40C - 49C forecast for Europe next week - that is ridiculously hot

[cakeorwine]

‘I’ve never seen heat this bad. It’s not normal’: Italy struggles as temperature tops 40C | Italy | The Guardian

It's scary to think of these temperatures - not at all good for the human body.

I hope people who are going abroad over summer are prepared - or at least aware of how to stay safe in such heat.

@user9630721458

But the air industry is a powerful beast and the high carbon footprint of air travel isn’t talked about much

You reckon?

It's been front and centre, broadcast as a "fact" in many places for years, including in the industry itself...actual "fact" is most airliners are much more fuel efficient/emit less emissions than they did even twenty years back due to engineering and changes in crew and ATC procedures...

I do accept that the growth in flight numbers has more than offset that and change is needed, but to paint the air industry as the only culprit, or as the majority contributor to climate change, as some do, is misleading and maybe avoids having to address the issue of emissions being produced in countries who don't have a relaxed attitude to protest.

@Marchintospring

UK is doing OK with rolling back emissions but I read whatever we do China completely cancels out and who knows about places like north Korea.

Re migrants working in heat I totally agree.

I went to Italy once in summer... Never again

Meanwhile we'll be likely to get cooler wetter summers.

Now I'm confused. How can that be true for the UK? I thought we were heading for more prolonged, hotter summers, not cooler?

But we are NOT "working on it together", are we. In grand scheme of things, only very small proportion of world population are told to do x and y or be ashamed. Essentially we, not rich, are told to try to balance rich and others' emmissions. We can't even remotely do that anyway.
That's not pathetic, that's being realistic.

So give up. Yes there's realism but essentially you're making it ok to tell people to give up. Millions and billions of little people add up to a contribution regardless of the rich.

Young British man on tv this morning. He's bought four huge 747 airliners to start his new airline. Never fail to be amazed at human stupidity.

FeelingHotHot · Today 06:4

We only do one short-haul flight a year. But perhaps that now needs to stop. We all need to save the planet for future generations. As usual it’s the wealthy causing the most damage.

Out of interest, are ac and heating equally damaging for the environment? Anyway we switched to hot water bottles a lot this year due to CoL. Looks like that will need to continue.

Bu cutting down your flying you have already made a difference. If you can stop all together that’s even better but if that feels too hard go every other year. We had ‘one last’ flying holiday about 12 years ago because we’d had a hard and I wasn’t quite ready to give up yet. It’s the making the link and the direction you are travelling in (metaphorically) that’s important.

To tip - frozen hot water bottles!! With cover. It’s quite shocking at first but it’s is great at cooling you down inside.

It's not billions of people doing it though, is it.

Tbh I belive thay only thing we can do now properly is to mitigate effects. Eg plant trees in streets to allow for shade and natural cooling effects, new build areas to have mitigations like that as mandatory part of planning. Other shading where plants can't be planted. Use better suitable building materials, insulate, better infrastructure. Singapore is apparently doing quite effective things when it comes to this.

newnamethanks · Today 08:08
Young British man on tv this morning. He's bought four huge 747 airliners to start his new airline. Never fail to be amazed at human stupidity.

We need mainstream media to cover it more. BCC Radio 4 Today programme allowed the CEO of one airline to be part of a discussion about climate change and he was allowed to state that his company were somehow greener than others and without any serious unpacking. It was glossed over. From the main newspapers it’s only The Guardian that comes close to reporting it accurately. Mind you, this heatwave has forced, even the DM to print something about climate change and not blame Megs and Harry so progress of sorts…

Didn’t see it (link would be appreciated) but buying 747s these days sounds he is starting like a cargo gig rather than an airline.

If it is cargo then objectively some cargo does need to be shifted very quickly (e.g some pharma)….

cargo flights in general are probably more tied into the arguments about consumer goods etc, rather than people travelling.

Elephantinasandstorm

Yes. We do need to plant trees. Everywhere. They also need a temperate enough climate to survive. They also need to not be burnt in wildfires. We need to cut carbon emissions in every way way we can. Quickly. The science couldn’t be more robust on that.

I used to live in it and it's not nice - we had the luxury of permanent cheap air con too. The only way to avoid it is to stay indoors.

Elephantinasandstorm

But we are NOT "working on it together", are we. In grand scheme of things, only very small proportion of world population are told to do x and y or be ashamed. Essentially we, not rich, are told to try to balance rich and others' emmissions. We can't even remotely do that anyway.
That's not pathetic, that's being realistic.

So whilst it realistic to say we are not working on it together it’s not true to say that we are being asked to balance out the emissions of the rich. It’s to protect the rest of the people. The very wealthiest fly loads. Like our current PM. That’s true. But they are the tiny minority. The VAST majority of the world NEVER fly. The poorest people in the world are being hit the hardest by climate change already.

So rather than seeing it as stopping flying to balance out the rich few, view it as protecting the poorest and most vulnerable masses.

Apologies, not 747s but A380 airbus, intends transatlantic passengers, Sky News Channel. I really don't understand why the wealthy appear utterly unconcerned about warming. They are going to suffer along with us plebs, money can't insulate them from everything. They won't be hanging out safely on their yachts in the newly more dangerous seas, nobody will be able to buy the level of protection they will need.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/15/food-systems-collapse-plutocrats-life-on-earth-climate-breakdown?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=discover&utm_campaign=CCwQwpetl6rx3YmHARjChv7LouCKiIgBKicIMBCSk621uN--zkAYteKAgOGZ9ZSiASoOCAAqBggKMJeqezDfswk&utm_content=bullets

Well what about China? They are the worst - is an excuse for not changing I hear a lot. From WWF;

MYTH 10. CHINA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY RESPONSIBLE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE Despite being one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China is currently one of the largest investors in renewables. The increase in investment has been in response to the rapid growth of green business and the need to clean up air pollution in its major cities.

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/here-are-10-myths-about-climate-change

We could have been a world leader in renewables but the current Governments policies dismantled most of the incentives.

I’m not denying it’s hot across Southern Europe at the moment at all.

However, I have spent summers in Italy all my life (I’m 52) and the temperatures have always soared into the 40’s for a week or two. Lowering to a steady mid to late 30’s the rest of the time.

I am confused at these headlines to be honest.

But China are bad because they’re manufacturing stuff for us and other western countries. So we can get goods at cheaper prices, produced in sweat shops and also get to feel good about our low emission rates and wash our hands of any responsibility! If china wasn’t making stuff for other countries I’m sure their emissions would be a lot lower.

newnamethanks

I know. Wealth won’t protect them. If you can’t grow food … and who wants to live in a world where you can see a much suffering and know that you helped cause it?

I saw or read something (vague I know but I can probably find out) about the super wealthy that are prepping by building big bunkers in compounds. Securing security then for these bunkers. Then came the question of how you’d stop the security from killing you … It’s ridiculous.

There’s always a lot of urging to drink plenty of water, but if you’re sweating a lot, you do need salt as well - but it’s so rarely mentioned because salt has become a dirty word. We lived for years in Middle Eastern deserts where there was a summer period of intense heat, coupled with massive humidity, from the tail end of the monsoon - but without the rain. Most adults who had to spend any time outside the aircon took salt tablets, which were provided by dh’s employers.

Similarly, on holiday in Darwin during an incredibly humid period a few years ago, I was more or less wringing my hair out every 15 minutes and started feeling terribly tired - before I remembered the salt tablets. At lunch (buffalo pie or quiche!) I put plenty of salt on my chips and soon felt much better.

Globally carbon emissions from aviation are about 2.5% of the total. It's a small proportion really. Also for some perspective UK is responsibile for less than 1% of global GHG emissions with China, the biggest emitter, responsible for around 30%. 2nd biggest emitter USA is at around 14%, 3rd India around 7%.

Just Stop Oil should go and protest in China..what they are doing here is causing even more of industry to move away to countries like China where regulations are much less stringent. Global impact on things like climate chage is worse as a result as the net global emissions increase.

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · Today 08:32
But China are bad because they’re manufacturing stuff for us and other western countries. So we can get goods at cheaper prices, produced in sweat shops and also get to feel good about our low emission rates and wash our hands of any responsibility! If china wasn’t making stuff for other countries I’m sure their emissions would be a lot lower.

If we stop consuming loads of cheap tat from China….

Also see link above re the ‘well what about China’ thing.

Also for some perspective UK is responsibile for less than 1% of global GHG emissions with China, the biggest emitter, responsible for around 30%. 2nd biggest emitter USA is at around 14%, 3rd India around 7%

How does that compare per person?

China and India have massive populations

The UK has a small population relative to the size of the world population.
The USA is a big emitter compared to head of population.

@HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas i would get her rehydration drinks and salt tablets, Water won’t cut it in that heat as you need to replace the salts you lose.

(From my south Texan colleague)

ViaBlue · Today 08:35
Globally carbon emissions from aviation are about 2.5% of the total. It's a small proportion really. Also for some perspective UK is responsibile for less than 1% of global GHG emissions with China, the biggest emitter, responsible for around 30%. 2nd biggest emitter USA is at around 14%, 3rd India around 7%.

Just Stop Oil should go and protest in China..what they are doing here is causing even more of industry to move away to countries like China where regulations are much less stringent. Global impact on things like climate chage is worse as a result as the net global emissions increase.

Firstly, why compare ourselves to one if the biggest emitters? Why not compare ourselves to the many many countries that produce tiny amounts of carbon but will be worst hit?

Secondly see my link re China above.

Thirdly, those figures were debunked recently in a different thread. Per capita we are worse. There are millions of people living in rural China that emit tiny amounts of carbon. Way less than our poorest people.

Fourthly, just because someone else is doing something bad, doesn’t justify me doing it too.

But most if all, this is OUR planet that we ALL live on. The science is unequivocal - we need to cut our carbon emissions if we have any chance at mitigating the worst effects for us ALL.