Poll of the Day > How does climate change affect me right now?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not talking about green policies and carbon taxes, I mean the actual phenomenon itself right now. Im a stupid 30 year old living in England and my life seems unchanged by climate change/global warming.

How does it actually affect me personally? Or how will it affect me by 2050 or whatever the deadline is.

Not saying it doesnt exist or there isnt a problem, and Im not talking about indirect like ecosystem destruction and sea level rises by 2m in 70 years but how does it affect me personally right now? Weather patterns havent necessarily become more extreme in the UK in the 20 years Ive been here. And as far as I can see there hasnt been any change to ecosystems that directly impacted food supply chains or anything like that.

So what should I be looking out for? Wildfires in California and Australia - are they a result of climate change or is this just another natural phenomenon unaffected by our activities?

generally more extreme weather. more wind, more droughts, more storms, etc. we already have this but it will only get worse. depending how far it goes, it could theoretically reach apocalyptic extremes, but supposedly enough action has been taken already that we've probably avoided that. now it's a question of whether things just get a bit worse or a lot worse.

(warming oceans can cause the thermohaline (ocean circulation) to stop working, since it release on large temperature differences between warm and cold parts of the planet. the last time this happened it resulted in (or at least happened at the same time as) a global extinction event. I don't know how close this is to happening.)

it is possible that some places have milder weather and have less to worry about than others. I hope your implication is not "something has to affect me personally to matter, even if it affects the other 99% of the planet".

Sahuagin posted...

I hope your implication is not "something has to affect me personally to matter, even if it affects the other 99% of the planet".

It's not, thought I caveated that pretty well in my op but guess not.

Sahuagin posted...

(warming oceans can cause the thermohaline (ocean circulation) to stop working, since it release on large temperature differences between warm and cold parts of the planet.

So with climate change the temperature difference reduces between warm and cold parts of the planet and this effect is reduced?

It has been noticeable in Sweden.
The southern part of the country barely get any snow nowadays and if you want to experience a proper winter you'll have to live in the north and even then our winters are getting warmer as well.

It wasn't this bad two or three decades ago.

The 'heat domes' we experienced in Western Canada last summer were fucked.

It's harming agriculture, which does impact you directly. There are species going extinct all over the place, and some locations have already been submerged underwater, so you'll never get to see those things irl.

FatalAccident posted...

It's not, thought I caveated that pretty well in my op but guess not.

So with climate change the temperature difference reduces between warm and cold parts of the planet and this effect is reduced?

as the ocean warms up, the temperature difference shrinks until the oceanic circulation eventually stops, yes. I don't think the circulation is a gradual thing. once it gets just warm enough, it stops, and "bad things" happen.

FatalAccident posted...

So with climate change the temperature difference reduces between warm and cold parts of the planet and this effect is reduced?

If not stop entirely. Convection relies on temperature differentials to provide energy that translates into movement. If there isn't enough of a difference, the warmer parts of the system don't have enough energy to displace the colder parts, so the colder parts don't end up moving to take their place.

In the UK's case specifically, this will actually result in things getting a lot colder. The North Atlantic Current carries quite a lot of tropical water up to western Europe, which (along with the Gulf Stream, which is the corresponding air current) is largely responsible for England's mild climate. Take that away, and you're just left with cold water that doesn't go anywhere, meaning much, much harsher winters than anything England has ever seen. London is on the same latitude as Labrador City; the difference in their respective climates can be attributed entirely to which ocean currents they are affected by. Take that away, and England starts to look more like Arctic tundra than anything you might find familiar.

Sahuagin posted...

as the ocean warms up, the temperature difference shrinks until the oceanic circulation eventually stops, yes. I don't think the circulation is a gradual thing. once it gets just warm enough, it stops, and "bad things" happen.

There's some gradual slowing, but there will come a point where it just stops altogether if things keep getting worse, and that would be apocalyptic.

LeetCheet posted...

It has been noticeable in Sweden.
The southern part of the country barely get any snow nowadays and if you want to experience a proper winter you'll have to live in the north and even then our winters are getting warmer as well.

It wasn't this bad two or three decades ago.

Any of y'all appreciate the warmer weather?

Gaawa_chan posted...

It's harming agriculture, which does impact you directly. There are species going extinct all over the place, and some locations have already been submerged underwater, so you'll never get to see those things irl.

scuba

Just wait until the megahurricanes strike

Hasn't the UK been getting increased storms?

as someone who lives in louisiana, the decline of our wetlands has been extremely noticeable. hurricanes have been getting and will continue to become more and more brutal on us, because the wetlands have served the purpose of weakening hurricanes before they hit dry land

The heat fucks with the intensity of your boners.

It doesn't.

Judgmenl posted...

It doesn't.

where do you live

ReturnOfFa posted...

where do you live

On the internet.

Judgmenl posted...

On the internet.

Lol:)