periods during different times in those 300ish years.
In other words, there's a reason why even the most harebrained deniers don't use it. Stick with the dinosaurs, back then it was at least warmer than it is today.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So what's to worry, it's colder than it was before. See? It's not getting warmer, it's getting colder!
(And yes, this is sarcasm. It's actually pretty sad that it is necessary to explicitly say so...)
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I won't spend my holidays there.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Since even the president of the US is convinced that global warming is a Chinese hoax, we have to be impressed by the way China is playing this game. The Chinese manage to really create ever warmer weather year after year, just to fool us into thinking global warming is real. They are truly brilliant.
You're right. The Earth has been both warmer and cooler in the past. What's your fucking point?
As coastal cities continue to flood, should we just say, "Well, we're not going to do anything about it, because it happened before in the pre-cambrian era?"
I don't respond to AC's.
Maybe, we should not socialize the losses of coastal properties via our National Flood Insurance program? For all the talk of climate change, I see homes swept away by hurricanes and then even bigger ones replace them in under two years. In my lifetime NJ beachfronts now look like a glass wall with massive homes built as close to the beach as possible.
If the government insures a property and it is lost to floodwaters - a condition of claim payment should be that the property becomes prohibited to future development. If private landowners and private insurers want to take on this risk - good for them.
Building these homes over and over again sticks the taxpayer with the disaster bill.
Did you know the temperature of the whole universe used to be over a billion degrees and nobody died at all back then?
Did you know the arctic has actually cooled considerably since July?
Is this going far enough that I need to point out it's meant as parody? I seriously hope it is.
"it's okay when my house is flooded, because 1 billion years ago it was an ocean"
Localized phenomenon. That extended all the way down into the Antarctic.
Being all doom and gloom about it doesn't help. IMHO Branson has the right idea when he offered $3 million for airconditioning that's 5x as energy efficient.
https://globalcoolingprize.org/prize-details/criteria/
i.e. the solution is a million little improvements not one magic one. Air-conditioning being a huge energy waster that could easily be improved. If you can make a fridge to turn a heat difference into cold, you can make an air conditioner that can, so you can make a solar (heat) driven air conditioning. It just needs the initial funding.
What really gets me is that Florida is importing coal and natural gas to fire power plants of whom several are dedicated to producing energy for air conditioning systems much of the year. You'd think that the idea of powering their air conditioning using solar panels would catch on down there. The same is basically true for Puerto Rico, it's sunny there or partially sunny something like 70% of the year and when it isn't sunny the wind is blowing and yet, the latest and greatest idea out of Washington is turning Puerto Rico into a imported natural gas powered fossil fuel energy hub for the region ... abundant local energy sources ... anybody?
Same reason everywhere has bees but mead isn't commonly drunk.
I like beer, I like wine but mead is just a awesome special treat, it's so fucking good I just don't have an adequate vocabulary to express its goodness.
Absolutely try a decent mead if you have a chance.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
He did a good number of things to help reduce global warming: Restrict coal power plant emissions, improve automotive fleet emissions standards, sign the Paris climate accord, and subsidize renewable energy and EV sales. All things Trump has undone or is working on undoing.
China will have the US over a barrel once global carbon trading is mandatory. I'd say that you collectively deserve it, but on the other hand most Americans who voted didn't vote for this.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This graph from the report is particularly scary: https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Po...
It's sad to see Slashdot taken over by anti-science scumbags, posting as "Anonymous Cowards" and lying that Global Warming isn't happening even with evidence all over the place. And then there's the overwhelming support for GW in the scientific community. What do they know!
I have to admire the plucky band of billionaires, conspiracy nutbars and oil companies bravely fighting back against all that nasty, evil science. Of course, the downside is that their kids will line up to piss on their graves.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
We are not measuring things on a geological scale, but in human terms. So your argument is invalid. During most of the 4.543 billion years that earths exists, it was not habitable by humans. And even during long periods when earth was more or less habitable, most places where people live now, were under water or otherwise inhabitable. Also, please google "xkcd 1732" and watch, then think again.
Erh... no.
Looking around the web, I could not find anyone pointing towards "grapes from Greenland". Not even climate change deniers dared to try to run that story. The furthest north that we find an attempt to grow grapes is southern England. Grapes, by the way, are a rather poor measurement for how warm it was, simply for the fact that Christianity needs wine (and hence the grapes to make it) for its ceremonies. So even if the chance for success was close to zero or the quality simply atrocious, people would have tried to grow grapes, no matter the cost, the quality or the quantity of the outcome.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The problem with bulk solar production in Florida is night time demand. Due to the hot and humid climate, you don't see a major demand drop as you do in other parts of the country.
TECO in Tampa is converting their Big Bend power plant from coal to natural gas. They are also building solar farms.
https://www.powermag.com/tampa...
Florida power companies are no saints though. Look what they tried to pull over on the state's residents back in 2016
https://www.vox.com/science-an...
Obligatory: Earth Temperature Timeline, courtesy of XKCD.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Moving slowly in from the sea over 100-300 years isn't so difficult as buildings and roads age anyway, and 100-300 years from now, society will be less recognizable to today than today would be to people in 1900 or 1700.
I argue any draconian measures to arrest GW that slows technological progress will be of more harm than good.
I'd rather live in 2100 with year 2100 tech and gw than 2100 with a pristine environment and year 2080 tech, slowed due to drags on the economy.
The real enemy continues to be sickness and death.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
No, they really weren't. Stop using Infowars as your encyclopedia. Find me a peer reviewed paper in a reputable journal that said that, with proof that other scientists backed the claim.
You won't find the paper.
That's because it exists only in fantasy.
Give over, you can live your life in fantasy but don't expect us to live in your fantasy too.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
With all the startups that border on scams and kickstarter projects that basically are scams, you really wonder why people are afraid of new solutions? For real?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's interesting that there was no large drop in sea ice extent or area this year to match the exceptional warming. The numbers came in around where the last few years have, and much higher than 2016 or 2012.
Sea Ice Area: https://web.nersc.no/WebData/a...
Sea Ice Extent: https://web.nersc.no/WebData/a...
That argument is used everywhere. My parents don't want solar panels because they are too old to reap the profits. Same with an electric car.
-- Cheers!
Scientists get paid for observing, whether refuting or confirming.
Your cynicism doesn't alter that reality, it alters only your own.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Having lived in Alaska, I take this as good news. Cold is bad
Just wait until you find out how much Alaskan infrastructure is dependent on what is currently permafrost remaining permafrost.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm going to ignore the rest of the shocking ignorance of this post and ask what makes you think we have to halt all technological progress to correct AGW? The tech that is causing the problem was literally invented in the 19th century! If anything, combating AGW will force us to use 21st century tech.
Also, a little fact about the economy, it works best when the money keeps moving. Like when you replace all your old crap by buying new crap.
What are you talking about? His war against American industry and under the table payouts to solar panel companies that had political supporters on their boards did plenty to help our climate.
There were about four solar panel companies, only one of them had political supporters on its board, and it got the least money of all of them because it folded before it could collect it all. Guess you missed the details, though, since you're bringing up that old tired shit.
Fortunately, the price decrease in the solar energy sector has seen the same pattern that literally EVERY other technology has seen. Which leaves us to believe that all politicians together have done jack-squat to affect anything.
The fossil fuel companies have literally been conspiring against solar power, wielding their influence in government to keep it down to protect their control of the energy market. For example, the way GWB wouldn't grant a license to build a thermal solar plant in BLM land even though the BLM lands are chock-full of oil wells, and corresponding oil spills. The political power spent supporting solar has been necessary simply to maintain that pattern.
All of this leads me to believe that you don't know jack-squat about anything.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I have a few dozen other examples from respectable sources.
Those same sources were also posting articles about global warming. Now, over the period between when GW was postulated (late 1800s) and today, or hell even twenty years before today, have those specific sources posted more articles about global warming, or global cooling? Do your actual homework before you suggest that one spate of articles represents a flood of media. Perhaps someone should explain to you how media works: someone writes an article, then all the various papers report on the article, and then if nothing comes of it they are on to the next thing. Because what news depends on is the same thing as what money depends on: currency. If it's not moving, it's not relevant. And once one paper reports on an issue, all the other ones leap to do the same in order to appear competent. However, none of them actually are, so if someone is clever and good at selling their idea then all the papers can report the same bullshit at the same time.
Zero credible media outlets seriously pushed the idea of global cooling, they just did some of their usual half-assed science reporting, and who gives a fuck what the media says? Read the actual scientific papers. What did the actual scientific papers say about global warming and cooling at the time? Because the papers work on the "if it bleeds, it leads" principle, and they are a completely useless gauge to what scientists were saying at the time. And when you boil this stupid argument down, where you get to isn't the media, but claims from denialists that scientists were pushing the idea of global cooling. And that's where your argument breaks down completely, and I do mean completely. What we have today is the vast majority of qualified scientists telling us that AGW is not only real, but it's happening in a big way right now. What we had then was a couple of scientists telling us that global cooling was happening. Conflating the two as if they were directly comparable is a total schmuck move, and you should be horribly ashamed of yourself for your total inability to construct a cogent argument. Now run along, Ivan, some of us want to think.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You're making my point. You say 'outlier' and I say 'hysterical predictions'. That's what the mainstream media reports, and what people remember is that New York City is supposed to be underwater already.
Al Gore reported it as being an outlier, and the media reported it in big letters because that's how they get eyeballs. It's the media's fault, not Al Gore. Don't blame Al Gore.
Start reporting seriously, instead of trying to push a political and economic agenda under the cover of environmental sky-is-falling scare tactics, and people will take the issue more seriously.
That's not how any of this works. The scientists are reporting their results as usual, and the media is warping it into bullshit to sell media as usual. That's the media's fault, but they're not doing what you're doing. Remember, media is overwhelmingly owned by massive, polluting, amoral corporate interests. They would rather push the idea that AGW is less serious than scientists claim, or even that it's not happening at all. But as news outlets, they sensationalize news to get more viewers/readers, and they also don't employ writers who understand the news so they tend to get things wrong. They're not pushing a political agenda, they're pushing an economic one — selling ads.
You see a conspiracy where there is none. There is only sleaziness. Know how to fix it? Make the papers responsible for accuracy. For one thing, you should only be able to call facts "news", but Faux News already fought that battle and beat us.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They will not care unless/until the disaster lands on their front porch.
I've got news for you, they don't care then, either. We know people who have lost three homes in a row to fires in California. You'd think after the second one (if not the first) they'd make finding a home that's in a defensible situation a priority, but they just keep moving into more flammable shit-shacks built in forests. Everyone's in denial, and it's going to kill us all.
Sadly, government doesn't care either. If your home gets burned down in a big fire, FEMA gives you a check and slaps you on the ass. You spend that money where you like, even if it's just to cause problems. Same for these houses with federal flood insurance. Someone builds a vacation house on a sand bar, and every time it gets wiped out the government pays them to build it again. The People wind up paying for their unsustainable vacation getaway. We need to fix this problem. Nobody should be able to rebuild the same kind of problem in the same place when it gets wiped out and we have to bail them out. If their house burned down, the replacement has to be fire-resistant. If their house washed away, the replacement has to be somewhere else. That We The People have to pay for this crap is the kind of shit that lends credence to the greedy "libertarians" who believe that all taxation is theft. It isn't, but this kind sure is.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"