To worry that the planet is heating faster than we have been led to expect and whether we can cope?

[100thingstoknowaboutspace]

I understand that extreme weather events, including spikes in temperatures and longer heatwaves, are a result of smaller incremental rises in global temperature. But the rate of heat records and large jumps in the temperatures during those spikes and heatwaves that we have experienced during the last 10 years feels off the scale for me, and I am wondering how we can actually cope if it continues at this pace? Climate experts talk about 2 degrees warming by mid century, but if we experience heatwaves that are 5 or more degrees hotter or go on longer than this one, I genuinely don't understand how we will cope. At the moment my flat is only just tolerable - with every measure of cooling I could think of. A few degrees more, and survival is literally threatened. Whereas humans may be able to cope with 5, 10 etc degrees lower, as it is easier to heat up, it seems we are reaching the edge of survivability in terms of being able to stay cool enough to maintain life. Not only here in the UK obviously.

I do believe there is still action that we as individuals and as a country (which in turn may impact other countries) can take, but I am scared that things are worse than even experts, in their carefully hedged or caveated statements and predictions, cause us to believe. I am worried I won't be able to keep my child safe as they grow up.

Grateful if anyone can talk me down from this climate anxiety - and also, grateful for insight about what might be most effective for us to do.

Yep that's the scary thing, using more power will only make the problem worse. We need to build our houses differently. New builds locally all have solar panels, we need air and ground source heating too.
We need houses with over hangs and solar glass to shade and absorb heat.

Did you go to sleep in 2021 and wake up in 2023?

Questioning things doesn't make someone a conspiracy theorist, that is such a lazy argument.

Not that fast. Four decades on and a couple of hot or cold days in some places every few years. I am not convinced it's anything more significant than the end of the little ice age.

Fuck me, you've really drank the Kool Aid. I hope what you're being paid is worth it.

Spouting conspiracy theories makes you a conspiracy theorist.

Those sound good but we also just need sensible technology.

YANBU. In fact I usually hide threads like these because reading them makes me spiral and I feel
so helpless. I regret having children (even though I love them and love being their mum). 18/20 years ago when they were born, I felt more optimistic 😕 I just hope they don’t have children, as much as I’d love to be a Grandma.

Unfortunately you're wrong. This is not a few days here and there, it's not weather. It's climate change and it is very significant.

OK the grim stuff - we are quite possibly doomed. 2 degrees of heating was a tag line to try and get action, 2 degrees of heating still means many many more extreme weather events that are a lot more than 2 degrees average.

Everyone who witters about China and India pumping out more pollution and that means we shouldn’t do anything needs to get in the bin. Yes they do - but their populations are higher. Plus China is running on something like 50% of renewables already which should give us a a lesson in the west. Also the west caused all this in the first place with industrialisation so I would personally like to think we try and do something now.

Also the answers of ‘we just need more tech or more AC’ are ridiculous - you get to a certain point and there won’t be electricity, or too much demand. India is currently experience 48 degrees with rolling blackouts as the grid is overloaded. That could absolutely happen here.

But despite all that despair and all the people who won’t/don’t want to believe there is lots of good stuff happening. Solar is so much more efficient. Electric cars are cheaper than anyone could dream. There are lots of good and clever people working away trying to make things better - even in exceptionally boring things like building modifications and insulation. It all helps.

As a country making sure we can adapt makes perfect sense on any metric - better infrastructure, more resilient and self sufficient for fuel/food and anything else we can manage. Making sure you talk to politicians helps so climate is up the agenda and not seen as a whack issue by green fanatics. Polls show most people are desperately worried about climate change and but there doesn’t seem to be the political consensus as the naysayers shout louder. But engaged people can make a difference!

Excellent post.

I think it is worth adding that the carboniferous era when the coal was laid down can't be repeated. Because when that was going on there were no wood eating organisms.

Now if a tree falls in a forest, all that trapped carbon is released again within a few decades.

@100thingstoknowaboutspace

so what are you personally going to do?

are you going to get rid of your car? Never fly again? Give up meat? Tell your kids they shouldn’t have children? Make sure your pension isn’t invested in carbon based stocks?

what are you prepared to give up?

Yup. Humans are screwed. We’ve tipped the balance already.

And if Reform get in - they don’t believe in anything to help the climate - so we are screwed faster!

I don't know the answer to the op, and I am not a climate scientist or anything.

But, I think the extreme comments saying we are imminently "fucked" or the social media favourite "the world is LITERALLY ON FIRE" are potentially counter productive. I listened to and believed a climate scientist about 20 years ago who predicted the end of days within 10 years and offered grief counselling for the people he said that to. I forget his name now as he seems to have fallen out if favour (understandably)

Anyway, this isn't to say it is fine - far from it! But I am wary of comments saying the end is nigh. If people think there is nothing to be done they will inevitably do nothing

You not understanding the science, isn't relevant.

We are supposed to be in a cooling period, not a warming period.

Up to the industrial revolution the planet was trending down over time. Conspiracy theorists know if they just scatter gun a vast amounts of BS of half truths, lies, misrepresentations etc constantly people will just eat it up.

To simplify it a lot, within the current ice age (we are in an active ice age), we happen to be in an interglacial period so the ice sheets have temporarily retreated back to the poles only. This is a normal process as the Earths position in space changes things during ice ages that last millions of years. We passed the peak of this interglacial period thousands of years ago, so was heading back out and planet was cooling very, very slowly for thousands of years as the overall trend - there were warmer and coolers longer periods of years within there as well especially locally, but it was getting colder overall globally over the long period. Then human intervention started, and substantial and rapid warming started basically exactly aligned with the industrial revolution, and with no other possible natural process that can drive it.

You need to understand that human interference is accelerating climate change at a rate that nothing has a chance to adapt to - humans, animals, plants, sealife.

Everything can - and has - adapt to a gradual climate change but the speed of rate of change in the last 50 years is enormous.

Why are people so blinkered, selfish and stupid that they can't understand this.

Op you’re right to be anxious.

The planet is becoming uninhabitable and billions of people are at risk within the current century. My kids have already said they won’t be having children. The future is bleak unfortunately.

The Uninhabitable Earth: A landmark 2020 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that for every 1°C of global warming, about one billion people will be pushed outside their historical climate niche.
Deadly Wet-Bulb Temperatures: Research led by King's College London warns that if global temperatures rise more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, large swaths of the tropics will experience sustained "wet-bulb" temperatures exceeding 35°C. At this threshold, the human body cannot cool itself through sweating, regardless of the amount of water consumed.
Planetary Boundaries: A 2023 Stockholm Resilience Centre analysis published in Science Advances warned that humanity has crossed six of nine critical planetary boundaries—such as biodiversity loss and climate change—that keep the Earth's environment stable.
Runaway Feedback Loops: Research from Oregon State University emphasizes that cascading tipping points, like thawing permafrost and collapsing ice sheets, could soon lock the Earth into irreversible "hothouse" conditions.

i’m so sick of hearing about 76 & how this is normal!

All of those except I have family in another country!

Is human life the only life that matters? Do we only care about the planet if humans live on it? If you knew wildlife and biodiversity would flourish without the human race, should we have voluntary human extinction?

The planet will thrive once the cancer called human beings dies out. The less concerned people are, the sooner it happens🤷🏼‍♀️

Exactly, we have caused these problems!!!!

I live somewhere hotter than the UK. In the tropics, and it is more than a few days here and there for us.

And that is in the model. Tropics get it first, higher latitudes later.

Even Ireland is getting record temperatures. And that is surrounded by a massive heat sink ocean. It is the world average temperature that is rising.

😂😂😂 It must be Friday comedy hour 😂😂😂

Sadly I think the ultra wealthy will still destroy the planet. They’ll engineer wars, pandemics etc to get rid of the useless eaters, replace their workforces with AI and carry on playing their silly games. They’ll burn through natural resources and play games colonising other planets.