This is it - climate change is really beginning to bite

[Wowwee1234]

We know the climate is changing and it is us. This particular heat wave feels like the next step up after a winter of devastating storms.

YABU - It's just too hot
YANBU - This is the taste of things to come.

What’s so funny?

Exactly this. It’s was memorable because it was so rare. Obviously.

I started planting drought coping shrubs and trees in my garden, last year. Both for their flowers and shade from the white heat sun.

It was hotter than this and for 6 weeks at a stretch in the 70s. We all enjoyed a long hot summer. It’s the summer. Stop being over dramatic. I’m old so I remember lots of summers and they were always long and hot.
In school summer holidays it never ever rained. Also being old no I don’t need admitting to hospital, need a carer, get dehydrated or can’t function just because the suns out - it’s Summer!!

@IShouldNotCoco Any regional cooling won't happen until AMOC (the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, of which our wonderful Gulf Stream is an adjacent system) collapses, which will come as a result of further predicted heating and irreversible tipping points being triggered.

The collapse of AMOC will have devastating consequences on agriculture and food production in our part of the northern hemisphere, as well as the logistics of transportation and keeping populations warm; not simply wetter, colder summers. AMOC collapsing is what we really need to factor in to all future contingency planning as a nation and region.

I brought in my own fan to class, not rocket science

Worth reading if this thread has made you worry about AMOC: https://debunkingdoomsday.quora.com/Gulf-stream-is-blown-by-winds-and-cant-stop-a-deeper-ocean-current-the-AMOC-can-slow-down-not-likely-to-stop-in-f

I love the hinting that reasonable women, reasonably concerned about global heating, must be Gen Zee youngsters with no common sense 😂

And the social proof provided by these lovely memories of the 60s and 70s... which makes anecdotes feel more true than what the out-of-touch boffins are saying...

Well, when I were a lass, long ago in the 80s, summers were all cool and drizzly.

When I look at photos we're all wearing shorts, but with jerseys and wellingtons.

One year there were only six dry, hot days - I remember my mum complaining about it because she couldn't do the garden work she needed to do.

The fact that you, personally, have only had one good week this year or last year in your part of the UK doesn't mean that global heating isn't happening.

Our own personal experience helps ground us - of course it does. It's a really important source of wisdom, and it's why we become so valuable as a source of advice and family support as we get older.

But we can't generalise from our own personal experience to what is going on for the world as a whole.

My own mild dose of Covid doesn't mean that over 7 million haven't died of Covid. Your own enjoyment of a lovely summer's day doesn't mean that accelerating climate change isn't a problem!

I’m in my early 40s and the only remotely equivalent summer I can remember is 1990. It’s simply not correct that we regularly had days on end of 30-plus degree temperatures in the 80s and 90s. Yes, of course there were odd days here and there but the point is that it’s now frequent and sustained. I don’t understand why there’s this desperate need to deny that the climate is changing when it’s so clear that it is.

And of course we all remember the ‘long, hot summers’ of our childhoods, but a) nostalgia means our memories aren’t always accurate and b) those summers we remember were 25 degrees, not 35.

In 1976 UK
highest temperature 35.9

Yes - we remember that because it was an outlier.

Heres my back garden since 1st Jan.

Scientists have never had so much raw data of such quality available.

(fans of energy efficiency would obviously have a matching series of graphs showing inside temperature with an extra dimension of power consumed ....)

It's not possible for the amount of CO2 emitted by humans to leave the global climate unchanged. This is very basic physics. Natural variations are an entirely different matter.

no it was more than that
United Kingdom
In late June 2024, the United Kingdom was affected by a heatwave, with most of the country seeing temperatures reaching 26 °C (79 °F).[70]
In mid-July and late-July 2024, heatwaves affected the United Kingdom, and again in August.
On 12 August, a temperature of 34.8 °C (94.6 °F) was recorded in Cambridge, exceeding the previously recorded temperature of 32.0 °C (89.6 °F) on 30 July at Kew Gardens & Heathrow Airport.[71]

i remember my HO and her assistant visiting us last August. they were in our flat for over an hour and couldnt wait to leave but i admit i did want to keep them here as long as possible so they could "feel the benefit" of what we have to put up with

Just read the latest posts on this thread and the anti vaxxer thread. My God some people are just so dragged down deep in those rabbit holes

Are you saying that some opinions are wrong, therefore they are down rabbit holes?

And you are right, therefore NOT down a rabbit hole?

What if the rabbit holers are right and you are wrong?
Are you down a rabbit hole then?

Thought not......

I agree. Turtles sighted off the Jurassic coast. The ocean is warming quicker than we thought

Its not so much climate change but the fact people keep using anecdotal evidence and blaming everyone but themselves. It causes arguments.

It was warmer in the UK 2,000 years ago. Then wetter then much colder. Clearly it's warmed up a lot since Victorian times even.
So climate change happens with and without human activity. Human activity absolutely has an impact but as I said previously no one wants to go backwards. We like our food from many miles away available all year round. We like using water for washing things even if they aren't dirty. We like stuff. And children.

Well of course people will be worried about the impact of climate change on people.
Just as Whales worry about the impact on whales (they might not know its climate change but the old ones would remember a different world)

My husband shift patterns and saod the other day that he hardly sees hedgehogs anymore. over the past few years a huge portion of our neighbours have opted for plastic grass, slabs and taken out the hedges (it's a lot of effort to mow the lawn and trim the hedges I agree but it's impacting things)

We have a small wildlife pond in the garden. Frogs every year. this year nothing.

Its scary! I'm scared.

It's a shame some rabbit holes lead to dead children though.

Ha
yes well at least there are hundreds and thousands of normal everyday people who are doing their best (at their own expense) to make a difference. Even a small difference can snowball into a bigger difference.

For example, me and my husband and really enjoys plants and we started growing a bit of food a few years ago, this has spurred a couple of our friends to give it a go. Even just one or 2 apple trees in a mates back garden counts

Going to the charity shops and shopping second hand online is the norm now in my friendship group when a few years ago they all thought I was an embarrassing hippy for going second hand! it's changing out there. I really think it is

Ha
yes well at least there are hundreds and thousands of normal everyday people who are doing their best (at their own expense) to make a difference. Even a small difference can snowball into a bigger difference.

For example, me and my husband and really enjoys plants and we started growing a bit of food a few years ago, this has spurred a couple of our friends to give it a go. Even just one or 2 apple trees in a mates back garden counts

Going to the charity shops and shopping second hand online is the norm now in my friendship group when a few years ago they all thought I was an embarrassing hippy for going second hand! it's changing out there. I really think it is

It does genuinely look like we're cooked, whatever sane countries do.

However doing our best to mitigate it is worth doing anyway. You can live a happier life without polluting the world, though you'll have fewer shiny baubles as a result.

Car use doesn‘t just put CO2 into the atmosphere, it damages our lungs, reduces the quality of our sleep, generates stress, impedes social connections and brutally kills our children.

Overconsumption is harming both us and the developing world. Cotton and fruit pickers working in fields where glyphosate is used end up with many health issues, microplastics are getting into the food chain, people die in dangerous factories etc.

This is so ill-informed that I don't even know where to begin.