It’s hard to believe how many visitors to HN are climate science deniers. This is equivalent to claiming the earth is flat, denying the value of vaccines, or arguing that we didn’t really land on the moon.
It's probably because "+1" and "yup" comments are discouraged, so the people that immediately feel like they have something to add are the ones that think the article is not telling the whole story. At least, that's my guess. I would expect that a representative poll (https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll might be a starting point) would show an overwhelming majority of readers/commenters does think global warming is real and caused by human emissions.
With measured change in C02 the past 60 years[0], how can we expect the system to behave the same? In my lifetime I will breathe air with C02 levels of 480ppm. Throw in the high sea temperatures [1][2] if you would like some bonus content.
Idk what it means for us on the ground. 90% of the doomerisms haven't gone anywhere - but this is worth keeping an eye on. Who knows, maybe in 3 more generations we'll hit 800ppm C02 and experience cognitive decline[3] before we have to worry about the climate system getting funky :)
There's a strong contrarian trait here, for sure. Also, if you look at the usernames in these situations it's often one or two people replying to literally everyone.
I think at this point we have little choice but to live in denial. I’ve lived in South Texas my entire life, but this summer was the most brutal one I’ve ever seen. Hit new highs in actual temperature and heat index of course, but it was just the months-long unrelenting nature of it that hurt my soul. I’ve never seen so many dead trees and so many dead animals on the street. My co-workers well failed as did many of his neighbors.
What am I supposed to do about any of that? How am I supposed to believe in the future if this is still the early days of climate change with who knows what new horrors to come in a decade or two?
And so we go on because what else can we do? Mostly I’m just glad I never wanted to have children because I can’t imagine what it is like for them as they grow up and realize what awaits them.
A large proportion of HN's audience is comprised of get-rich-quick techbros (and wannabe get-rich-quick techbros) for whom anti-intellectualism is a favorite pastime and "fuck you, got mine" is the golden rule.
lucb1e|2 years ago
jmoak3|2 years ago
With measured change in C02 the past 60 years[0], how can we expect the system to behave the same? In my lifetime I will breathe air with C02 levels of 480ppm. Throw in the high sea temperatures [1][2] if you would like some bonus content.
Idk what it means for us on the ground. 90% of the doomerisms haven't gone anywhere - but this is worth keeping an eye on. Who knows, maybe in 3 more generations we'll hit 800ppm C02 and experience cognitive decline[3] before we have to worry about the climate system getting funky :)
[0] https://www.climate.gov/media/15554
[1] https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily
[2] https://climate.copernicus.eu/sites/default/files/custom-upl...
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201...
j4yav|2 years ago
hotpotamus|2 years ago
What am I supposed to do about any of that? How am I supposed to believe in the future if this is still the early days of climate change with who knows what new horrors to come in a decade or two?
And so we go on because what else can we do? Mostly I’m just glad I never wanted to have children because I can’t imagine what it is like for them as they grow up and realize what awaits them.
whalesalad|2 years ago
kibwen|2 years ago
adrianN|2 years ago
bilsbie|2 years ago
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