I'm going based on what my friends in northern India say, who are sitting there sweating and telling me it's the middle of summer.
It's okay, this is another stupid article and I'm trying to stop kneejerk commenting on them because the stream of hucksters, self-congratulators, and general idiocy is endless :)
Which, to be fair, is based more on geometry than weather. I always got thrown by it also being called “midsummer” in various contexts long ago. 7 weeks around the solstice would mean summer is almost starting.
Sweating your ass off in high heat does not mean it’s summer unless your definition of summer is based on the weather, either way. I’m intrigued by the relatively local definitions for season start/end from elsewhere, but things like monsoon need their due too.
The modern astronomical seasons are offset by about half a season from the traditional, weather-based seasons; the dates of the start of each season are the traditional midpoints of the season (that is, e.g., the start of astronomical summer is the summer solistice which is traditionally midsummer.)
This is going to kill so many people. It's going to happen this time, and soon again, and sooner after that, more and more frequently. This is the climate crisis.
We are doing this intentionally while knowing the consequences. We are not going to stop. Protest doesn't work, advocacy doesn't work, fucking self-immolation doesn't work.
Anyone with a conscience should be considering what will make it stop and how they can contribute to those actions instead.
Dialling back modern lifestyles to a point where reading HN is no longer plausible or possible may be required. Certainly production of cement for concrete, and of fertilizer, will need to be ratcheted down. Who’s going to volunteer to collect all the urine that can replace some of that fertilizer? A lot of infrastructure construction and maintenance will disappear, because metal smelting and other coal-consuming processes will need to go away.
Put up with less or no AC, don’t look for Amazon to deliver tiny packages, eat seasonal food or go without, lots of changes.
Hate to say it, it’s too late for us and our children. Maybe our great-grandchildren can at least not be as badly impacted.
> Certainly production of cement for concrete, and of fertilizer, will need to be ratcheted down.
Is there a reason these can't be done with wind or solar power? 40% of the emissions in concrete are from burning fuel [1]. For fertilizer production, the main inputs deriving from fossil fuels are energy, and hydrogen [2]. Wind and solar can produce plenty of both.
> metal smelting
Again, why can't you use wind or solar energy for this? Iceland is a major aluminum exporter because geothermal power is so cheap there.
> Put up with less or no AC, don’t look for Amazon to deliver tiny packages, eat seasonal food or go without
These don't sound like terrible changes for much of the Western world. Large parts of Europe already don't have AC. Seasonal food was the norm even in the US until at least the 1960s. We've had barely 10 years of Amazon's 2-day shipping.
You seem to be suggesting that the economic system of adding more people and more consumption should be the path out of this. I’m not at all convinced. I’m not such a Malthusian to suggest that we can’t carry more people or more activity into some of the future, but I don’t see humanity as a low-trust squabbling whole following any local example of a high-trust, wealthy Nordic. You’ve noticed that 50% or so of cement CO2 is from the chemistry itself. That becomes 2.5-4% of global emissions right there. Plus the rape of sand from beaches here and there, better it does dial way back.
Funny solar does provide cracking of atmospheric nitrogen. Happens inside plants, no less.
When and where will all this solar and wind come on line? Anywhere near enough to where power is used? Texas or the UAE, where they blast AC in the open air? How can anyone roll coal from an electric pickup? Culturally, the US won’t adapt quickly enough, coastal elites with waterfront property are the ones worried about oceans rising. Go inland 100 miles and having feeling respected is much more important. That’s feelings, but we’re talking humans here.
I’m surprised we’re not talking about nuclear in the form of thorium reactors as well, though personally I think there’s no way humanity uses nuclear in a more substantial way for 100 years without substantially screwing something up. But electrifying all the things means mining and distributing and recycling all the lithium as well.
> You seem to be suggesting that the economic system of adding more people and more consumption should be the path out of this.
Not really, no. Electrifying everything will be expensive and make things expensive. Consumption will reduce naturally as a result.
> Texas or the UAE, where they blast AC in the open air?
They're both excellent places for solar and wind, so why not?
> How can anyone roll coal from an electric pickup?
Tax the s** out of ICE vehicles. I have an ICE vehicle myself, so I'm not speaking casually.
> Culturally, the US won’t adapt quickly enough,
And yet you're suggesting that we can somehow "ratchet down the use of cement and fertilizer"? The solutions I'm proposing are all technical and more tractable than changing the culture of a nation.
> Portions of northern and western India, especially areas near the borders with Pakistan and Nepal, may endure the most extreme heat.
Wikipedia:
> Summer in northwestern India starts from April and ends in July, and in the rest of the country from March to May.
[...]
> The hottest month for the western and southern regions of the country is April; for most of North India, it is May.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_India
18 comments
[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 53.3 ms ] threadWhat is this nonsense?
It's an American outlet, they use four. Summer starts at the solstice in late June in the Northern hemisphere.
It's okay, this is another stupid article and I'm trying to stop kneejerk commenting on them because the stream of hucksters, self-congratulators, and general idiocy is endless :)
Sweating your ass off in high heat does not mean it’s summer unless your definition of summer is based on the weather, either way. I’m intrigued by the relatively local definitions for season start/end from elsewhere, but things like monsoon need their due too.
We are doing this intentionally while knowing the consequences. We are not going to stop. Protest doesn't work, advocacy doesn't work, fucking self-immolation doesn't work.
Anyone with a conscience should be considering what will make it stop and how they can contribute to those actions instead.
Hate to say it, it’s too late for us and our children. Maybe our great-grandchildren can at least not be as badly impacted.
Is there a reason these can't be done with wind or solar power? 40% of the emissions in concrete are from burning fuel [1]. For fertilizer production, the main inputs deriving from fossil fuels are energy, and hydrogen [2]. Wind and solar can produce plenty of both.
> metal smelting
Again, why can't you use wind or solar energy for this? Iceland is a major aluminum exporter because geothermal power is so cheap there.
> Put up with less or no AC, don’t look for Amazon to deliver tiny packages, eat seasonal food or go without
These don't sound like terrible changes for much of the Western world. Large parts of Europe already don't have AC. Seasonal food was the norm even in the US until at least the 1960s. We've had barely 10 years of Amazon's 2-day shipping.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...
2. https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/Industrial-a...
Funny solar does provide cracking of atmospheric nitrogen. Happens inside plants, no less.
When and where will all this solar and wind come on line? Anywhere near enough to where power is used? Texas or the UAE, where they blast AC in the open air? How can anyone roll coal from an electric pickup? Culturally, the US won’t adapt quickly enough, coastal elites with waterfront property are the ones worried about oceans rising. Go inland 100 miles and having feeling respected is much more important. That’s feelings, but we’re talking humans here.
I’m surprised we’re not talking about nuclear in the form of thorium reactors as well, though personally I think there’s no way humanity uses nuclear in a more substantial way for 100 years without substantially screwing something up. But electrifying all the things means mining and distributing and recycling all the lithium as well.
Not really, no. Electrifying everything will be expensive and make things expensive. Consumption will reduce naturally as a result.
> Texas or the UAE, where they blast AC in the open air?
They're both excellent places for solar and wind, so why not?
> How can anyone roll coal from an electric pickup?
Tax the s** out of ICE vehicles. I have an ICE vehicle myself, so I'm not speaking casually.
> Culturally, the US won’t adapt quickly enough,
And yet you're suggesting that we can somehow "ratchet down the use of cement and fertilizer"? The solutions I'm proposing are all technical and more tractable than changing the culture of a nation.
> Portions of northern and western India, especially areas near the borders with Pakistan and Nepal, may endure the most extreme heat.
Wikipedia:
> Summer in northwestern India starts from April and ends in July, and in the rest of the country from March to May. [...] > The hottest month for the western and southern regions of the country is April; for most of North India, it is May. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_India
Seems to align fairly well?