Weather and Climate Change

1
Yel said:
I'm still trying to make this thread happen 😆

There's just so much weather at the moment, Asian heatwave, Paris 40c+ degrees this week, India went from expecting a surplus of wheat to banning exports due to crop failures. There's crop failures in so many countries due to the weather and no signs of this stopping.

Seville is expected to get to 47c this week, and could easily break the hottest ever temperature in Spain of 47.4 recorded last year.

It's really hard to take it all in and exactly what is happening everywhere.
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I do wonder if this thread struggles for reasons which I will mither abut below....
- The topic is so huge...yes it's called 'Weather and Climate Change' but is the focus on extreme weather, long term trends etc? If we think more about the climate change part it then encourages thought about causes and impacts and that list feels endless...water shortages, biodiversity loss, societal unrest, increased risk of zoontic diseases spreading or migrating to new areas, ocean acidification etc and its sometimes hard to understand how they could impact all of us each day in the near future
- The topic in general is found to be really depressing by people so they may not want to contribute and I get that - after all I experienced a very dark period not long after I read the 2018 IPCC report.

Almost 4 years since I read it and things are still a struggle for me even with therapy and more recently medication, especially if I have to actually engage beyond my own lifestyle choices (some of which some people would consider extreme in the Western world) and limited political engagement such as joining the occasional demo and writing to my MP/local councillors.. I've really felt this despair again over the last couple of days where the news about the record breaking temperatures are in my face no matter what media I consume or don't.

I'm working with my employer to bring in a guest speaker for a group video call about the topic, which has led me today to find some helpful resources. They might help people coming to this thread who may have struggled over the past few days and maybe much before that.

www.brittwray.com

Gen Dread | Britt Wray, PhD

Gen Dread is the first newsletter out there that shares wide ranging ideas for supporting emotional health and psychological resilience in the climate and wider ecological crisis.
www.brittwray.com www.brittwray.com
www.facebook.com

Gen Dread

Gen Dread. 332 likes. A newsletter about the soft side of a hard problem: how to protect mental health in the climate and wider ecological crisis. Brought to you by a researcher and writer named...
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
Newsletter about staying sane in the climate crisis

www.caroline-hickman.com

Caroline Hickman – Eco-anxiety & climate psychology

‘Psychology, so dedicated to awakening the human consciousness, needs to wake itself up to one of the most ancient human truths: we cannot be studied or cured apart from the planet.’ James Hillman
www.caroline-hickman.com www.caroline-hickman.com
Psychotherapist based in the UK who specialises in eco-anxiety

climateoutreach.org

Climate Outreach

Climate Outreach works with people and organisations to help create new climate stories. Every year, we work with hundreds of partners - from charities to governments to business - to help them navigate difficult climate conversations and unlock more ambitious climate action.
climateoutreach.org climateoutreach.org
Organisation that produces education and training, they have some really useful videos
 
I don't see any way in which the climate changes can be reversed. There's many climate scientists who seem to be quite pessimistic about the future of climate change. A few months back a climate expert on radio mentioned how there are a growing number of climate scientists who believe we are past the point of no return.
 
Tatooine_legend1 said:
I don't see any way in which the climate changes can be reversed.
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Yeah I don't think it can be. It can maybe be slowed down a tiny bit but we've burnt in recent decades what took hundreds of millions of years to create. And carry on burning it.

Climate change seems to be baked in and inevitable even if burning all hydrocarbons was ended today.

They were saying today on sky news just the melting ice in Norway alone would add 34cm to sea levels by 2050 and it's reached the point where it can't be stopped.
 
Tatooine_legend1 said:
A few months back a climate expert on radio mentioned how there are a growing number of climate scientists who believe we are past the point of no return.
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I haven't actually looked at any data or anything but any time I heard about it on the news I feel like the goalposts have shifted forward slightly so it's not made to look like a complete disaster

https://www.12ft.io/https://www.the...ver-to-dry-up-sparking-shortage-of-hydropower
 
All the boomers are saying the heatwave in Europe is just summer, meanwhile weather experts are saying they've never seen such a wide reaching high.

Italian and Spanish cities are unbearable enough at their normal 30's let alone as they get closer to 45c
 
Yel said:
All the boomers are saying the heatwave in Europe is just summer, meanwhile weather experts are saying they've never seen such a wide reaching high.

Italian and Spanish cities are unbearable enough at their normal 30's let alone as they get closer to 45c
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I fleetingly saw a headline the other day during my daily scroll that suggested places like Italy no longer have 4 distinct seasons. I can see that happening in UK also.

Edit: here it is… https://news.sky.com/story/italy-no...s-intense-heatwave-grips-the-country-12921554

In the future they might encourage tourists to avoid July and August and instead come may or September.
 
emmer_moans said:
In the future they might encourage tourists to avoid July and August and instead come may or September.
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I think that'll happen naturally, more and more each year people will avoid southern Europe in the summer. To be honest it's far better earlier or later in the year.

A friend just got back from Malta where it was 42c and there were regular power cuts making it pretty unbearable. I don't think they'll be going to the med again next summer!
 
Yel said:
All the boomers are saying the heatwave in Europe is just summer, meanwhile weather experts are saying they've never seen such a wide reaching high.

Italian and Spanish cities are unbearable enough at their normal 30's let alone as they get closer to 45c
Click to expand...
Not so. The current unusually warm temperatures in Southern Europe are down to three factors; the effects of El Niño, the position of the jet stream and the time of year, all of which are perfectly natural phenomena. Climate change has nothing to do with it.
 
47c in Sicily, recently broken record broken again and the airport had to be closed due to fires approaching. Meteorologists and locals across many european countries saying they've never seen anything like it, but of course it's all a conspiracy and nothing to do with a changing climate.



 
Yel said:
47c in Sicily, recently broken record broken again and the airport had to be closed due to fires approaching. Meteorologists and locals across many european countries saying they've never seen anything like it, but of course it's all a conspiracy and nothing to do with a changing climate.



Click to expand...

I wonder if governments are unprepared to deal with widespread fires like this that for the most part they are helpless? So many locals must be so worried and wondering where to go or how to help.
 
emmer_moans said:
I wonder if governments are unprepared to deal with widespread fires like this that for the most part they are helpless? So many locals must be so worried and wondering where to go or how to help.
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I think they very quickly get overwhelmed and on islands neighbouring countries can't easily help out sending over their fire service.

The situation in Sicily looks like it's affecting far more people.

I think they're going to have to put in a lot more firebreaks
 
Mt Fuji breaks 130 year old record to not see any snow this season yet

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CNN —
November is just a few days away, but Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji remains snowless, marking the latest date without a snowcap since records began 130 years ago.
The peaks of Japan’s highest mountain are usually dusted in snow by early October, but as of Tuesday the summit has remained bare – raising the alarm of the impacts of the climate crisis on one of the country’s most beloved landmarks.
The first snowfall signals the arrival of winter. It follows the summer climbing season, which this year ended on September 10.
Snowcaps begin to form on average on Fuji on October 2, and last year, it was recorded on October 5, according to Japan’s weather agency – though public broadcaster NHK reported that most of it melted away in early November due to warm temperatures.
Japan’s Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which has announced the first snowfall on Fuji each year since it was established in 1894, has yet to do so this year, citing unseasonably warm weather.
“Because of the fact that high temperatures in Japan have been continuing since the summer and as it has been raining, there has been no snowfall,” Shinichi Yanagi, a meteorological officer at the Kofu office, told CNN Tuesday.

 
A year of rain falls in Valencia, Spain in 8 hours and they're saying it could be the deadliest floods in modern history for the country.

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  • Europe's deadliest floods since 2021, could be Spain's worst
  • Death toll could still rise with more searches on Thursday
  • Roads closed, rail services halted
  • Storm also batters other regions
  • Farms battered in Valencia, a key orange producer
LA ALCUDIA, Spain, Oct 30 (Reuters) - At least 95 people have been killed in possibly the deadliest flooding to hit Spain in its modern history after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Meteorologists said a year's worth of rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter.

Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

 
Yel said:
A year of rain falls in Valencia, Spain in 8 hours and they're saying it could be the deadliest floods in modern history for the country.

---
  • Europe's deadliest floods since 2021, could be Spain's worst
  • Death toll could still rise with more searches on Thursday
  • Roads closed, rail services halted
  • Storm also batters other regions
  • Farms battered in Valencia, a key orange producer
LA ALCUDIA, Spain, Oct 30 (Reuters) - At least 95 people have been killed in possibly the deadliest flooding to hit Spain in its modern history after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Meteorologists said a year's worth of rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter.

Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

Click to expand...
A year's worth in one night?! 😮😔
 
This thread is incredibly important..... but the issue itself is so overwhelmingly depressing I find it incredibly difficult to cope with!

Its obvious that weather patterns have changed and that catastrophic climate change is a reality. But its too big and world wide a topic for small changes to make enough difference. And the world as it is, (with wars, anger and frustration) isnt in a space to work together at all.

I wish there was something somewhere to help....but....... one of the biggest issues is that any meaningful change to reduce our climate emissions will reduce things like our standard of living. There just isnt enough honesty out there.

Its so stupid to build all these 'green' solutions designed to maintain the same power usage in our domestic homes and businesses, as we are using at the moment. If we want to save the planet, we need to use less power and be a bit more discerning about how the precious power is used. But which political party is going to get away with that as a slogan?

in the UK we have all the issues around windfarms, and how once you have generated the green energy out at sea, there is no 'green' solution to transport this lovely green energy to the cities and homes that need them. The solution is to cut down trees, destroy unspoilt countryside or farmland to build pylon trails or 30 metre wide trenches to hide the cables underground. Not to mention the new concrete substations that will need to be built to convert the electricity into a useable form. Walberswick on the Suffolk coast has a new sign, Welcome to the concrete coast. A concrete coastline is not 'Green'.

Who needs trees, when we have a new housing estate to build? The lovely money generated for the building firms is just so much more important than people breathing, obviously! I just wish there was some way to change how we value trees and the natural world and the things they actually do for us. Changing carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen, as trees and countryside does, is priceless, but maybe we should put a realistic price on it, that takes into account say 300 years of oxygen production, for a mature tree, compared to how much it would cost to produce the same amount of oxygen in a lab?

We should stop producing virtually all plastic products.( I'll make an exception for maybe plastics used for medical purposes and sterile packaging for some foodstuffs. )

Food eaten should be locally produced and seasonal, as much as is possible, and grants and support must be given to farmers to make this affordable.

Transport is a massive issue, in the UK in 2024, we need a car or similar to access basic services, to buy food, to attend hospital appointments, to go to work and to see our friends. So how do we change the way we have lived for generations?

And cost is a massive issue..... I've just had someone say it will cost between £9,000 to £11, 000 to update our existing solar panels to a more powerful and efficient system! Who has that kind of money spare,? and how is reinstalling new panels conserving existing resources? Where is the reuse part of the package?
 
Milliemoo99 said:
This thread is incredibly important..... but the issue itself is so overwhelmingly depressing I find it incredibly difficult to cope with!

Its obvious that weather patterns have changed and that catastrophic climate change is a reality. But its too big and world wide a topic for small changes to make enough difference. And the world as it is, (with wars, anger and frustration) isnt in a space to work together at all.

I wish there was something somewhere to help....but....... one of the biggest issues is that any meaningful change to reduce our climate emissions will reduce things like our standard of living. There just isnt enough honesty out there.

Its so stupid to build all these 'green' solutions designed to maintain the same power usage in our domestic homes and businesses, as we are using at the moment. If we want to save the planet, we need to use less power and be a bit more discerning about how the precious power is used. But which political party is going to get away with that as a slogan?

in the UK we have all the issues around windfarms, and how once you have generated the green energy out at sea, there is no 'green' solution to transport this lovely green energy to the cities and homes that need them. The solution is to cut down trees, destroy unspoilt countryside or farmland to build pylon trails or 30 metre wide trenches to hide the cables underground. Not to mention the new concrete substations that will need to be built to convert the electricity into a useable form. Walberswick on the Suffolk coast has a new sign, Welcome to the concrete coast. A concrete coastline is not 'Green'.

Who needs trees, when we have a new housing estate to build? The lovely money generated for the building firms is just so much more important than people breathing, obviously! I just wish there was some way to change how we value trees and the natural world and the things they actually do for us. Changing carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen, as trees and countryside does, is priceless, but maybe we should put a realistic price on it, that takes into account say 300 years of oxygen production, for a mature tree, compared to how much it would cost to produce the same amount of oxygen in a lab?

We should stop producing virtually all plastic products.( I'll make an exception for maybe plastics used for medical purposes and sterile packaging for some foodstuffs. )

Food eaten should be locally produced and seasonal, as much as is possible, and grants and support must be given to farmers to make this affordable.

Transport is a massive issue, in the UK in 2024, we need a car or similar to access basic services, to buy food, to attend hospital appointments, to go to work and to see our friends. So how do we change the way we have lived for generations?

And cost is a massive issue..... I've just had someone say it will cost between £9,000 to £11, 000 to update our existing solar panels to a more powerful and efficient system! Who has that kind of money spare,? and how is reinstalling new panels conserving existing resources? Where is the reuse part of the package?
Click to expand...
I take an interest locally and care deeply about all you mention and have for a while BUT anything the state (ANY party)does is scammy, authoritarian and is driven by hate of anyone who might stop them making millions from their investments :mad:
They just happen to start caring about the planet when they get the calculator out and realise how rich it will make them🙄 😞
 
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