1y ago

For the fourth day in a row, Earth has broken or equalled its hottest average temperature record

www.abc.net.au For the fourth day in a row, Earth has broken or equalled its hottest average temperature record

The planet's average temperature hit 17.23 degrees Celsius on Thursday, surpassing the 17.18C record set on Tuesday and equalled on Wednesday.

World News @kbin.social

www.abc.net.au /news/2023-07-07/climate-change-average-temperature-record-thursday/102577828

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worldnews @lemmy.world

For the fourth day in a row, Earth has broken or equalled its hottest average temperature record

www.abc.net.au /news/2023-07-07/climate-change-average-temperature-record-thursday/102577828

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314 comments

I think it's important to note that this also coincides with the start of what's predicted to be a super El Nino (we've had a couple of those already). If the model holds true then 2024 will be even hotter than this year, and (again, if the model predictions are right) will shatter all previous records. Then come 2025 or 2026 average temperatures will settle down a bit.
The issue isn't the seasonal or even the yearly hottest temps. It's the overall trend that's a concern (which is what the article is talking about), which are trending up.
Not sure if any of that made sense.
- Makes sense, but the idea of a "super" El Nino is a symptom of the same problem. Super implies unusual or abnormal, and it's only getting worse.
  
  Well yes, the super El Nino's are part of climate change. They are getting worse each time. All I was saying is that it's not a straight year over year increase. It comes in waves or heaves in a periodic manner.
- right so considering we've been seeing alarming loss of ice mass over the last couple of years and we know that has an exponential effect on climate change. We already hit the tipping point just most people didn't realize it.
  
  Ya probably. I'm still hoping that there's some global mechanism that we don't understand yet that will limit or reign in the effects. But that's just wishful thinking.
- The problem is when the temps come back down, climate deniers will go “WhAt HaPpEnEd?”.

I used to worry about this a lot, I still do but I used to too.
Joking aside, it's a shit show that us plebians can't really do anything about but I still try. I've driven a hybrid for the last 6 years, I have a smart thermostat to try to save energy, I try to eat less meat more often. I recycle a lot more than most. I even make my own bread and nut milks and many other things which is not only cheaper and healthier (and WAY more delicious) but requires less transport related greenhouse gas emissions than buying premade breads and nut milks. Nut milk is especially better than dairy milk in that matter.
Oh yeah! And yesterday I picked up 10 large trash bags of litter:
- Bro you're doing more than most of us, thank you.
  But yeah, our carbon footprint is minuscule in comparison to corporate footprints. We need them to fucking play ball.
  What's more profitable: Exceptional profits for 30 years until civilization collapses, or sustainable profits forever?
  
  All I could think about when reading this post is corporate footprints. It's great for us to all do our part, but sadly the corporations not doing their part is screwing everybody. We need more regulations on them, idc what product they're making or how much profit they'd like or even how many people whine about not receiving that product it needs to stop.
  
  Corporate footprints are done on our behalf, in order to manufacture the goods and services we buy.
  The real problem is that "vote with your dollars" fundamentally doesn't work because human nature is selfish and short-sighted, so regulation is necessary.
- Amazing work! I would also like to note that the biggest contributors to the problem are corporations. Individuals couldn't out pollute corporations if they tried.
- btw note that the carbon footprint of one person's lifetime is equiv to 1 second of worldwide factory emissions (source: kurzgesagt), so it's not a necessity to do some of the things you're doing, but i would recommend that everyone in the world do some farming, even if it's a small garden of radishes or smth, or tomatoes on a windowsill
  also this is only tangentially related, but i still drink cow milk, because: -A it tastes good
  -B I am allergic to all nut milks
  -C soy milk sounds like crap, soy is already in basically everything (rip the few people who are allergic to it), so i wouldn't want to consume more of it
  
  A: if we know cow milk is bad for the planet and bad for the animal, and we use "but I prefer it!" as an excuse, couldn't we apply that to everything? Sexual assault? "It feels good!". Theft? "I like having stuff!"
  B: (in order of ease and taste) Oat milk, rice milk, flax milk, hemp milk
  C: Soy milk... "sounds like crap"? We might be at the end of carnivore arguments. You know cow milk literally has faeces in it, right? The fact "soy is in everything" being used to not have it is also not logical. Water is in everything.
  
  lemmy.ml/c/gardening
  
  btw note that the carbon footprint of one person’s lifetime is equiv to 1 second of worldwide factory emissions (source: kurzgesagt)
  I love kurzgesagt but this comparison is.... it's like two abstractions multiplied.
- What a chad you are

"sooner than expected", "tipping point", "nonbinding resolution", "climate scientists warn"
Everything is fine...
- Nothing to see here!
  
  My local oil exec said that it's fine.
- I feel like one sad thing is you could go back ten or twenty years and it was the exact same and it not much has really changed. The same warnings that everybody has seen but nothing has really come of it. The same almost pointless resolutions that almost no country sticks to. We have more wind turbines and a few electric cars, but mostly it's the same non-action as before.
  I remember reading a geography textbook at school twenty years ago and it was warning of climate change but here I am two decades later and everything is basically heading in the same terrifying direction as it was then.
- Phew!
  How about my dividends, are they safe?

A toast to everyone in this thread that decided to not have kids! 🥂
- a toast to everyone in this thread that will be burnt to toast because unchecked greed and capitalism.
  
  Hear hear!
- Yeah, it's great to know we'll die off!
  
  I mean, it’s also great that we’re not leaving behind offspring to have progressively poorer lives until it’s just Event Horizon: Earth.
- I will never create and subject a human being to the world our negligence has created.
  
  About 15 years ago I was going somewhere with my family. Stepmom and I were talking about Climate Change then, how if things didn’t change that massive starvation was likely, that crazed weather would be irreversible, etc. and she noticed that my 10 year old niece’s eyes were getting huge. She was genuinely disturbed by the conversation and began to say is this really going to happen? Before I could plainly reply my stepmom reassured her that no, things were going to be fine, and we changed the subject.
  Niece is in mid twenties now and subject to the reality of the situation as it slowly unfolds, like an asteroid headed toward the earth at 5 mph. The future is dreadful to her.
- that's one of the biggest reasons for my decision not to
- I'm never having kids. Had things been easier, maybe I would've had kids but it's hard enough to look out for myself as it is and having kids anyway like many people do is the worst move I could possibly make. Not having kids will have consequences against the absolute tyrants in charge of it all some day. Not having kids in protest to the system (or at least until things improve for the common person) is just doing your patriotic duty at this point.
- As a side benefit, I also have all the money and free time to spend with furry children instead!
- I want to have kids. But bringing them into a poisoned and dying world where they have to earn the right to exist? That just seems cruel
  If we get past the next few decades, I'll bring them into a world worth living in
- Ditto. Not that I'd have the opportunity, but decided I'd only adopt if I desired to raise a child.
  
  That's a good call! If I ever get the hankering to have kids I'll just do that. We do that with dogs (rescue), why not humans?
- Exponentially increasing heat is when toddlers amirite
  (also you should still adopt kids)

This summer is the coolest summer you'll experience in the rest of your life.
- Nah, that'll be 2026-2027 some time. The overall trend takes a decade or so to exceed the smaller scale ~3yr oscillations.

Reminds me of a story I read about how if you had a can of food and bacteria got into it, and every day the bacteria doubled in size, and somehow this bacteria had conversations with itself with all of the other bacterias in the can about how long the food would last.
How long would it be before everything ran out?
At some point, the smart bacteria would stand up and say, "Hey, my fellow Amoebas, we've used 1/4 of all of the food in the can! If we're not careful and if we don't manage our resources we will run out of food!"
And the politician bacteria would say, "Don't worry, everyone, we have 3 times as much food as we've ever used in all the months of our existence still in the can!"
And the bacteria was fruitful, and multiplied.
And when they hit the halfway mark the next day, the smart bacteria would stand up and say, "Hey my fellow Amoebas, we've used half of all of the food in the can! If we're not careful and if we don't manage our resources we will run out of food!"
And the bacteria politicians would say, "Everyone! Don't worry! We still have as much food left as we have used in our entire existence to this point!"
And the bacteria was fruitful, and multiplied.
And then another day passed, and all of the bacteria died.
- There's also a good example of exponential change described using a doubling drop of water in The Power of Compounding
  
  Meh.
  It's doubling each step.
  If course it's at 1/(2^n) of the final volume at n steps before the final step.
  At half of its final volume one step before the end
  a quarter of its final volume two steps before the end
  an eighth of its final volume three steps before the end
  a sixteenth of it's final volume four steps before the end

Graphic of ice cover for the Antarctic is truly terrifying

The world is ending but at least I can post about it
- And get internet points, I call this an absolute W

Meanwhile China is building two new coal power plants per week.
- ...and decreasing the utilisation of their coal fleet to the point where their coal consumption for electricity is flat and set to start decreasing next year.
  https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/global-electricity-review-2023/#chapter-6-country-and-region-deep-dives-china
  And their renewable energy share is higher than the US (and most of the world) and increasing faster.
  Stop whatabouting and fix your own shit.
  
  Stop whatabouting and fix your own shit.
  Seems hard, no thanks.
- China's also building a lot of nuclear plants and what they claim will be the biggest nuclear plant in the world.
  Not that it negates building coal plants, but it's not a simple issue. They're growing faster than the energy industry can keep up with.
  And like others have said, the rest of the world is at fault too. Germany shut down all of its nuclear plants, which forced them to go heavy into coal. And not just any coal, but lignite which is considered the dirtiest of all types of coal.
  
  Germany in particular pisses me off so much. No country bought into the fear mongering about nuclear energy after Fukushima as much as Germany did. Shutting down nuclear power plants in the face of climate change is so incredibly irresponsible. For all of their faults, I give a lot of credit to the US and France for not shying away from using nuclear energy.
  
  And like others have said, the rest of the world is at fault too. Germany shut down all of its nuclear plants, which forced them to go heavy into coal. And not just any coal, but lignite which is considered the dirtiest of all types of coal.
  That's a weird way of spelling wind and solar
  https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&chartColumnSorting=default&interval=quarter&year=-1
- Does Chinese inaction absolve all responsibility of the West?
  
  Classic whataboutism
  
  ...of course it doesn't? Like what kinda point is that?
  
  Well, Australia is selling them all the coal.
  
  But I wanna blame China.
- We're paying them to produce this pollution.
- A total of 106 GW of new coal power projects were permitted, the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week .
  The size of coal-fired power generating units varies widely; the actual number of permitted units was 168 at 82 different plant sites.
- Dumbasses

Maybe I've consumed too much sci-fi over the years. I've always thought the primary goal should be that of making this species a space fairing one. Secondary, they to extend the life of this planet as much as possible. It will die one day, that's unavoidable.
At the present, it looks like neither are being achieved. It's all just going to collapse on itself. Maybe the human population 2.0 can resurface and try again after the planet kills almost everyone.
I feel sorry for the younger generation and my peers with children.
- Nope, see the problem is that our civilisation has used all the most readily accessible natural resources, oil, copper, tin, iron, coal, gold, silver, etc. The problem now is that if our civilisation collapses and there's a significant loss of technological capacity, any emergent civilisation may never develop the capacity to reach or process adequate amounts to enable a technological rediscovery. Yay.
  
  I disagree, if you've looked at all the advances in technology made over the last 1,2,300 years. If there was to be a great extinction event with some survivors - they'd bounce back relatively quickly.
  
  metals dont disappear tho, they can be salvaged from the ruins of the previous civilization. but i agree coal/oil are a problem.
  
  Oh god I'd never thought about it that way, we really fucked up
- Human self-sufficiency in space--- what's needed for any real redundancy-- is for sure >50 and probably >250 years away.
  Space settlements are going to need support from Earth for the conceivable future.
  Even a destroyed planet from global warming or the middle of the ocean is infinitely more hospitable than the space environment.
  
  On current course, the first planet we'll have to terraform is Terra.
- Humans treat this planet like we've got someone else to go.
- I've known for decades that we humans are failed species that will eventually go extinct. Tbf, everyone are and new species come and go. It has been quite interesting and often sad watching our overshoot while many people have lived in hubris and thought we'd conquer the space one day.
  The Earth is one special place in space where life has been born. I have no clue why that has happened but I'm thankful for having been alive and been able to witness larger life cycle in this planet.
  I doubt any species will ever conquer the galaxies. It seems that life consumes energy and uses it to grow until it one day collapses.
  
  Yeah. I was born too late to explore earth, born too early to explore space, but born just in time for dank memes. I'm honestly very grateful for that. We live in a pretty exciting time, as sad as it is that we'll eventually all go extinct.
  
  What is a "failed species?" Do you believe there is a win condition on the universe?
- Feel happy for the thousands or millions of generations who will never have to suffer being born.
- Nah, we have already exploited everything that can be easily exploited. Look at the effort we need to get new oil or metal deposits. Humans 2.0 will struggle to build basic machinery.
- I've always thought the primary goal should be that of making this species a space fairing one.
  What? Why??
  
  Because ultimately if we don't leave this rock we go extinct. Guaranteed.
  
  Not who you replied to but I agree with their sentiment and will tell you why.
  1: At the rate at which we're destroying it, our planet won't sustain us forever so unless we're going to change our ways which most, especially big corps that do the most damage for profit, won't we need to focus on an exit strategy for the inevitable.
  2: The sun will also die eventually of course. Won't be for a long time (hopefully) but that alone means earth isn't a forever solution for us and if we live long enough, eventually we will have to leave.

This is going to be painful for us as a species. I don't think it will render us extinct, but the weather will get significantly worse and we will probably see widespread coastal flooding in this century, which will lead to hundreds of millions of refugees. We still have plenty of time to prepare and to change course, but I fear that we will wait until a global crisis is on our doorstep before we make serious changes.
- Millennials had the honour to participate in wars for pil. The coming generations will have the pleasure to kill over fresh water
  
  Also climate refugees will become a regular thing, people doing anything to pass borders as it’s life or death for particularly exposed nations. This is already happening but will no doubt get even worse, breeding even more extremism and nationalism that bring onto a whole other slew of issues as a package deal of extreme nationalism. Fun times.
- Any corrections we make won't take major effect until well after we are fucked. It's why having kids is kind of insane to me because they are going to have a fucked future.
  
  On the other hand, there is no one else, probably in the whole universe, who can preserve life as we know it. And I am not just talking about humans.
  Think about philosophical questions like: "What is the reason life exists?". Potentially, the answer is there is no reason. But what if there is something else out there which could give life a reason to exist?
  Perhaps somewhere down a million years some lifeform could make the universe continue to exist. When we die now this is quite literally the end. No one else will preserve life beyond the existence of the earth or our solar system when someday the sun burns out. I highly doubt octopuses or cockroaches will evolve to build space ships and protect life any time soon. It's just us.
- I don't think it will render us extinct.
  Oh, it probably will, though the memory of us may live on after that.
  In fact, arguably it happened long ago, and we're currently in an echo of the past in a very immersive history lesson simultaneously teaching the grandeur and folly of humanity.
  
  I mean, even if we went extinct tomorrow our mark on this planet is permanent because of all the damn plastic, much of which will probably fossilize. Even still, the extreme weather and extinction events on the way I don't think are enough to end us, there will probably be some stragglers that struggle by in the ashes of the old world if nothing else.

This is the coolest summer you'll have for the rest of your life
- Well when you put it that way...
- Cool

Cool. Nothing to see here. Totally fine. It’s not like western Washington is needing AC in the summer every year now for the first time in literally ever.
- Should we take a moment to recognise that battling climate change with air conditioning is not a long-term winning strategy??
  
  @PancakeLegend
  @june @samuk
  My electricity bill went up 50% due to the AC alone. It's getting THAT bad
  
  So just broil to death in the name of 'climate religion'?
- Oh no... people in the PNW might not have great weather all the time anymore.
  Oh no...
  
  All the time lol? I guess if you like 9 months of grey full sky’s then sure.

NOT COOL
- Pun intended?
  
  Unfortunately yes

Doesn't matter, I'd be dead before the world ends. - some asshole probably.
- literally an entire generation of them
- Just about the entire ruling class who refuse to give up power and retire.
- FYI reincarnation exists. We're all fucked.
  At least we can live in the real life set of Mad Max, which may be pretty cool for 5 min
  Carl Sagan on reincarnation - https://thetattyjournal.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/the-astonishing-evidence-that-made-carl-sagan-believe-reincarnation-deserves-serious-study/
  
  “FYI reincarnation exists”
  Says who?
- I am one of these "assholes". Explain to me why I should care. Don't want kids, don't have much influence in what is gonna happen, just wanna enjoy the time I have on this planet. Don't think this population growth is sustainable in any scenario, and humankind would do better with a few billion fewer.
  Fatalism is not gonna change a thing except making your experience on Earth less enjoyable. Turn off the news, live a good life, otherwise you will regret it.
  
  You can have a healthy dose of both being informed and practicing self care. Being empathetic is also a good thing, actually.
  
  Exactly this, because there is literally fuck all any of us can do to change this. Climate change is largely the result of a couple hundred mega corporations, not the masses choosing plastic drinking straws.

All my fellow Aussies we're going to be in for a rough summer
- clang bring out yer dead
- I'm up in QLD, still waiting for winter.
- Is it still called summer after you have 200 days of over 35 degrees? And in "winter" the max temperature drops to 25?
  Would you move co in ntries I'd this occured?

I know it’s entirely coincidental, but we dealt with a heat-exhaustion-approaching-heat-stroke emergency this week, and it definitely made me pause. Summer heat is taking on a new meaning.
- I'm a landscaper and I joked about dealing with wildfires becoming part of my job duties in ten years last year. This year, I was lucky enough to deal with both the Pine Barrens wildfires and the Canadian Wildfire smoke in NJ

I was planning on dying one day anyway. Whether it’s from cancer or needing to eat my own neighbor for survival, it’s all the same at this point.
- Deep down, it's wild to know that humanity's peak was ultimately undone by less than 1% of the population convincing everyone else that greed is good.
  
  I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
  Don't "Eat the Rich". Use them for fertilizer, and solve two problems at once
  
  Humans have always been greedy
- Just, don't eat the brain. Should be fine.

Not surprising, I was hoping we'd not hit the tipping point but it's looking grim at this point.
- I think it's safe to say we are certainly hitting the tipping point, and then some! Our governments are useless, and these people running these companies and their shareholders, and the politicians responsible for the VAST majority of this mess are devoid of all morals and should be on trial for crimes against humanity.
  
  Is that even remotely achievable? ~Strawberry

"I'm in danger..."

Well, time to capitulate to Big Energy
- We've tried making the problem worse and now we're all out of ideas.
- Personally I think we should redirect to individual energy.
  I'm all for nuclear power and do believe more plants would obviously be better than continuing to use FF.
  But I also don't see why we don't just use solar panels/turbines etc. On every home. They sustain my home just fine, just some solar panels and a few batteries. Expensive initial investment but people are paying out the ass for electric in my area anyway.
  Knowing that if the power grid fails I've nothing to worry about feels great.
  I just can't see why our governments don't band together and mass produce solar panels. Yes, it's going to be expensive but the way we've been obtaining power has been much more costly. The second the tech for solar panels became available the gov should've began attempting to mass produce and distribute them. Why they haven't? My guess is that it's because big corporations require more power than average people. Also, power itself is a big corporation. None of our power companies wanted to go out of business, they wanted to leech our $ instead even though it was a detriment to our future.

The “This is fine” meme has never been more appropriate

How is this not a bigger story? What the fuck?? This is cataclysmic. It should be all we're fucking hearing about. Fuck.

It’s getting hot in here
- So take off all your clothes
  
  I am, getting, so hot. I want fresh water and socialized healthcare.
  
  I am gettin so hot I wanna take my clothes off

R.I.P
- All life on Earth 165,000,000B.C. - ~2030A.D.
  
  Life is a lot older than 165m years. Closer to 4,000,000,000 BC.

The planetary average temperature hit 17.23 degrees Celsius on Thursday, surpassing the 17.18C record set on Tuesday (...) A previous record of 17.01C was set on Monday.
Referring to dates by just weekdays sounds like there's not going to be any more Mondays...

Most of us municipal water contains forever chemicals and micro-plastics...
Generations before trash the planet and we will have suffer for it. Funny thing... we got another 30 years of this boomer degeneracy to go. Maybe not so funny.

It’s only early July. I’m not sure about the rest of y’all, but it starts getting real toasty where I am in mid Aug.
We ain’t even at the worst of it?
- @Gingerlegs lol, same here.

Hell yeah dude we are fucked!

After reading this, play this for the feel.

Just drop a giant ice cube into the ocean every now and then.
- When I lived in Vegas my apartment complex would regularly drop blocks of ice in the pool in the summer. Surely we can scale that shit up for the oceans, right? …Right?
  
  Not really.

Man am I glad I decided not to have kids.

You could say we’re really on a hot streak.

Fuck it, just spin up a few more ACs
- If they're solar powered, nothing much wrong with that.
  
  Except the coolant.
- Cool the world
  
  🎵 Let them know it's crispness time. 🎵

What can we do as the little individual people that we are?
- The best you can realistically do is vote for people who care about solving the problem, and against people who ignore the problem.
  
  And if the only ones who don't accept ~~bribes~~ lobbying from oil, gas, and coal companies are independents and third parties who have no chance of winning anything because your country's voting system is first past the post? Then what? ~Strawberry
- Going vegan would help for sure. Less animal products consumed means less animal products produced means waay less pollution.
  A lot of change needs to happen on a government-level too, of course, but that is a very tangible, easy-to-achieve goal everyone can do.
- Realistically, as an individual? Nothing. I hate doom posting but i genuinely don’t think there is a single tangible change any one regular person could make.
- We can all do our part. That doesn't mean the problems will be solved, but we can all do our part to implement the solution.
  Discussion is important. Conservation is important. The biggest issue here isn't really the individual; it's society. Change can't happen in a vacuum. The only way society will change is if, you know, it changes. i.e. people need to be willing to sacrifice short term gains for long term benefit.
  If it was sexy to do less, these problems would be solved overnight.

As much as I hate to say it we're probably going to see more variations of this headline as this summer goes on.
yay.

This is fine.

This guy called it.

I don't know why but this summer humidity levels goes down a bit.
- If the temperature this summer has been warmer than normal for you, then the lower humidity could be caused by the additional heat.
  Warm air will process more moisture than cooler air.
- I've left windows open all year and no humidity issues. I almost always have them during the Spring and Summer other years. I'll take it, I hate humidity.

Clearly this is a liberal conspiracy /s

Wtg! What’s the next record to crush?

I cant wait for the heat wave to be turned into a summoningsalt parody.

Beginning of the end? Although, I hope not, but it feels like one..

At this rate there will only be one place to escape to that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism - SPACE.

How is this average calculated? Such numbers cannot be taken serious.
- according to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world's condition.
  You can read up on that study and on the climate reanalyzer.
  People who don't even click on the article or do any research before dismissing something cannot be taken seriously.
  
  Just reading such a headline and about some calculated average global temperature record is enough for me to categorize it as fearmongering. Same as with covid infection statistics in the last three years. Now with climate. Screw that. On this issue I am perfectly happy with my heuristics.

What they don't want you to know is that the Earth's orbit changed and we're swinging in closer and closer to the Sun. The vaccine was actually nanites meant to help protect us from upcoming radiation and other atmosphere changes.
- Holy tinfoil hat batman!
  
  It's actually aluminum foil.
- This comment was for fun. I’m currently reading the Silo books.
- That's a fun conspiracy theory. It's gibberish of course, but fun nonetheless.

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