CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Stanley]

I hate to have to say it but I don't think that humanity is going to avoid the effects of global warming and climate change. The problem is so large it needs international cooperation and that's not there.

[plaques]

Over the last few days we have had a stream of warm air coming up through France raising the temperatures to 30C. Now imagine northern Africa getting 10C warmer, the same pattern of air flow would boil us to death. Droughts, crop failures, insect swarms, all manner of pestilence that would make covid look like a picnic. Time to wake up.

[chinatyke]

I can't follow your reasoning, plenty of places experience 40C. We get 40C here sometimes, and so do our Australian friends. Climate change happens, it always has. It's a cool 33C here at the moment. We're not frying. You have such sensationalist journalism in the UK. Today's headlines include: Too hot to handle, Hotter than Barbados, 30C Scorcher, HUGE storms tonight... Get a bloody grip!

[Cathy]

[plaques]

Please China, what do you think causes famines? certainly not supermarkets creaming off a bit more profit. They are all climate related. Spend years developing a monoculture that gives maximum yield under fixed conditions then change the conditions and see what happens. Humans can always slap on a bit more sun screen and wear a floppy hat. China with its history of famines and Australia is not called the great 'bugger all' for nothing are the first in the firing line to suffer the effect of climate change. The prophet of doom has spoken.

[chinatyke]

Isn't it a fact that crops grow better where it is warmer? The climate change is predicted to be around 2C. Surely that will help to feed the prolific breeders who have caused a 6 billion increase in the World's population in the last century?
Based on Population in 1920: 1.7915 billion. Population in 2020: 7.8 billion. Source: www.worldometers.info/world-population/

[Stanley]

"Isn't it a fact that crops grow better where it is warmer?"
Only in a low range, it's quite warm in the Sahara and Death Valley China.
You're on a hiding to nothing here. The reason we bang on about climate change and global warming is because we recognise it is going to trigger drought, famine and massive population displacement all of which spell death.
China is big enough for these things to happen internally, you will sing a different tune when the displaced head for the cities.

[chinatyke]

Just saying: keep it in proportion. One or two hot days in the UK doesn't mean global incineration! Nor will +2C.

[Stanley]

China, you are still dodging the bullet! It's not 'One or two hot days in the UK doesn't mean global incineration!'. Haven't you seen the statistics about the hottest years on record and when they happened?
Personally I do have it in proportion, it's the biggest disaster humanity has ever faced but you don't seem to be able to accept that. You tell us to keep it in proportion, I say to you get your head out of the sand.

[plaques]

Stanley I think China is trying to wind us up. Its like 'Climbing Mount Improbable' by Richard Dawkins. You look at a cliff face and say that can't happen and look at the gradual slope behind it and realise that in small steps it can. A similar analogy is what's happening in the UK housing market. For years the mantra has been 'live in the city' everything at your finger tips. Now its all about space, country houses and big gardens are at a premium and why? All because of a tiny virus that nobody can see that is passed on from person to person killing folk. Butterflies flapping their wings etc...

[chinatyke]

Stanley I think China is trying to wind us up.

[Tizer]

Don't confuse climate with weather: NASA

[Whyperion]

Perhaps a thread is needed (or needs to be varied) on Food Agriculture and Farming. Increased warmth may assist some food types - it may assist some pests to become more pesty too. The UK's heat has always been driven by wind flows from the south, with the west country rains coming from the atlantic lows and cold fronts hitting the warmer air. sometimes it misses and Ireland gets the deluge instead, sometimes it runs futher east and Norwich gets is water top up. The problem with +2deg C (I wonder if the USA population think of that as 2deg F which is much lower), is that it is marginal change, enough to take the cold areas warmer to melt frozen stuff (which may be a worry), enough to make a few days tolerable hot OK we head for the beach and the cooler breeze or water, when it gets to melting tarmac , or the high structurally damaging winds more often its going to be more difficult. Increasing sea temperatures change algae quantities and could stop colder water fish from breeding. As to the larger land masses like the USA they will have to think about how they manage their agriculture ( at present there appears to be enough food to go round, but they do seem to use consume and waste more than is good for the average human - and puts pressure on changing tropical forest areas to cattle ranching elsewhere). As to famine in africa its worsened by tribal fighting and wars. A few containers of UK cattle skim milk powder and cans of butter oil for making reconsituted condensed milk should be all it needs to provide basic needs. ( though hand outs without the hand up of better land management are not a long term solution)

[chinatyke]

14:00 CST 19th June 2021 and already 36C in the shade. There are no reports of a mass extinction as yet. Stay tuned for further reports, 39C forecast for tomorrow!

You've got to look at history and how Rhodesia was turned from the bread basket of Africa into Africa's basket case by bad management after white rule was stopped. South Africa went the same way. Now the local populace are crying because of famine and poverty. Is this an example of Darwin's theory of natural selection?

[Stanley]

Yes I know but other people might not. Erroneous views need to be attended to. (I suspect he actually believes this view that climate change isn't serious...)

[Stanley]

Just struck me China, The main reason why production fell in both Rhodesia and S Africa was because the white farmers were dispossessed.
Back to the post. see THIS NY Times report of the heat wave in the N American NW. Record breaking temperatures of over 115F.
"A heat dome has enveloped the Pacific Northwest, driving temperatures to extreme levels — with temperatures well above 100 degrees — and creating dangerous conditions in a part of the country unaccustomed to oppressive summer weather or air-conditioning. One of the hottest cities in the region on Monday was Salem, Ore., about 45 miles southwest of Portland, where it reached 117 degrees in the afternoon, a record for the city, the National Weather Service said. At Portland International Airport in Oregon, it reached 115 degrees on Monday, after it had reached 112 degrees on Sunday. The high on Monday in Portland was the highest temperature ever recorded there since historical records began in 1940, the National Weather Service said."

[Stanley]

News this morning that the North American heat wave is spreading and deaths are being reported in vulnerable categories.

[Tizer]

More on the US-Canada heat wave...
`US-Canada heatwave: Visual guide to the causes' LINK

[Tizer]

Justin Rowlatt, BBC Chief environment correspondent...
`Record June temperatures point to more 'extraordinary' extremes' LINK

Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst...
`Why North America's killer heat scares me' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57729502

[Stanley]

I heard those reports about climate scientists wondering if the rate of deterioration was faster than hitherto thought because of the sudden leap in maxima.

[Tizer]

After the US north-west and Canada it's now affecting the US west and south-west...
US west heatwave: 31 million people brace for record-breaking temperatures' LINK
`More than 31 million people across the US west and south-west are bracing for a brutal heatwave that could bring triple-digit temperatures this weekend, with authorities warning that records could be broken in many regions of California and Nevada. Officials have said that Las Vegas could even surpass its record-high temperature of 117F. The “heat risk” is classified as “very high” across much of this area, meaning all residents there face “very high risk of heat-related illness due to both the long duration heat, and the lack of overnight relief”, the National Weather Service (NWS) has said....Temperatures are going to be about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for California’s office of emergency services, said earlier this week. “This will be a record-setting heatwave"....California’s wildfire season is already more extreme than in 2020. Officials say the length of fire season has increased by 75 days across the Sierras, in keeping with an uptick in the extent of forest fires statewide.

[plaques]

Your turn China. Another bunch of wimps who complaining at the drop of a hat?

[chinatyke]

I can remember having a record setting heatwave in 1956 and standpoints for water. Records will always be set and broken, nowt new!
Never mind a carbon tax, that won't negate the World population growth which to me is what is driving climate change. Less than 2 billion in 1900, 7.7 billion just 125 years later!

[Stanley]

You have a valid point Graham but that doesn't stop me feeling sorry for those who are hit by these changes.

[Tizer]

Chinatyke, are you aware of this?
`The foreigners in China’s disinformation drive' LINK
Foreign video bloggers denouncing what they say is negative coverage of China on highly controversial subjects such as Xinjiang are attracting large numbers of subscribers on platforms like YouTube. In recent years, the "vloggers" have been increasingly presenting themselves as China-lovers, spreading Communist Party disinformation. YouTube labels Chinese state media like broadcaster CGTN as government-funded. But there is little policing when it comes to individuals promoting similar narratives. Some vloggers are suspected of co-operating with state-owned outlets to spread China's rhetoric to the world. But it's far from clear what really motivates them, or how effective this strategy is.'

`Co-ordinated videos have recently been appearing on foreign vloggers' channels to counter investigative reports from independent media on the treatment of China's Uyghur community in its north-west Xinjiang region. There are well-documented allegations of systematic human rights abuses on a huge scale in the region. The vloggers include British expatriates Barrie Jones, Jason Lightfoot and father-and-son team Lee and Oli Barrett, who use their platforms to comment on the West's alleged "lies" and China's government policies. They have subsequently gone on to appear in videos for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.'