30 Year US Summer Temperature Trend

[Markola]

I think it is just like government spending and solvency. Politicians lack the courage to deal with these issues until it is a crisis, meaning government can't pay it's bills or people turn on the faucet and nothing comes out.

Meantime look at the reduced water levels in western lakes.

Trouble ahead for sure.

Property insurance companies aren’t so feckless. Once they throw in the towel in certain vulnerable regions after too many floods, epic hurricanes and fires, behaviors could change. Of course, they could instead lobby for tax payer-financed reinsurance programs to keep the party rolling.

 

[JRon]

The earth is over 4.5 billion years old and planet wide temperatures have only been recorded since 1880 so why is everyone reacting so much to the last 30 years of temps when this cycle may have happened millions of times in the past which would make it normal?

I remember a few years ago it was so hot and dry in Texas that some people thought it would never be the same and according to Car-Guy “I will say it does seem to be a bit milder this year... Lot's of rain the past few months and I don't think we have hit 100 yet around here this year”. Car-Guy - correct if I’m wrong about that.

Here in South Dakota the Missouri River was so low a few years ago that some “experts” claimed it would take 100 years for the river to get back to normal - if it ever did. 2.5 years later it was back to normal and flooding in some areas.

All I’m saying is maybe the sky is falling, but maybe it isn’t.

 

[braumeister]

The earth is over 4.5 billion years old and planet wide temperatures have only been recorded since 1880 so why is everyone reacting so much to the last 30 years of temps when this cycle may have happened millions of times in the past which would make it normal?

You may be right.

And we may look back on this in a few thousand years and see that it was just another normal cycle. But maybe we shouldn't bet on it?

 

[Car-Guy]

The earth is over 4.5 billion years old and planet wide temperatures have only been recorded since 1880 so why is everyone reacting so much to the last 30 years of temps when this cycle may have happened millions of times in the past which would make it normal?

I've wondered about the same things myself for years.

I remember a few years ago it was so hot and dry in Texas that some people thought it would never be the same and according to Car-Guy “I will say it does seem to be a bit milder this year... Lot's of rain the past few months and I don't think we have hit 100 yet around here this year”. Car-Guy - correct if I’m wrong about that.

That's what I was saying.

 

[ncbill]

From what I read recently the Western U.S. enjoyed unusually wet weather for roughly the first half of the 20th century so people thought that was the "new normal" until recently.

 

[Gumby]

The earth is over 4.5 billion years old and planet wide temperatures have only been recorded since 1880 so why is everyone reacting so much to the last 30 years of temps when this cycle may have happened millions of times in the past which would make it normal?

I remember a few years ago it was so hot and dry in Texas that some people thought it would never be the same and according to Car-Guy “I will say it does seem to be a bit milder this year... Lot's of rain the past few months and I don't think we have hit 100 yet around here this year”. Car-Guy - correct if I’m wrong about that.

Here in South Dakota the Missouri River was so low a few years ago that some “experts” claimed it would take 100 years for the river to get back to normal - if it ever did. 2.5 years later it was back to normal and flooding in some areas.

All I’m saying is maybe the sky is falling, but maybe it isn’t.

Whether is is entirely natural or anthropogenic in origin, cyclical or permanent, we must deal with it. Ignoring the current problem in the hope it will disappear does not seem like a good plan.

 

[Montecfo]

Whether is is entirely natural or anthropogenic in origin, cyclical or permanent, we must deal with it. Ignoring the current problem in the hope it will disappear does not seem like a good plan.

Well, I think we will have to adapt as we always have. And recognize, there was nothing to be done to change prior cycles. This is no different.

 

[stepford]

 

[tulak]

The difference is that the increase in CO2 is due to humans and has happened over the last century.

How that turns out, eventually we’ll figure out. Let’s hope it’s not too bad. My guess, as with the pandemic, richer nations will be ok, or at least better off than those with less means.

 

[Montecfo]

The difference is that the increase in CO2 is due to humans and has happened over the last century.

How that turns out, eventually we’ll figure out. Let’s hope it’s not too bad. My guess, as with the pandemic, richer nations will be ok, or at least better off than those with less means.

If that's the cause, very little is being done about it outside the US. And there seems to be little urgency. Based on this consensus seems to be the cost is too high for an uncertain result.

 

[W2R]

From what I read recently the Western U.S. enjoyed unusually wet weather for roughly the first half of the 20th century so people thought that was the "new normal" until recently.

That would explain it! Thanks. I did not know that.

When I lived in San Diego (for only 6 years), they were having water rationing and you could only wash your car or water your lawn on certain days of the week, IIRC. To me that grew old pretty fast. But I guess it had not been that way forever so that would explain why people continued to move there.

 

[38Chevy454]

When I was a kid in the 70s the worry was the coming ice age. Earth has gone through many heating and cooling cycles. Do you think the Vikings named Greenland because it was covered in snow and ice? No because it was green due to warmer climate.
As an engineer I try to take a view of things from larger perspective. 30 years in earth temperature does not make a trend. In terms of statistics, 30 years vs millions of years is not enough to warrant radical change.

 

[braumeister]

Do you think the Vikings named Greenland because it was covered in snow and ice?

Kind of beside the point, but according to everything I've read, that's exactly why.

Erik the Red was a Norwegian who lived in Iceland and was forced into exile after killing a neighbor. It is believed that Eric was an adventurous person, and he, therefore, explored the western part and finally found a habitable spot in the largely ice-covered island. According to the “Saga of Erik the Red,” he named the island Greenland hoping that the pleasant name would lure other settlers to the island. To some extent, the trick worked because several Vikings from Iceland who were escaping famine managed to establish some settlements in Greenland after a few years.

 

[aja8888]

When I was a kid in the 70s the worry was the coming ice age. Earth has gone through many heating and cooling cycles. Do you think the Vikings named Greenland because it was covered in snow and ice? No because it was green due to warmer climate.
As an engineer I try to take a view of things from larger perspective. 30 years in earth temperature does not make a trend. In terms of statistics, 30 years vs millions of years is not enough to warrant radical change.

I agree, and if we wait a few hundred thousand years, we may have a better handle on this.

 

[Markola]

The earth is over 4.5 billion years old and planet wide temperatures have only been recorded since 1880....

Try 800,000 years and counting.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131105081228.htm

 

[AnonEMouse]

This is an issue that matters for the younger among us, especially those with children. It saddens me that so many here has such a dismissive, if not downright cruel, attitude about the future of humanity.

I really think whoever came up with the slogan "save the earth/planet" really screwed it up, because the earth doesn't care it it's 0, 100, or 200 degrees. It'll just go on existing, maybe with no life, but earth will be perfectly fine - it's just the humans who would be extinct. They should rebrand it "save your grand/children" or something and maybe people would take it more seriously. Well, that's assuming the heart has more pull than the wallet, but that may be a bit too optimistic. At least we can take some schadenfreude in knowing that even the billionaires will eventually die in their gilded bunkers some years after the rest of humanity perishes.

Anyway, this comic does a good job showing the temperature timeline for the past 20+ millenia for those who dismiss a puny few degree temperature difference:

The alt text is:
[After setting your car on fire] Listen, your car's temperature has changed before.

 

[Koolau]

Okay, since no one else has asked the question, I will.

IF (biggest "if" ever - bigger even than "if we could limit nuclear weapons.") IF we could all agree that it's "bad", what would "good" look like?

I personally try to limit my "emissions" as just good stewardship of my own money and at least a "nod" to the environment and my kids'/GKs' future. The USA emissions are supposedly back to 1990s levels. WHAT level of emissions would "save" us? How would we cajole those just emerging from burning animal dung to cook their food NOT to become USA type emitters? A serious question as I honest to goodness do not see the "world" getting on board to lower emissions any time soon. Call me pessimistic.

I think some "outside the box" thinking is in order. We already know how to cool the earth. Volcanos do it every few years whether we want them to or not. We did it for a couple of hundred years accidentally by not limiting suffer emissions. If we can stumble onto some "fixes", maybe we can think our way to a solution. YMMV

 

[sengsational]

If there were a global thermostat, humanity would annihilate itself fighting about where to set it. Shoot, DW and can't even agree on the one on the living room wall! And we have the technology (emulate what volcanoes have done... injection of stuff into high atmosphere).

 

[EastWest Gal]

Okay, since no one else has asked the question, I will.

IF (biggest "if" ever - bigger even than "if we could limit nuclear weapons.") IF we could all agree that it's "bad", what would "good" look like?

I personally try to limit my "emissions" as just good stewardship of my own money and at least a "nod" to the environment and my kids'/GKs' future. The USA emissions are supposedly back to 1990s levels. WHAT level of emissions would "save" us? How would we cajole those just emerging from burning animal dung to cook their food NOT to become USA type emitters? A serious question as I honest to goodness do not see the "world" getting on board to lower emissions any time soon. Call me pessimistic.

I think some "outside the box" thinking is in order. We already know how to cool the earth. Volcanos do it every few years whether we want them to or not. We did it for a couple of hundred years accidentally by not limiting suffer emissions. If we can stumble onto some "fixes", maybe we can think our way to a solution. YMMV

And in many ways and for reasons of greed, we are getting worse. Bitcoin mining is a big example.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...a-12000-year-old-glacial-lake-into-a-hot-tub/

 

[Arizona1]

We got evacuated from flagstaff Az on 22june because of forest fires. All the forests are closed because it’s so dry. The pine needles all snap when walking around. We moved RV to Vegas park. 112 outside now.
When I was a kid there was big wind and rain every afternoon for about 6 weeks. Now there are clouds but very little rain for about 3 months.
We’re all in a lot of trouble now!

 

[aja8888]

88 F here in Houston, Texas today. Afternoon showers. Our state is full...please don't come here.

 

[Amethyst]

Wasn't that the premise of that movie about the train going round and round the frozen world, with remnants of humanity aboard? The earth froze after humans tried to reverse global warming by shooting stuff into the atmosphere.

If there were a global thermostat, humanity would annihilate itself fighting about where to set it. Shoot, DW and can't even agree on the one on the living room wall! And we have the technology (emulate what volcanoes have done... injection of stuff into high atmosphere).

 

[Amethyst]

Meanwhile, Florida is hot, either too wet or too dry, and sinking (and stinking, too, in places where the water is too mineralized). Stay far away.

88 F here in Houston, Texas today. Afternoon showers. Our state is full...please don't come here.

 

[Car-Guy]

If there were a global thermostat, humanity would annihilate itself fighting about where to set it. Shoot, DW and can't even agree on the one on the living room wall!

As I was reading this post, the DW and I were just having that "debate".... I won (but she thinks she did)... She wanted it set at 78, I wanted is at 72 but I told here 70... So after some "discussion" we settled on 73.... Hey I gave in a little... Art of the deal...


On second thought, maybe she really wanted it at 73 to begin with?

 

[aja8888]

Meanwhile, Florida is hot, either too wet or too dry, and sinking (and stinking, too, in places where the water is too mineralized). Stay far away.

You forgot to mention snakes, ants and traffic!