Daily temperature records will tumble as sizzling early season heat from a summerlike heat dome sends thermometers skyrocketing into the triple digits in parts of California and the West this week.
The official start of summer is just a few weeks away, but it will feel like July in much of the West as temperatures climb 20 degrees or more above average, the highest temperatures of the year so far for many locations.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect for more than 17 million people in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona this week. The warnings are the most extreme form of heat alert issued by the National Weather Service and are used when widespread, dangerous heat is expected.
The soaring temperatures are being caused by a heat dome, a large area of high pressure that parks over an area, traps air and heats it with abundant sunshine for days or weeks. The resulting heat becomes more intense the longer a heat dome lasts.
Well . . . yeah, the planet’s dying.
We shold probably do something about that? I guess?
Planet will be fine, our ability to live on it not so much.
The entirety of planetary flora and fauna to see you, sir
They survived multiple giant asteroid strikes already. The issue is habitability for humans, but the planet itself is not in danger.
That’s sort of like saying, yes all human and most animal and plant life will perish in a horrible and entirely preventable human-made catastrophe, but the rocks will be okay.
I mean, it’s a lot like saying that. Which - yeah, okay.
Once humans stop dumping green house gasses into the environment (after we’re dead), nature will correct itself. The earth has been through several mass extinction events, and keeps on recovering.
Microorganisms will survive, at the very least, so life on the planet will keep on trucking.
Sure, sure. Cause for celebration. It’s all gonna be fine. For many, or at least some, microorganisms. The self-inflicted fiery cataclysm that kills everything else - not such a big deal after all.
That is what would happen. What won’t happen is “the planet dying” like you claimed above and don’t seem to grasp.
‘’don’t seem to grasp”? Fuck you. You goddamned prick who the fuck are you - king of expressions? Don’t seem to grasp. Fucking pinheaded shit-for-brains idiot.
Life uh… finds a way.
Tell that to the dodo.
Oh individual species may die, entire eco systems may collapse. But life as a process is extremely resilient.
Obviously we don’t want that happening.
I mean, it has survived all the other extinctions so far. It’s easy to be cocky about it.
We just don’t remember us doing it in so messed up a way before.
Venus would also like a word.
Edit: For anyone curious, I’m referring to Venus as a potential model for runaway greenhouse effect.
Why does a razor marketed for women want to talk to me, a cis man with a big ol’ hippie beard?
Not that Venus. Venus de Milo would like a word.
Sorry, but you can tell her the usual: I still have no idea where her arms are 🤷
Maybe don’t relay the shrug to her, though, as that could be construed as rather insensitive to her whole situation 😄
C’mon, man, she just needs a hand.
Oh alright, I’ll give her a hand! 👏
Because she’s got it, yeah baby, she’s got it.
What differentiates a viking beard from a hippie beard?
Viking style beards are braided. Like this one:
The Earth used to be hotter than Venus was. The first mass extinction fixed that and turned our world into a snowball a couple times.
Just throw some ice asteroids at Venus and some cyanobacteria, and we can have 2 Earth like planets in a few hundred thousand years.
Provided we fix this one…
Eh, humans will be dead long before we get anywhere close to venus’s level.
Yes, absolutely, you are right. The comments in this thread and elsewhere are that Earth will be fine. Our current trajectory doesn’t bode well for that assertion.
Earth will be fine. This isn’t the first time global warming has happened, and life survived that and many other mass extinction events. Most larger animals won’t survive, but enough would for life to keep going.
Without humans pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the earth will eventually return to normal. It might take several million years, but that’s nothing considering there’s like 4b years before the sun gets big enough to destroy everything.
Thank you for the response. This isn’t my field of study but my Astronomy professor back in college pointed to Venus as a possible outcome for Earth if we continued with our current emissions. I know atmospheric CO2 levels in the past were much higher on Earth but I’m truthfully not sure I understand what mechanisms Earth has that Venus lacked. I’m not trying to argue the point; really, I just want to learn.
Lastly, I love your username. It sounds delightful.
Venus has an atmosphere that’s 96.5% CO2. For comparison, earth’s atmosphere has 0.04% CO2.
Now, earth will likely see an increase in that number, and surface conditions will get a lot worse, but humans will be dead long before we even get close to venus.
Life is very tenacious, so it’s highly unlikely that humans will wipe it out completely with climate change.
At the least extremophiles (organisms that exist in conditions that life shouldn’t be able to exist in, like deep sea volcanic vents) will survive, and evolution will do it’s thing again.
Working to combat climate change has nothing to do with saving the earth as a whole; it’s too save the conditions that are favorable for us to survive in.
Earth will. We and the majority of the current forms of life not so much. The earth has been considerably hotter than now and with considerably more co2. It’s the rate of change that’s the real issue for both us and most life.
Life on earth sruvived the permian-triassic extinction.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event
Basically every volcano on earth lit up and choked the entire planet with toxic air, acid rain, continental fires, etc. Life survived that, it’ll survive humanity’s death throes.
Humans also survive the Ice age. I don’t think humans will get wiped out by climate change either just massively decreased in population.
We know how to make it cold and we know how to generate power without burning things we pull out of the ground. None of this needs to be happening it’s just happening because people are idiots and greedy but when push comes to shove they’ll have to stop or die, either way they stop. Then everyone else can survive.
It might be more convenient to just update some laws though.
Well I just wanted to say good luck, and we’re all counting on you.
Horseshoe crabs will be fine.
Sponges, too. They’re filter feeders so all the decomposing bodies in the water cause them to flourish.
Which makes me immediately suspicious of anyone in square pants.