[HN Gopher] World ocean temperatures in 2021 were the hottest ev...
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       World ocean temperatures in 2021 were the hottest ever recorded
        
       Author : brimnes
       Score  : 83 points
       Date   : 2022-01-12 21:10 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.axios.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.axios.com)
        
       | matsemann wrote:
       | Forecasts for +10C in Oslo Norway the next days, possibly melting
       | all the snow and ruining skiing in the forests during lockdown,
       | my best reason to go outside at the moment..
        
         | fzzzy wrote:
         | Wow, the forecast here in the upper peninsula of michigan is
         | below 0c for the next 10 days, and oslo is way further north.
        
         | horstmeyer wrote:
         | Too bad you can't go skiing, but I'm a bit more worried about
         | plant and wildlife that "thinks" it's spring and then will get
         | killed when it gets cold again later.
        
           | matsemann wrote:
           | Of course. And I also know a single instance isn't proof of
           | climate change. But I wanted to point out / rant about how
           | the winters have changed over time here. It's sad.
           | 
           | And summers hotter than ever. Have had to buy AC, as if we're
           | in Southern Europe.
        
             | dragonsky67 wrote:
             | Just interested in what temperatures have risen to that you
             | need an AC?
             | 
             | I also understand that buildings in normally colder
             | climates are optimised to keep warm so that if things get
             | hotter in general they are not going to cope well so an AC
             | may well be necessary at temperatures that in other regions
             | would be considered relatively cool.
        
               | magicalhippo wrote:
               | It can get above 30C here[1][2], which is pretty hot for
               | us. As you say, buildings are well insulated for the
               | winter which means that the walls retains a lot of heat
               | into the night once they've been baking for several days.
               | 
               | Keep in mind the sun goes down at around 11pm, so it
               | doesn't really get cold outside until well past midnight.
               | In my home, that means it can be 25C inside for hours
               | after bedtime unless I use AC and keep the interior cold
               | during the day.
               | 
               | One could get used to 25C I suppose, problem is it's just
               | for a few weeks at a time, then it goes back down. So you
               | never really get used to it.
               | 
               | [1]: https://www.yr.no/en/statistics/table/1-72837/Norway
               | /Oslo/Os...
               | 
               | [2]: https://www.yr.no/en/statistics/table/1-72837/Norway
               | /Oslo/Os...
        
           | wsinks wrote:
           | That would be my worry too! I wonder if the next step is to
           | figure out if there's any sort of regularity of the newer
           | climate and to find plants that might be able to support
           | those time cycles..
        
       | the-dude wrote:
       | Since 1940. Or 1958. Or is it 1995?
       | 
       | Why does the graph have 2 colors? Why is 1995 'zero'?
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | It's relative to 1981-2010 baseline. Negative is lower,
         | positive is higher. In 1995, presumably, it was also the
         | average temperature for the 1981-2010 time.
         | 
         | The two colors are negative and positive, a potentially
         | unimportant dramatization.
         | 
         | Clarifying based on what I understood: Data from 1940-today
         | show that the period from 1985-today had 8x more heat added
         | than the period from 1958-1985, and that each decade since 1958
         | has increased in temperature.
        
         | avereveard wrote:
         | Because ever recorded is a code word for only recently - sea
         | surface average is about around the medieval climate optimum
         | and under the roman age warming period.
         | 
         | Not to say climate is not warming up, but news reels always go
         | for the most sensationalistic take they have available because
         | that sell, while more nuanced takes tend to be buried under
         | pressure from the ministry of truth to control the message, as
         | they believe us to be simpletons.
        
       | mkoubaa wrote:
       | At this point "World ocean temperatures this year were not the
       | hott st ever recorded would be front page news"
        
       | viggity wrote:
       | Chart has baseline at ~1995. They say we reached 200 zettajoules
       | around 2019.
       | 
       | 200 zettajoules => 2.0e23 J * 4.184 J/cal => 8.36e+23 calories
       | 
       | They say this is the energy absorbed by top 2000 meters of the
       | oceans. There are 84.8 million sq km of ocean.
       | 
       | 2000m * 84.8e6 => 1.69e20 liters of water.
       | 
       | 1000 calorie to warm 1L of water by 1 deg C.
       | 
       | 1.69e20 L / 8.36e23 cal => warmed by 0.2 deg C since 1995.
        
         | idealmedtech wrote:
         | That's alarmingly fast.
        
         | glial wrote:
         | If my calculations are correct, that's the equivalent of 52
         | billion Hiroshima bombs.
        
       | roughly wrote:
       | Link to the paper:
       | https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00376-022-146...
        
       | mrjangles wrote:
       | Not only does science show the current temperatures are getting
       | hotter than ever. We now know the past 50 years was colder than
       | we ever thought. With new advanced scientific techniques, we now
       | have a much better idea what the temperature was 50 years ago
       | than they did 50 years ago.
       | 
       | It should be kept in mind, these new temperatures measured now
       | are not breaking records compared to the temperatures measure 50
       | years ago, but rather to the _modified_ and _corrected_
       | temperatures of 50 years ago.
       | 
       | Here is a great little collection showing how the temperature
       | records change over time.
       | 
       | https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/alterations-to-climate-d...
        
         | matsemann wrote:
         | I don't understand this. How / why is near-historic data being
         | changed? Got any more material on this?
        
           | hagbard_c wrote:
           | The data is being "corrected" to "take away errors", this is
           | clearly visible as well as explained by Heller in his many
           | videos on the subject. Another issue is that the measuring
           | network has notably shrunk in size in the last decades with
           | the measurements from locations which have been taken out
           | replaced by interpolated data. Heller claims that
           | "uncorrected" historical data shows that the average
           | temperature in the 30's was higher than it is today and that
           | this is the reason for the "corrections" - simply to make the
           | data fit the narrative. Looking at actual historical data
           | seems to corroborate his claim of the records being
           | "corrected", US state and territory temperature extremes [1]
           | also show a tendency to have the highs somewhere in the 30's
           | (23 states) with 1936 as the hottest year in 13 states. These
           | are "uncorrected" temperature records.
           | 
           | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_te
           | mpe...
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | That article is not convincing. The X- and Y-axes change in
         | those plots, producing a misleading animation. Also, all plots
         | clearly show warming trends that are accelerating.
        
       | KETpXDDzR wrote:
       | I have the feeling that many people (especially politicians)
       | think that global warming is a linear process. It's not. It might
       | even be exponential since some sources for climate-warming are
       | affected by warmer climate. For example, melting ice that
       | reflects sunlight back to space
       | [https://arcticwwf.org/places/last-ice-area/].
       | 
       | I'm thinking about choosing a new place to live right now.
       | Climate change is a big factor for that.
        
         | anonporridge wrote:
         | "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to
         | understand the exponential function."
        
         | threatofrain wrote:
         | Where ought one move to optimize for climate change?
        
           | rednerrus wrote:
           | North Dakota.
        
             | adamrezich wrote:
             | upvoting to draw attention away from South Dakota
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | rlewkov wrote:
           | Scranton
        
           | anonporridge wrote:
           | Nowhere.
           | 
           | Don't commit to any locale and design a life that's highly
           | mobile.
        
         | anonporridge wrote:
         | Don't forget about the fact that the amount of energy required
         | to phase change 0degC ice into 0degC water is about the same
         | amount of energy required to heat 0degC water to 79degC
         | water...
         | 
         | https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/...
        
         | lmilcin wrote:
         | It isn't even exponential, it might be much worse than that.
         | 
         | Tipping points have ability to change our climate in a very,
         | very short time.
         | 
         | For example, Gulfstream breaking or redirecting can be a sudden
         | event. Many people forget that Europe is very far north
         | compared to its climate. If you chose a lattitude so that half
         | Canadians live north of it and half south of it, that lattitude
         | would intersect Croatia, Italy and Spain.
         | 
         | A sudden break in Gulfstream would bring immediate step change
         | to European climate, complete crop and extensive infrastructure
         | failure.
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | Personally I would not buy property south of the 45th parallel
         | anymore (in the northern hemisphere). Even north of that we
         | have seen shockingly high temperatures. Anything south of that
         | will become a hellscape within our lifetime.
        
           | trentnix wrote:
           | Bet.
        
           | quickthrower2 wrote:
           | Maybe the futurist should not hold real estate at all - keep
           | wealth in stocks and rent and let the landlords place their
           | bets on chaos theory.
        
           | ed_balls wrote:
           | it depends if it's east or west. Chicago is 42o, similar to
           | Madrid, but I think Madrid will have bigger problems.
        
           | galangalalgol wrote:
           | Latitude will have less impact than altitude from the
           | projections I have seen. Bogota may be less impacted than
           | Anchorage.
        
         | smiley1437 wrote:
         | I don't want to sound fatalistic but it's difficult to see how
         | we can reset the 4 big feedback loops in any reasonable amount
         | of time:
         | 
         | Ice-albedo feedback -
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice%E2%80%93albedo_feedback
         | 
         | Permafrost thaw feedback -
         | https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/global-carbon-budget-perm...
         | 
         | Forestfire\Drought feedback -
         | https://weatherology.com/trending/articles/Drought-Feedback-...
         | 
         | Jetstream Disruption feedback - https://www.climate.gov/news-
         | features/understanding-climate/...
         | 
         | It'll be like stopping an avalanche with a shovel.
         | 
         | Any control theory guys out there with suggestions?
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | Sulfur dioxide in jet fuel until carbon capture and
           | decarbonization can catch up.
        
       | smm11 wrote:
       | Lots of funky fish found lurking off the LA coast these days.
        
       | propogandist wrote:
       | We should start by working to keep the ocean clean, then worry
       | about the temperature of the polluted water.
       | 
       | Why is there more interest in controlling the temperature vs the
       | pollution itself?
       | 
       | consumerism needs to change for temperature to change
        
         | Flashtoo wrote:
         | These are different problems that both need to be addressed as
         | soon as possible, but for different reasons. Having said that,
         | runaway global warming seems like the more pressing existential
         | threat to me.
        
       | rossipedia wrote:
       | This is fine
        
         | Datenstrom wrote:
         | Don't look up
        
         | sparky_ wrote:
         | I see you're being downvoted; I suspect OP is sarcastically
         | referring to the "dog in a burning kitchen" meme..
        
           | rossipedia wrote:
           | You're correct. I erroneously thought I didn't need the /s,
           | but alas... I was mistaken.
        
       | willio58 wrote:
       | Is anyone on HN reconsidering having children because of climate
       | change? Recently I've had a big shift myself on this topic,
       | probably influenced by not many women my age (younger than 30)
       | having any interest in bringing a child into a world where they
       | could potentially suffer real physical danger due to climate
       | change.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | I think it is reasonable to not have kids if you think the
         | probability of an acceptable quality of life for them is too
         | low.
         | 
         | I only agreed to have kids because I have a spouse who earns
         | above average and I feel secure that we will be able procure
         | resources and equip the kids well, but I think would have been
         | just as happy if I had not had kids.
        
           | adamrezich wrote:
           | if you are posting on HN and you have children today, their
           | baseline quality of life is better than 99.999% than that of
           | human history.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | No doubt about that, and I make no judgment about other
             | people's criteria or even lack thereof for having or not
             | having children.
        
               | adamrezich wrote:
               | me neither, because there's no point in trying to
               | convince someone to change their mind about whether or
               | not to act upon their own primary biological instinct
               | that they've been taught to suppress--it's a self-
               | correcting problem, and one that most certainly doesn't
               | concern me.
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | Well, the birds aren't going to fix climate change.
         | 
         | I can't speak for the women you know, but the women I know in
         | their 20s-30s tell me they aren't thinking about children at
         | all probably thanks to the empowerment of women of the last 100
         | years.
         | 
         | Over my life, I've heard all kinds of excuses for all people to
         | not consider children until they are in their late 30s or 40s,
         | then it's a rush. I did the same.
         | 
         | I'm not sure it's climate change.
        
           | adamrezich wrote:
           | yeah I've noticed that the antinatalists never seem to be
           | saying, "man, I really really _want_ to have kids, it 's one
           | of if not the most important driving forces in my life... but
           | the threat of climate change looms ever-present, so it would
           | be irresponsible to bring my heirs into this fallen Earth!"--
           | it usually if not always seems to be a post-hoc excuse for a
           | decision they've already made, or at the very least, a
           | justification to move off the middle of the fence toward "no"
           | instead of "yes." if anyone knows of anyone who's written
           | something that contradicts this I would love to read it.
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | Most people I know are not having children because they don't
           | have the economic stability to do so. Housing, individual
           | low/middle income tax burden, cost of living, stagnated wages
           | over the last several decades for all but the top 25%.
        
         | reidjs wrote:
         | The irony of this is that the people who care about the
         | wellbeing of the planet enough to question having children due
         | to climate concerns are the ones who really should be having
         | children. They are more likely to raise them to be conscious of
         | issues like this, to look for solutions, and to minimize their
         | impact.
        
           | cagenut wrote:
           | On a long enough timeline I agree with your point, but your
           | argument is one of the many many common examples we see now
           | of people simply not understanding the timeline. 2050 is 29
           | years away. Kids born in the next few years will barely be
           | out of school by the time we have to have this mostly solved.
        
             | cmpb wrote:
             | True, but odds are by 2050 we will not have this mostly
             | solved and we will still be arguing with each other about
             | what's important when it comes to preserving the current
             | climate vs adapting to a changing climate. I think that on
             | the short timeline it definitely makes sense to use progeny
             | as a means to effect change according to ones own ideals.
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | Yep, and even worse: it's the super-religious loonies that
           | are pumping out children like no tomorrow.
        
         | anonporridge wrote:
         | Of much greater concern to me is the stability of my income
         | potential in a world that's increasingly automated and career
         | stability is gone.
         | 
         | I feel like my default is no children, and that will only
         | change if and only if I reach a level of wealth that I can feel
         | very comfortable committing to the ~18 years of directly
         | raising a new human, the 4+ years thereafter for continuing
         | education, and all the costs associated with raising a well
         | experienced and skilled human so they can have a chance at
         | generating their own wealth.
         | 
         | However, I also think inheritance is mostly a curse on people
         | who receive it, so if I had children, I would raise them with
         | the explicit expectation that I will pay for their education,
         | but will likely have a hard cutoff of financial help after a
         | certain milestone or age. And they can expect 0 inheritance.
        
           | 14 wrote:
           | The opportunities for our children is dwindling. I am a full
           | time health care worker who works lots of overtime and I can
           | not even come close to affording a house that fits me and my
           | kids. I am desperately trying to save up but would need $100k
           | to even get my foot in the door at today's market. To hear
           | you say you would want to cut your child off seems so foreign
           | to me. I want to get ahead enough in life that I can leave my
           | kids with something. That is why in fact I just 2 weeks ago
           | saw a financial advisor and am working on getting life
           | insurance. I want to make my kids life a little easier then
           | mine and with the way things are every cent I can leave them
           | will help a lot. Hard work is not enough to do well in life
           | anymore. Trust me my next check has 157 hours of pay coming.
           | I still am not financially well off.
        
             | anonporridge wrote:
             | Part of the reason opportunities are dwindling is because
             | generational wealth is accumulating more and more resources
             | and rent seeking from the plebs who toil to survive. If
             | you're not born into that club, it's very unlikely you'll
             | enter it.
        
           | manmal wrote:
           | Can you inherit zero? Where I live, there is a mandatory
           | minimum inheritance for children - I think it's 1/6 of the
           | total?
           | 
           | Cutting off financial help might result in them feeling stuck
           | with their past choices, resulting in depression etc - I
           | wouldn't do that. Many successful entrepreneurs come from
           | supportive households.
        
             | anonporridge wrote:
             | I've never heard of a law like that.
             | 
             | Where I live, a person has full discretion on who inherits
             | their estate if they explicitly write their will. Your
             | offspring and next of kin are the default inheritors, but
             | can be excluded if you explicitly say so in your will.
        
         | analog31 wrote:
         | Well, we can't give them back. ;-) But it's something that I've
         | thought about even though the die is already cast. I'm also not
         | sure what country I'd want to bring kids into today.
        
         | KerryJones wrote:
         | There's a word for this: "antinatalism".
         | 
         | -------
         | 
         | The idea that it could be morally or ethically better to not
         | have children feels like further in-depth thought out examining
         | the specifics in attempt for a rational and non-emotional
         | answer would yield a pretty strong "no". It is a vastly
         | personal decision and I would encourage you to answer this for
         | yourself personally and to try to look for the arguments of
         | those who are saying the opposite of your close social friends
         | (if they are saying "no", then look for people saying "yes", if
         | they are saying "yes", look for people who are saying "no").
         | 
         | The arguments that come to my mind:
         | 
         | 1. The world has always been filled with an amount of danger to
         | offspring, this is not more existential than it has been in the
         | past (though it's often hyperbolized to be).
         | 
         | 2. There are vast amounts of anecdotal stories about children
         | who were "almost not born" (failed abortion, doctors or parents
         | said it would be too hard, etc.) because of a parents decision
         | who ended up having a hugely beneficial and/or great life.
         | 
         | 3. There is a stronger effort now than ever before on
         | correcting climate change. There are more opportunities than
         | there ever have to make a difference. Your child could be one
         | of these people.
         | 
         | 4. I have seen no science that an additional child or children
         | is going to inherently negatively increase climate change,
         | which means having a motivated parent to better the world has a
         | huge potential upside for the climate and low downside.
         | 
         | ----
         | 
         | An additional side, I would use any of amount of logic of
         | "should have a child" either. If you don't want a child, I do
         | not think you should have a child. A child needs love and
         | compassion from its parents.
        
         | cosmic_shame wrote:
         | Yes. Interesting counterpoint from Scott Alexander:
         | https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/please-dont-give-up-on...
        
         | goldenchrome wrote:
         | If you are strong and capable you should have kids to help
         | build a better tomorrow. There aren't many young women who want
         | to have kids because there aren't many young men who seem
         | strong enough to bear the responsibility.
        
         | testfoobar wrote:
         | I wish you the best as you figure out the direction of your
         | life.
         | 
         | I'm a bit older and have kids. They've positively impacted my
         | life in ways I could not have imagined when I was younger.
         | Having said that, the speed of climate change and what feels
         | like a global political class that is incapable of taking
         | meaningful action, I am very concerned for my kids' near
         | future. I cannot imagine a life without them, but I do wonder
         | whether they will suffer, or whether my grand kids will suffer
         | due to climate change. And so I wonder whether the joy and
         | fulfillment they bring me will be worth any suffering they will
         | be forced to endure. I cannot successfully do this computation.
         | I am left with a persistent concern that will not lift.
         | 
         | But then I think about people who had children during times of
         | war and during famines. The urge to procreate is so amazingly
         | strong.
         | 
         | By definition the adults who will tackle climate change have to
         | be conceived by the adults who will suffer from it.
        
         | thriftwy wrote:
         | "bringing a child into a world where they could potentially
         | suffer real physical danger"
         | 
         | People seem to think that "night is dark and full of terror" is
         | a joke. Get used to it.
        
         | g42gregory wrote:
         | That's a pretty big and, later on, irreversible personal
         | decision. You seem to take without question that the climate
         | change could do all of these things. Not questioning your
         | beliefs, but saying that you might want to be very sure about
         | this, because of the irreversible personal impact. I would say
         | that reading NYT probably not the way to get sure because of
         | all the interest groups involved and getting paid to write the
         | articles.
         | 
         | Looking at the original data and verifying the math is a better
         | approach. Or spot-checking the appropriate statements. For
         | example, they say that there is a 97% consensus among climate
         | scientists. I am afraid you may have to go and hand-count them,
         | in order to see if you could get to 97%. I haven't done this
         | analysis myself, but I am not facing such a big decision.
        
         | sebow wrote:
        
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