[HN Gopher] Nearly 200M in U.S. under heat advisories, warnings ...
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Nearly 200M in U.S. under heat advisories, warnings as two heat
domes form
Author : montalbano
Score : 96 points
Date : 2021-08-13 19:21 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.axios.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.axios.com)
| shock-value wrote:
| Note, this article is from two days ago and references
| predictions made then for yesterday.
| throaway46546 wrote:
| It's a been pretty weird experience sitting comfortably here in
| the Mojave desert while my family in the PNW is suffering in the
| heat.
| edgefield wrote:
| If we don't respond to climate change now and aggressively,
| like we are fighting a war, humanity is toast. Climate change
| will quickly wipe out most life on earth. The IPCC "code red"
| report doesn't even take into account several enormous feedback
| effects such as methane off gassing from rock formations.
| albertgoeswoof wrote:
| Climate change will probably help increase life on earth,
| given it will likely remove the most invasive and bio-
| suppressant species on earth today, humans
| edgefield wrote:
| True. Just give the planet 1M years to recover.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| The odds of humans actually going extinct due to climate
| change seem pretty long. A massive reduction, sure, but
| _all_ of them?
| alexose wrote:
| At 6degC (the very upper end of the IPCC report), the planet
| loses its ability to create clouds. Which itself means
| another 7degC due to the lowering of the albedo. Certainly a
| civilization-ending event, and perhaps a life-ending one.
| rchaud wrote:
| > Climate change will quickly wipe out most life on earth.
|
| I think the resource shortages, water wars and refugee crises
| that precede the actual climate-driven apocalypse will get us
| there a lot faster than we imagine.
| dotcommand wrote:
| Why is a weather article from august 11 being brigaded to the
| frontpage now. A 2 day old article about the weather?
| k33n wrote:
| Didn't you hear? The sea level will rise to an untenable level
| by 1975! We must shut down our society completely!
| NationalPark wrote:
| Why is it that one conspiracy breeds another with you guys? I
| just skimmed your history and not only are you a climate
| science denier, you are also a covid denier, and you believe
| that the "mainstream media" is conspiring to depress
| GameStop's stock price! Surely you at least recognize how
| unlikely it is that all of these are true _and_ you just
| happen to be one of the special few who figured it out?
| Cmon...
| k33n wrote:
| I deny most of the lies mainstream media pushes. I'm sorry
| that having your spoonfed worldview challenged is so hard
| for you. Wish you all the best! Hundreds of millions if not
| billions share my views. Not too special. Hurry up and get
| off the computer! You're missing Anderson Cooper 360!
| s5300 wrote:
| Main character syndrome appears to be fairly rampant
| amongst conspiracy theorists.
| Terretta wrote:
| From below:
|
| > _"if not billions"_
|
| Narrator: "It's not billions."
|
| On the other hand, that post provoked a thought:
|
| Society has lost valuable herd immunity to bad thinking.
| Used to be kooks had to try hard to spread nonsense.
|
| Redefine _kook_ as _edgy_ , _influencer_ , or _in-the-know
| contrarian_ , and the nonsense practically spreads itself.
|
| And your remark raised a point too: it's indeed about
| feeling special. Now that everything is noisy, that takes a
| special kind of noise.
| bobobull wrote:
| because it's really friggin hot out ( and in )
| dotcommand wrote:
| Shocking. Oh all the months for it to be friggin hot outside,
| it had to be august. Who would have guessed.
| kaminar wrote:
| Oh no oh no oh no...everybody run for the hills! Nothing like
| this has ever happened before, what'll we do?!
|
| Smh...lemme know when winter comes and they predict we're headed
| for an ice age...again.
| akomtu wrote:
| I wonder if the reason the US elites are moving to NZ is these
| heat waves: perhaps modeling revealed that most of the US will
| become uncomfortably hot and humid in the next decade or so,
| while NZ will stay cool.
| scrollaway wrote:
| Air conditioning is a lot easier than moving to New Zealand.
|
| The whole NZ citizenship for the rich is a mix of preppers
| nonsense and elite club FOMO. If it gets bad enough that NZ is
| the easiest answer, then NZ won't be the answer.
|
| Remember these are the same people doing young blood
| transfusions to stave off death. Hey, maybe history will prove
| me wrong, but it's not impossible they're flawed humans with
| fears and insecurities like everyone else.
| decebalus1 wrote:
| My hypothesis about why rich people moving to NZ is that it's
| a mix of hype, NZ climate and the relative isolation. The
| latter is one of the most important. It's pretty hard to get
| to NZ. The distance itself will basically guarantee you won't
| get overrun by climate change refugees. Unlike the mainland
| US or Europe.
| vavooom wrote:
| Source?
| xwdv wrote:
| Becoming a common thing now, maybe people will finally believe
| something must be done, but it's likely already too late.
| alexose wrote:
| It's not too late.
|
| There have been recent (huge!) advances in renewable energy,
| chemistry, and climate modeling that open the door to solving
| this problem.
|
| The path I see in front of us involves temporarily
| geoengineering our way to a +1C ceiling while massively scaling
| up carbon capture operations. At the same time, we transition
| as much industry to renewable energy as possible.
|
| This _can_ be done. It 's entirely within our grasp.
| kzrdude wrote:
| It's probably impossible to teach the broader public about the
| time scales involved in this. What we do now affects the world
| in decades to come (and more). And what we did for decades
| affects us now.
| rybosworld wrote:
| The next decade we are going to see a lot more heat related
| deaths. And unfortunately, it will disproportionally affect the
| poorest/most vulnerable people.
| x14km2d wrote:
| should we even make it to the next decade. So far, this seems
| to look rather complicated.
| FFRefresh wrote:
| Your comment sounds like you are predicting a mass human
| extinction, or close to it?
|
| I personally think that's incredibly far off base, but if you
| are confident in your prediction for mass doom, I recommend
| throwing some money into prediction markets around it. It
| could be a great way to calibrate your model of reality (and
| potentially make money if you are right!).
| vkou wrote:
| If you're betting on collapse, and you are right, you
| aren't going to be around to collect.
|
| If you're betting against collapse, and you are wrong, you
| aren't going to be around to pay up.
| FFRefresh wrote:
| A few variations in line with that: If you're betting on
| near-total collapse, and you are right (and you survive
| from living in the developed world), you will be around
| to collect
|
| If you're betting on collapse, and you are wrong, you
| will be around to pay up
|
| If you bet against collapse, and you are right, you will
| be around to collect
|
| It should also be said that with prediction markets, you
| don't have to wait until the event happens before selling
| your position.
| lostlogin wrote:
| > unfortunately, it will disproportionally affect the
| poorest/most vulnerable people.
|
| There isn't much that is bad that this doesn't hold true for.
| hitpointdrew wrote:
| The data suggests there is a slight down trend in heat related
| deaths since 1999. https://www.epa.gov/climate-
| indicators/climate-change-indica...
|
| I doubt heat related deaths will be a large factor in the next
| decade. More people than ever have access to AC and clean
| water.
| mbgerring wrote:
| Take a look at what happened earlier in the summer in
| Portland. Extreme heat events are becoming more common in
| places where homes often don't have air conditioning.
|
| Also, I feel like this should go without saying but the
| climate has changed perceptibly since 1999 and will continue
| to get warmer for the foreseeable future, so relying on past
| trend lines like this is a mistake.
| ryanobjc wrote:
| I think the go comment is kinda of like the infamous slash
| dot review of the iPod: "I don't think heat deaths will be
| a thing in the next decade" - uh huh
| throwanem wrote:
| My local power utility has ramped up its (thus far) voluntary
| load shedding campaign this year with rebates for usage
| reductions during high-demand periods (including today!), and
| is also pushing "smart" thermostats pretty hard, also in
| exchange for a minor rebate. They're "smart" in that they
| allow the utility to remotely shut down your AC for a 75% or
| 50% duty cycle, which you are not allowed to override.
|
| Don't count on AC saving all that many lives as the decade
| wears on.
| rdtwo wrote:
| Nobody is going to throttle the ac to your million dollar
| home unless it's Cali and even then probably not. Likely
| will only affect poor people.
| s0rce wrote:
| I lost power for about 45min last year during one of the
| highest load days in California. No AC though so it
| didn't really do much except people went outside and
| talked about not having power.
| knownjorbist wrote:
| East coast here, if you elect to participate in the
| program they can toggle your usage to 75% or 50% with
| advance notice.
| gizmo686 wrote:
| 50% duty cycle is more than enough to keep the temperature
| at a survivable level. If the utilities use the load
| shedding program to reduce AC usage to the point of killing
| people, the situation would already be so bad that the
| alternative load shedding approach of black outs would kill
| far more people.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Rooftop solar (if you can) is the future. The cost will
| (must, really) come down, even if we need a "Solar Corps"
| (volunteers, Habitat for Humanity style) or similar to get
| generation on the roofs of the disadvantaged. AC load
| shedding will become untenable in the hottest of places,
| and the power grid will become taxed from demand faster
| than infrastructure upgrades can occur.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Rooftop solar is tempting. I'm in the PNW so the
| economics don't work out favorably (even at $1.5/W
| installed, which is what I was recently quoted). But
| there are some non-economic advantages to having solar
| (as long as you have batteries) so it may still be
| worthwhile.
| Retric wrote:
| There is quite a bit of room between what most people set
| their AC and what's actually uncomfortable and an even
| larger gap to what's unhealthy. That delta is what allows
| load shedding in a heat wave.
|
| In rich countries like the US throwing money at the
| problem works, but for the much of the world the extra
| infrastructure simply isn't worth the extra comfort.
| [deleted]
| cj wrote:
| Tesla Solar Roof comes to mind.
|
| https://www.tesla.com/solarroof
|
| It's unfortunately roughly double the cost of a regular
| roof (and 3x as much if your current roof is already due
| for replacement).
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| In Australia, the cost for rooftop solar is about
| $1/watt. In the US, we're still higher from soft costs
| such as permitting, utility review and approval, and
| similar, putting the cost closer to $2-$3/watt (pre 26%
| federal tax credit). The NREL recently released an app
| that automates the permitting process [1], but there are
| still places to squeeze the fat out to drive the cost
| down.
|
| Tesla's solar tiles are interesting, but cost prohibitive
| for anyone but the wealthy.
|
| [1] https://solarapp.nrel.gov/
| [deleted]
| Arrath wrote:
| Makes me wonder how hard it would be to either just snip
| the control circuit from the utility provided thermostat to
| your AC unit and run your own in its place while retaining
| the discount, or setup an rPi or such as a MITM and
| intercept the control commands.
|
| Alternatively: just don't overthink things and install a
| mini-split/window unit/small portable that doesn't get
| connected to the house thermostat in the first place.
| throwanem wrote:
| Oh, it's trivial to take any thermostat off the wall and
| bridge the same contacts its relay would. That's not what
| concerns me, so much as that I think I see the thin end
| of a wedge.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| These programs are optional. Google's Nest (among others)
| integrates with utility signaling to perform this
| shedding, and it's typically allowable for you to enable
| cooling and override the load shedding activated during
| peak demand (in the programs I'm familiar with).
| Arrath wrote:
| I get that, I was just pondering the fraudulent
| possibilities of netting the discount while subverting
| any control the utility would take over your HVAC
| equipment.
| throwanem wrote:
| You have to have a smart meter to qualify for the
| program, so it's not like they can't tell if you cheat
| from consumption data.
| throwanem wrote:
| The smart thermostats BGE offers allow only two overrides
| per day, iirc 30 or 60 min each. Not sure on that part,
| but the specific period isn't so much at issue as that
| somebody else has the privilege of deciding when I am
| allowed not to swelter.
|
| (I saw some mention of a "smart switch" also installed
| under this program, which I assume is there to prevent
| "overriding" the meter by just yanking it off the wall
| and shorting the contacts.)
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| > Not sure on that part, but the specific period isn't so
| much at issue as that somebody else has the privilege of
| deciding when I am allowed not to swelter.
|
| You signed up for a discount for them to have permission
| to adjust your AC condensing demand run time when
| necessary, correct? I have never heard of a mandatory
| residential load shedding program in the US, but that
| doesn't mean they might be out there.
|
| https://bgesavings.com/programs/ac/
|
| > BGE's PeakRewards Air Conditioning program helps
| prevent the need for additional power plants, keep down
| the overall cost of electricity and ease the burden on
| Maryland's electricity delivery system as the state's
| population continues to grow. Plus, participants receive
| up to $100 in BGE bill credits each summer (June -
| September).
|
| > The PeakRewards program is _completely voluntary_ and
| is open to all BGE residential customers with central air
| conditioning or an electric heat pump in good working
| order, regardless of their choice of electricity
| supplier.
| rdtwo wrote:
| Just put a heated blanket on it if you need to override
| mindslight wrote:
| If this became enough of a problem, it would be easy
| enough for them to start auditing your hourly power
| usage. I wouldn't be surprised if they were already doing
| so to see the impact of such programs, and also because
| bypassing a thermostat or installing a window AC unit is
| within the reach of most people.
| xxpor wrote:
| >they allow the utility to remotely shut down your AC for a
| 75% or 50% duty cycle, which you are not allowed to
| override.
|
| Switches can be bypassed ;)
| bamboozled wrote:
| I guess that's why nothing is done about climate change in a
| hurry.
|
| We're told it will affect us _all_ , but obviously, some people
| believe that with money it will affect them less.
|
| Although, it will be interesting to se what people with money
| do when their air conditioner breaks and the AC mechanic is out
| due to heat stroke.
| forrestthewoods wrote:
| > We're told it will affect us all, but obviously, some
| people believe that with money it will affect them less.
|
| I mean, yes. Poor people are definitely going to
| disproportionately suffer the consequences of climate change.
| Obviously.
|
| You'd be a fool to claim poor and rich people will suffer
| equally. That does not mean that rich people will not suffer.
| Only that they'll suffer less. Because obviously.
| mindslight wrote:
| Turn up their second AC system, pay a different AC technician
| more to travel further, go into their furnished basement,
| hang out in their running car, travel to a friend's spacious
| house, pay someone else to keep up their daily necessities
| while they fix the system themselves, or it won't have broken
| due to having better maintenance to begin with.
|
| No doubt there will be some schadenfreude. But there is a
| reason these things affect the poor harder.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Money doesn't solve all your problems, but it sure does
| solve a lot of them.
| irrational wrote:
| I'm in Oregon. After that lingering week of 110+ temperatures in
| June the temperature gauge at my house said it got to 119 one
| afternoon), these three days of about 100 degree temperatures
| seems downright cool in comparison.
| LatteLazy wrote:
| (for anyone else wondering 110F is 43C)
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