Heat Alert ?

[Observer II]

With temps forecast to reach 30oC, the Met Office has issued a "heat alert",  presumably to allow all snowflakes to run for the shade.   While most folk have spent their lives paying good money to fly out to baking beaches abroad, I wonder what's happening with our society.   Whilst their maybe sections of society through age or illness, that have to beware temp extremes, I'm sure they will be prepared for such extremes.  So are we becoming a doom laden bunch of hyper sensitive crisis mongers ?     

[Evil Sid]

no matter how many heat alerts they put out there will still be those who will quite happily spend hours in the sunshine wearing very little to cover their skin and then spend several more hours in A&E with severe sunburn and heat stroke.

as i have grown older i have noticed that i am becoming more nesh. the cold weather bothers me a lot more than it used to, i still am not comfortable with high temperatures though, all those years of riding a motorbike conditioned me to tolerate the cold.

[Bill]

30 degrees isn’t that bad, so I’m sure the message was intended mainly for those with health issues. If the government wanted to protect the snowflakes, then they’d probably do better by telling them to all go out and enjoy the sun while it lasts 😊

The trouble with weather is its unreliability, so unless you’re happy with four kids and a dog all stuck in a caravan watching the rain, a trip to where the sun’s a bit more plentiful isn’t that excessive. Mind you, I bet there’s a lot of disappointed people that decided to visit the rainy Med over the last couple of weeks while it’s been so nice here. Reminds me of my honeymoon week in Majorca. It was melting the roads here while there it rained twice; first for three days and the second for four. 😊

 

Bill 😊

[Steve the Original]

A 30 Degree heatwave 🫠 its 30 here and 35 at the weekend and no one is giving out heatwave Warnings here, not yet anyway..

 

If people sunbath then they know they can buy suncreams and sunblocker if they dont no Sympathy for them, buy Calamine Lotion..

[Bill]

Seems the Jetstream saved our bacon over the last few weeks otherwise we could have had similar temperatures as they had down in the Med. Forty plus degrees is seriously hot and enough to cause massive health issues if it continues for any length of time. At least these unseasonal temperatures and high rainfall has avoided the possibility of drought which only a few weeks back was looking increasingly likely.

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

Mad dogs and Englishmen eh !😑

[Evil Sid]

52 minutes ago, Bill said:

At least these unseasonal temperatures and high rainfall has avoided the possibility of drought which only a few weeks back was looking increasingly likely.

there will still be a hosepipe ban before long. last time we had flooding across the country there was a hosepipe ban.....🤣

[Observer II]

Looking at a weather map, it showed the hot area over s/Europe,  but further south, in Africa, it was even hotter, so how do Africans cope ?   May be that's why they're all trying to migrate north ?    

[Observer II]

Seems the scientists are all over the place with this global warming hysteria;  after global "boiling" in S/Europe, which the UK escaped due to the jet stream holding a low pressure over us; we're now being told that over the next century N/W Europe will face a temp drop of 15oC,  due to the melting sea ice from the Artic, negating the gulf stream which normally warms us in Winter.   So far from global warming, we'll be getting experiencing Siberian winters,  so I guess we need to hang on to our gas central heating boilers and our oils and gas supplies then ?         

[Bill]

If global warming caused the gulf stream to turn off, then for sure our climate will see a huge drop in temperatures, and it’ll probably get a lot drier as well. But if it does, it’s not going to happen overnight so plenty of time to try and sort things out. Seems a bit counter intuitive that global warming could end up making us colder but if the theories are correct, then it will happen.

There was an interesting couple of programs on the BBC recently, one about electric cars and the inability of the national grid to cope, and last week it was about heat pumps and why they’re not working either. As the old adage suggests, problems only exist to be solved and all of these issues are solvable, but even if we could have it all tomorrow I doubt it’d make much difference.

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

Ever since humanity discovered an ability to alter his living environment,  he has proceeded on the basis that he can change anything.  The reality is, that the environment of planet Earth owes it's existence to various complex factors beyond our control, and it's the supreme arrogance of our species to believe that we can control nature.   Earth has experienced five extinction events, all caused by natural events, so not man made.  We are being panicked into a self destructive wave of self harm, that working people will bare the brunt of.   EV's are proving unreliable and that's no doubt why some car manufactures are keeping their options open with ICE vehicles, ready for when it all turns pear shaped.  We've placed all our faith in science, but the scientist don't agree on causations or solutions, bit like the pandemic fiasco.  Thankfully I won't be around to see it, but I feel sorry for the coming generations who will suffer from this hysteria and political myopia.     😢

[Bill]

Yep it’s a big old world out there and I reckon that even if every single person in the UK were to go 100% green, it wouldn’t make much if any difference globally.

The one current proposal though that I think is absolutely bonkers is the notion that we can build dedicated carbon capture systems to suck the CO2 out of the atmosphere. I’ve no doubt that such systems are technically possible but surly it’s a bit like peeing in the ocean or sweeping a town’s streets using a toothbrush. For anything like that to work, it’d have to be huge in both width and height which just isn’t realistic. It’d make far more sense to just plant a forest. It’d do exactly the same but be a lot cheaper and look a lot nicer.

Maybe we can’t completely change the worlds environment, but I believe we can make it better for ourselves and future generations. When we stopped burning coal in the sixties it was major change that didn’t sit well with many but years down the line we have an infinitely better air quality and better health. Moving away from all forms of hydrocarbons will be painful but long term it’s the right thing to do.

 

Bill 😊

[Observer II]

There are common sense responses to the CO2 dilemma, such as planting more trees,  but the hysterical rush into banning oil and gas, before the green alternatives prove viable and come on stream, is merely an act of self harm, which will prove injurous to the majority of working people.   

[Bill]

I think self-harm is a bit strong when we’re talking about trying to improve the environment.  

Planting billions of trees sounds like a good idea for reducing CO2 but given what we’re seeing at the moment with the wildfires caused by excessive heat, you have to wonder if planting more trees might be adding more fuel to the fire. I wonder how much extra CO2 and particulates come from all these fires and whether we could get to the point where so many fires become a major part of the problem.

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

grass actually provides more oxygen than trees as it grows quicker than a tree.

in the long term however a tree will stores more carbon due to it's longer life span.

so the thing i want to know about all these green initiatives is this. Is it about producing oxygen or capturing carbon?

[Confused52]

Historically the level of forest fires is driven by levels of atmospheric oxygen. To be effective carbon capture has to be done on archaeological timescales i.e. 300 Million years or so. No technology can be assumed to work practically over these timescales and trees only work if left alone after they fall and rot under sediment. This is not the plans suggested by eco-loons. 

Just because the greens intentions are good doesn't mean it isn't self-harm. If their plans are followed though there will be many, many excess deaths. Doing anything before larges scale nuclear provides the base load is already a massive self harm. It has caused the price of nuclear to escalate, that causes wind and solar to be priced to match. The result is a permanent increase in the cost on energy for home heating and for all the ballyhoo about summer heatwaves it is winter temperature which dominate deaths in the elderly. Self-harm sums it up well.