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KawasakiBinja t1_j7fx3n5 wrote

Reply to comment by Excellent_Affect4658 in Did I hallucinate the arctic temps this past weekend? by [deleted]

Yeah, I mean I remember in Jan/Feb 2019 there was a solid week of subzero temps during the daytime - my car even registered -22 F at like 6 AM.

This winter has been absolutely mild in comparison. I've only had to run the snowblower twice.

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thunder-cricket t1_j7g9w3k wrote

Do you really not understand the alarming part isn't that it was cold for a few days, but rather the extreme temperature swings?

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KawasakiBinja t1_j7gdfi8 wrote

No, I do understand all of that, and I don't like the extreme swings either. My comment was purely about the fact that we've seen such temps before.

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thunder-cricket t1_j7h34yq wrote

Ok, but no one is arguing we've never seen such temps before. The argument is the extreme swings is new.

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Abitconfusde t1_j7gqira wrote

Well, I have to confess that I don't. It seems like this year has started off really warm. What do the extreme temperature swings signify?

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thunder-cricket t1_j7gztz8 wrote

As the comment you're responding to says:

>That big polar vortex was being pushed around by warm air. So once it passed, there's just warm air behind it.
>
>This unfortunately will be how it goes. Winter weather will be both unseasonably warm and frigid, as opposed to just cold. The time of consistent winter weather has passed.

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Abitconfusde t1_j7i2x1h wrote

Thank you for responding, but I don't think the comment you quoted is the one I was looking at. Although it seems perfectly clear to me that this is a warm winter with the Arctic blast inserted for fun, and although it seems obvious that steadily warming weather is the trend, and although the trend points to global warming, and although that trend is actually cataclysmic, the comment I responded to made it seem like the pattern signified something more immediate. Like next week or month. I was looking for explication of that sentiment.

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Corey307 t1_j7h19y2 wrote

They are a clear indicator of climate change and some thing that should concern you greatly. we’re not just having an easy winter, we haven’t had a winter not really. and it’s not just here, weather patterns around the world are all wrong and it’s accelerating. People focus too much on the global warming aspect of climate change not understanding that as the planet warms weather becomes unpredictable and dangerous. You lose crops to temperature fluctuations and far too much or far too little rain. The figure well if it’s hotter, colder, wetter or drier than it should be I can stay inside but that doesn’t do anything to feed us.

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Abitconfusde t1_j7i57r2 wrote

> They are a clear indicator of climate change and some thing that should concern you greatly.

It does, and I may not have been clear. I believe we are living through a slow-motion (for humans... instant in geological time) cataclysm that will cause worldwide death (by war and famine) and disaster by weather events and ecocide. I suspect our course is at this point irreversible without a worldwide "Manhattan project" level of effort in innovation and mindset change. What I read in the comment (but which may not have been intended by its author) was that the pattern foretells tornados or hurricanes or something in the days immediately following the polar vortex.

> The [sic] figure well if it’s hotter, colder, wetter or drier than it should be I can stay inside but that doesn’t do anything to feed us.

True. And as more pollinators die off because they can't stay cool enough or because we think we will increase yields with pesticides, yield will continue to spiral. I suppose I could continue my side rant, but the point is... Yes I'm concerned... panicked even... And when someone suggests a particular weather pattern is alarming, I prick up my ears, because fuck! I'm in a constant state of alarm. Isn't everybody? What makes this particular weather pattern any worse or more alarming than ALL of the other signs telling us that we are on the bullet train to the end of human civilization as we know it?

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Corey307 t1_j7ink54 wrote

Well said. You brought up some good points, that climate change causes cascading environmental failures and that it’s not a slow march toward the end because climate change is accelerating. We’re already past the point of no return due to atmospheric CO2 levels add the methane being released from melting permafrost is only making things worse. If mankind somehow reduced its CO2 emissions by 95% overnight it would not spare us from climate change although it would spare us from the worst of it.

The sad thing is I’ve talked about this a lot of times and I get a lot of people who are convinced that carbon capture will save us or that fusion will give us unlimited clean power so we can start polluting. Fusion is at least a few decades too late and we’re at least 20 years away from it being useful. Carbon capture only works at ground level, atmospheric carbon capture it simply is not possible even if all the worlds governments put trillions of dollars into it we’d still be polluting like hell building the means to capture carbon. I’ve tried explaining to people that we aren’t in a car racing toward a cliff, we’re in a car that already went over the edge.

You’re right that this is only one example and that’s why a lot of people don’t believe what is happening. It’s because they’re blind to what’s going on around the world. People really don’t have the time, don’t care or are too freaked out to pay attention. I’m one of the lucky ones in a way, I didn’t have kids because my family genetics are a crapshoot. I’m staying in New England and buying more land because I genuinely enjoy homesteading snd can try to prepare for a food insecure future.

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