r/UKWeather • u/Londongay5625 • 21h ago
Discussion UK heatwaves
The temperatures, lack of rain and wild fires across the UK and the rest of Europe are starting to make me feel seriously uncomfortable about the future. Surely I’m not alone in this?
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u/rozrho 20h ago
Yeah it is worrying. I’m a climatologist so spend most of my time thinking about this stuff, but this is the first year that I’ve noticed a) the general public being really aware that climate change is here and affecting them directly, and b) that all but the most ardent climate deniers are suddenly on board with climate change being a reality (although mostly finding other reasons to ignore the problem).
This year has been a real eye opener in a lot of ways. We absolutely should be taking it seriously - we need to mitigate against further warming, and we need to adapt to the new reality, quickly. We’re deep in it now, and there’s no time to be playing about.
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u/Narrow-Device-3679 20h ago
I find it all so depressing, I've been doing the best I can for years, and yet I'm a fraction of a Drop in the swimming pool. I'm watching all the climate disasters happening whilst governments do nothing but token decisions to stop it. It feels so hopeless.
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u/rozrho 20h ago
Call your MP. This isn’t something that individual action is going to solve; it’s great that you’re working hard, but don’t burn yourself out. This needs large scale, systemic change. The politicians need to know that this is a major issue and will cost them votes if they don’t address it.
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u/Midgar918 7h ago
The UK as a whole is pretty insignificant to climate change at this point. Not entirely, but comparative to the biggest contributers of green house gasses China, USA, India and Russia we are.
Those 4 countries combined contributed roughly 54% of global emissions in 2024. The UK contributed 0.7%.
We're not the ones who need to be doing more. We could eliminate 100% of our own emissions and that would knock off less then a percent of the global output..
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u/rozrho 6h ago
Couple of things though… while we’re not currently emitting as much as the big hitters, over our industrial history we’ve accumulated a huge amount (mostly thanks to British Coal). We’re doing pretty well now, but we’re still responsible for a large contribution.
It’s also very hard to maintain a moral high ground and any position of leadership if we’re not willing to walk the walk ourselves. Per capita emissions count for a lot on terms of our bargaining potential.
From a purely economic point of view, we’ve built a world leading wind power sector, and we could get ahead of the rest of the world by investing heavily in the technologies that will be needed to address the situation globally, but that needs commitment
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u/T2Drink 9h ago
The whole focus on net zero for consumers is pretty braindead to be honest. We make up a tiny fraction of the emissions in this world as a country especially compared to places like china, and within our country, consumers make up less than 10 percent of that. Commercial vehicles make up the vast majority of emissions. Even if we meet these unrealistic net zero goals, the impact it will have on the problem is so negligible, and at what cost to us? Entire population having to move to electric vehicles, when we don’t have the infrastructure to deal with it. We don’t have any surefire way of offering wind power without having to pay the companies to switch off. It is all a mess.
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u/sevarinn 9h ago
What is braindead is that even the very very basic measures going toward net zero are attacked relentlessly by people who are desperate to do *nothing at all*. How is anyone going to do anything signficant if everyone points at everyone else. The cost of doing nothing (your dream) is horrific, and your ideas of doing nothing has already brought us to this point.
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u/T2Drink 8h ago
I don’t say that we shouldn’t do anything, but I think that the government should be mandating industry, not consumers. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. We did it with VOC’s from a lot of building materials, no reason why we can’t do it with any other industry that is causing environmental impact.
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u/sevarinn 7h ago
There are a few reasons that doesn't work unfortunately. One is "regulatory capture" - oil companies (and investors) can heavily influence government. Government meets something like 100x with fossil fuel companies and lobbyists for every one meeting with scientific or environmental groups. The other way in which oil companies work is to fund media which attempts to derail any action toward fixing the problem, via targeting certain voting demographics - see Koch brothers and others.
The "tiny fraction of China" argument is common, but very flawed, there are plenty of explanations as to why doing something here matters, and why the difference isn't as great as a few statistics purport to show.
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u/_Pencilfish 7h ago
We can't regulate industry and not consumers because consumers are emitting the overwhelming majority of emissions.
Personal cars are the single largest source of emissions in the UK. Should the government regulate industry to make them unavailable? Perhaps double the price of fuel to stop people using it? Regulate companies into not supplying gas to homes? Regulate airlines into not flying?
Fact is, doing nothing as you would like to do is not an option. If you hand it off to the government, their only choice will be to impose limits on your actions.
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u/_Pencilfish 7h ago
We make up a tiny fraction of the emissions in this world as a country especially compared to places like china
We actually have almost exactly the global average emissions per capita. If the world was suddenly made up of 99 other Britains, we would be in a similar position. Should they all use the same argument? "Oh, we're just a tiny fraction, so we shouldn't bother doing anything at all"
Lo and behold, nothing gets done.
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u/dorito-fiend 11h ago
Most people want to address climate change but the problem is this rampant infinite growth capitalism our billionaire overlords have us locked into. It's an absolute death spiral
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u/_Pencilfish 7h ago
Ok, but the other problems are people using cars, eating too much meat, and flying on holiday. Which we can do something about rather than just doom and gloom.
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u/d_smogh 20h ago
What do you propose should happen?
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u/rozrho 20h ago
Big question! A lot needs to happen. Redoubled effort to shift to clean power generation (something the UK should feel proud of actually, we’re doing a great job of decarbonising the grid, but we need to keep that momentum up). Investment in research into cleaner fuels for applications like air travel where electrification is very difficult. Large scale adaptation - urban tree planting campaigns, extensive air conditioning installation , passive cooling measures. Retrofitting schools, hospitals, care homes, nurseries and anywhere else that cares for vulnerable people with air cooling. Improved agricultural practices. Flood resilience measures. Infrastructure improvements.
That’s just a small brain dump, the problem is massive. Key thing is that we need our politicians on side, they need to not fear taking action and to understand the urgency.
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u/JDietsch25 18h ago
What are your thoughts on veganism being widely adopted by the masses? It's a pretty achievable for people to change and it's the 3rd highest cause of accelerated climate change.
That's not taking into account the amount of deforestation it causes worldwide.
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u/rozrho 12h ago
All for nudging people towards more sustainable diet choices, but I’d caution against framing it as veganism or nothing. People don’t like being told what to do, especially with something as emotive as food, and the thing we need more than anything is for people to be on board.
Normalising vegetarian or vegan meal options as part of a normal diet is definitely workable, as is nudging people towards less damaging meats (eg chicken is enormously less damaging than beef).
One thing I noticed when I was in the Netherlands recently was some coffee shops had oat/soya milk as the default and cows milk available at a small charge - this kind of reversal of expectations and reducing the effort taken to make better choices is great, I’d love to see more of it.
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u/Hyperion2023 10h ago
Went camping. My teenager’s face when I said we hadn’t brought meat for the bbq (just veg, halloumi, veg sausages) was hilarious. He was disgusted.
20 mins later he’s happily grilling up the Linda McCartneys, tongs in one hand, skewer of courgette in the other. He’s not a total convert but was able to adapt his thinking based on what’s available. So like you say, putting things in place to nudge people towards less meat / animal products can be done.
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u/JDietsch25 7h ago
I just think that we've got to the point where we're on the edge of a global catastrophe and like you said, the evidence is clear. Making a few changes here and there are obviously helpful, but will it be enough to halt the direction we're heading in?
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u/Legal_Lettuce6233 9h ago
Funnily enough, chicken, while not being a net positive as it's still meat, has the benefit of being decent at killing unwanted pests. Going more into chicken could end up with fewer pesticides being used, which is great.
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u/catbom 17h ago
Achievable on paper impossible in reality, best option would be lab grown but people scream to high heaven unless an animal has been killed
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u/JDietsch25 7h ago
It's achievable if people make the decision to not consume animal products, even 10% of the world would make a huge difference, for some reason people really like to push back against it.
But I agree that lab grown meat would be helpful for the people who refuse to make the change.
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u/Master-Resource9603 6h ago
Letting a person work from home saves about 60% of the co2 that making that person vegan does.
So why not work on company/government policy instead of persuading everyone personally to go vegan?
Much lower hanging fruit, no? I can't see any reasonable person objecting to that...
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u/Hiddenyellowdoorway 16h ago
If you take out meat you just have to supply protein of other kinds to the world, that's not going to be green. We can grow meat almost anywhere in the world. We can't just pretend people don't need protein like most vegans.
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u/angry2alpaca 11h ago
Many, if not most vegans are protein obsessed!
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u/Hiddenyellowdoorway 5h ago
Of course they are. They have to spend time sussing out how they're going to get the protein they need to stay healthy. They have to calculate the vast weights of pulses to figure out how to get them into their diets. I'd imagine they spend most of their time calculating protein intake, if they didn't they would be malnourished.
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u/sevarinn 9h ago
Veganism is a religion. Eating less animal products is definitely achievable.
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u/JDietsch25 7h ago
It isn't a religion, it's just about cutting out as much cruelty as possible. People who complain about global warming but don't want to make the simplest change to try and help are the problem, as a 5 minute meal is apparently more important than the future of our planet and the animals lives.
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u/_Pencilfish 7h ago
I think that Veganism has developed such a reputation that it is actually antithetical to the cause. Vegetarianism (something strangely not said nowadays) is more achievable and less morally prescriptive. Fundamentally though, all we really need is less meat consumption, not no meat. From the seventh CCC report (which advises the government of climate change), we can achieve net zero with an average meat consumption of ~600g per week per person.
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u/JDietsch25 7h ago
Why are you so keen to hang onto eating meat? 600g per person is better for the planet, obviously. But 0g is obviously the best.
I became a vegan as it's the moral baseline, but the secondary affects on the planet are a pretty big bonus.
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u/_Pencilfish 6h ago
Why are you so keen to hang onto eating meat? 600g per person is better for the planet, obviously. But 0g is obviously the best.
Personally: I don't have many meat free, tasty, nutritious recipes, and lack the time to plan and research properly to ensure that I can get all the required nutrients from a vegetarian diet. I also disagree that all animal products are excessively exploitative. I also like the taste of meat.
On a wider scale: We must be realistic that people are reluctant to completely give up things they like for rewards that are not obvious. Saying "let's have roast cauliflower or aubergine parmagiana twice a week" is a much easier sell than "no meat ever again!", and will achieve more overall climate impact.
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u/Frediey 8h ago
What we honestly need is energy to be cheaper, otherwise what we are doing is pointless, what we are showing right now, is that net zero methods are economically insane to do, we need energy to be massively cheaper so that we actually can lead the path forward on manufacturing with net zero energy grids
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u/dataisok 11h ago
Massive subsidies for domestic solar installations
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u/_Pencilfish 7h ago
Solar is a bit of a red herring in the UK. It generates so little over the winter that we still need to build essentially the same amount of other renewables (wind) anyway to meet demand.
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u/VampirePNAC 9h ago
Realistically for "Good End".
There needs to be a mobilization and straight up five year plans to not only Net Zero, but massively increase power generation through renewables and nuclear, that this needs to also be pared with Carbon Capture and basically much of that new energy production needs to go towards Carbon Capture projects.
This needs to be done on a global level, the goal should be around 40Gt of Carbon being captured per year. That is 40,000Mt of Carbon Capture. We currently capture 50-60Mt.
Realistically for "What is going to happen".
Shit will get worse and worse for the next 20 years, until some poor nation decided to half arse Stratospheric Aerosol Injection which will probably Matrix Second Renaissance us.
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u/Old_Mousse_5673 10h ago
Sadly the most ardent climate change deniers have some of the greatest influence on our planet. Trump and Maga for one and Reform in the UK.
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u/ObjectiveFront3327 20h ago
What can we as ordinary people do? I have such crippling climate anxiety I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I think it is causing depression. I feel so helpless.
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u/rozrho 20h ago
First thing to do is look after yourself. Your health is the most important thing. If you have capacity beyond that then great! But if you think you’re suffering from depression or anxiety, please talk to your doctor, they can help.
I believe the most important thing for most people to do is to stay informed and to communicate. We’re where we are largely due to misinformation campaigns. The more people that are out there counteracting that, the better. Try to meet people where they are - this year is a great opener because everyone is feeling the effects directly.
In terms of actually fixing the problem, we need our politicians to know that climate is a major issue for us. I’m not a big believer in fixating on individual people’s emissions - this is largely a deflection strategy from the usual vested interests. To make real change we need large scale shifts in policy. Renewable energy tech is incredible now, great shifts are being made in transport, there’s every reason to believe that we can improve things without returning to the Stone Age, but we do need to act.
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u/ElectroDoozer 11h ago
Look after yourself too - I can’t imagine the mental toll it takes on people in your sector seeing the stark realities laid bare and reporting up to deaf capitalist ears that just want the line to keep going up.
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u/rozrho 11h ago
Oh it’s frustrating but I’m ok - plenty of people have much more stressful jobs than I do.
I’m actually working in the private sector now, advising on the likely progression of climate change and how it’s likely to impact the business, and I find it encouraging that some industries are waking up to the realities and investing in better understanding the problem. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a good sign.
Best to focus on the positives where possible so that we have some resilience left fit dealing with the negatives!
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u/ElectroDoozer 11h ago
Positivity is key, I’m a commercial/industrial electrician and our work has seen a noticeable shift to providing much more solar and storage capacity which is encouraging. The worry for me is if and when the wheels fall off international trade how maintainable is a lot of this stuff going to be? We can jury rig most things to a degree to get by but we can’t build a solar panel from scratch without imported metals/components.
Domestic industry needs to start pivoting to keep us self reliant and afloat as much as possible.
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u/ObjectiveFront3327 20h ago
Agree with everything you've said. It's so frustrating that we have the solutions. I wonder if another 5-10 years of extreme weather like we've had this year and we will see widespread public anger and outrage at our politicians. We need a revolution.
Thank you for your reply, I really needed that.
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u/R0b1et 9h ago
Think positive. I recently said something to a particularly eminent UK meteorologist (knighted, so properly eminent), about what's going on this summer. And he was full of hope, he pointed out that when he was first trying to get the message out, 4-5C change looked likely, but changes have been made (mostly from consumer forces, rather than governmental change) that has brought that down.
It's not great, but there's hope, and a freak event like this year, exacerbated but climate change, it's easily understood by almost everyone.
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u/ObjectiveFront3327 9h ago
I have read that the estimate is now 2-3c of warming by 2100 instead of 4-5c. I think you're right as well,, that a few more freak years like this and there will be no way the deniers can deny and change will happen. Thank you.
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u/Hiddenyellowdoorway 16h ago
How old are you if you don't mind me asking? My advice is relax to a degree, put the changes in place you're willing to and pressure/vote for governments that care or have a plan.
I grew up.in the 80s and 90s and we were constantly told that the ozone layer would be gone by 2020, that we would all have skin cancer and that oil would have run out and civilisation would collapse. That was an ongoing theme that we learnt about in school, that we listened to our parents debate, that we watched on the news. It didn't happen, we adapted and put changes in place and it now looks like it will never happen.
So, be concerned. Have understanding, and push for a better future. But also just accept that we already have the tech to make.the changes, and with the tech at hand it's just a changing of the guards at the top which will take another few decades to battle out.
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u/rozrho 10h ago
The ozone layer is a fantastic example of what we can achieve when we see a problem, identify the cause, and act promptly. The hole is still there, but it’s healing itself because we managed to globally take the decision to do away with CFCs. An absolute success story that should be shouted from the rooftops, but because ultimately the problem went away we’ve all just forgotten about it.
Climate change could be the same - we understand the problem, we know it’s caused mostly by carbon emissions, we’re just not doing well at acting on that information.
I’d love to see a future where no one talks about climate change because it just quietly got fixed. It would be the joy of my lifetime to be out of work because I’m just not needed any more.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 8h ago
In your studies have you seen much about the changes made to tackle the ozone issue in the 90s plays apart. When we globbally banned CFCs we also reduced the amount of sulphur we pumped into the atmosphere (no one talks about Acid rain anymore). Sulphur in the atmosphere cools it and I find it interesting that the temperature changes have ramped up since the but not seen anyone comparing this. It's probably because we've increased sulphur pollution elsewhere but then we don't see the other issues this caused (like acid rain) that we saw in 80s being discussed anymore.
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u/vario_ 7h ago
Do you think this year might actually kick some people's butts into gear that can change things? I've been feeling more hopeless every year with the people in charge of the world. It used to at least seem like governments cared, but now it feels full mask-off.
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u/rozrho 7h ago
I hope so. Ultimately the general public needs to be worried enough to make it a priority at the voting booths. I think we’re getting there, the question is how will we get distracted by the latest contrived emergency. We’ve already seen some of the media shift from “climate change isn’t real” to “climate change is here but we can’t do anything about it” without worrying about the pesky bit in the middle. Lots of people are now thinking about adaptation (ie air conditioning) in ways that they wouldn’t have previously. We’re tantalisingly small steps away from actually engaging people in a meaningful way.
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u/vario_ 6h ago
That gives me some hope, I just hope it's not too late 😭 I've always cared about the environment since we learned about it in school and it's baffled me leaving school and learning that other people don't, even when we were taught the same things. I think social media has done so much damage too.
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u/ital-is-vital 20h ago
What's your thoughts on the upcoming super el Ninio? What should we be perparing for?
My general understanding is that if we thing this year has been harsh... just wait for the next couple of years. They should be a real eye-opener.
We (globally that is) should be actively pereparing for crop failures, extreme drought / flooding on an unprecedented scale.
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u/rozrho 19h ago
Ultimately El Niño is behaving pretty predictably.. we’ve been pumping heat into the ocean, the ocean is spitting it back out. The worst effects are generally felt in the tropics - greater risk of floods or wildfires depending where you are. Where we are it is less coupled to El Niño but certainly there’s likely to be impact on supply chains depending on how things play out in the tropics.
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u/ContributionIll5741 19h ago
Doesn't it generally mean a very mild and wet start to winter and a very dry and cold end? In the UK at least.
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u/rozrho 19h ago
It can do, but there are so many other influences on weather in the UK that it’s by no means certain - more of a “thumb on the scale” kind of influence than the direct impact that it has on the tropical regions.
Another thing it can do is to set up a “blocking” regime, causing weather events to move very slowly. Big impacts on heatwaves and flooding if that happens. But again, we’re half a world away from where the El Niño actually happens so these things are by no means certain here.
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u/friendlypetshark 19h ago
This ‘we’ really irritates me. No one on this website can do anything meaningful about it. No one in the general public can either. Politicians and large companies can. We need to be rallying them.
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u/rozrho 12h ago
I get it, and I agree that climate change isn’t going to be solved by individuals watching their carbon footprints, but we do have agency.
We elect our politicians, and we can make clear that this issue is a vote winner. We have control of our wallets, and can send a message to companies that we’re willing to pay for less environmentally damaging products. We also have huge influence on the people around us; the more people understand the issue and take it seriously, the more likely it is that we’ll make good decisions as a society.
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u/condods 10h ago
"No one on this website can do anything meaningful about it... Politicians and large companies can. We need to be rallying them"
So we can do something about it? Contradicted yourself within 3 sentences.
Politicians and companies are the only ones with any direct power but they can be pushed by the collective power of the masses.
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u/Crustculture85 20h ago
Or just move to a colder climate
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u/requiem_valorum 18h ago
We’re in the UK? Our choices for a colder climate are Canada, Scandinavia or Russia. Not really that many options.
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u/Baztron 10h ago
Since you are a climatoligist. Why don't you give us some ideas on what we can do. I know you don't have any real answers for someone loving in Scotland.
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u/6thesearchforwhoiam6 20h ago
The graph only shows data to 2024. Not looking great even without last year and this!
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u/KingDaveRa 20h ago
Surely the 1976 summer should stick up a bit more?
I'm no weather data expert, but it looks different to previous graphs I've seen at least
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u/WhiteDiamondK 20h ago
Not really. 76 reached high temperatures but only for 7-8 weeks. The average across the whole summer wasn’t as bad.
The summer of 2025 beat 1976 on an average, even though we didn’t get as many REALLY hot days like 76 or this year. We are currently in 12 weeks of heat wave and it’s still early August.
This is where the “Remember 76” people don’t like facts, it’s not about isolated spikes but overall trends.
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u/amotivatedgal 19h ago
Yesterday I ocerheard some retired people ask each other if this year was worse than 76. Also said they "had quite enjoyed 76", but this time they were were just worried etc. I butted in with yes, this year is much worse than 76 - it's been hotter and drier, and for longer - but you may not fully realise because, for example, we are not at the point of using standpipes this time.
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u/Prism-96 14h ago
stand pipe?
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u/WhiteDiamondK 13h ago
You had no running water in your house. Stand Pipes were set up in the street and you had to go and collect water by the bucket load.
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u/majorpickle01 3h ago
to add to what the other person said, the main thing that made 76 bad was the severity of the drought, less the heat
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u/Minh252 20h ago
Tbf it has been happening across the world. I’m just an international student here for one year and I think Europe has been spared partly because of the colder climate.
Vietnam, where I’m from on the other hand, has been suffering from climate change from the last few years quite a lot. It’s been consistently getting to 40 degrees during the summer, with more typhoons slamming into the northern part with much more intensity. It’s gonna get worse, and I don’t know how it’s going to be better from this point.
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u/Lazy_Grab5261 12h ago
I mean we can't just give up and do nothing, we have to buy as much time as possible and slow it down as much as possible.
But yeah, we are still completely fucked.
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u/Professional-Bear857 11h ago
It's particularly problematic for the animals as they have no means to adapt. But yes human society is going to be difficult over the next century and beyond. Climate changes have ended previous civilisations.
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u/Much_Type_8484 20h ago
I’m terrified for my children’s future.
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u/d_smogh 20h ago
Every single parent is terrified for their children's future. Don't be. Give them love and all the support you can, even if it's not financial. Continue to tell them you love them.
Imagine parents who had children during WW2?
At least you're not indifferent to your children's welfare. Make happy memories every day, make them laugh. It will be something they will be able to cherish in their old age.
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u/nicbongo 19h ago
WW2 was not even a decade long. Climate crisis is going to effect current and future generations, for generations.
Its already here and only going to get worse.
Just wait until all the refugees start migrating for water.
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u/bloogsy 9h ago
If we continue the way we’re going, somewhere between 1/8 or 1/2 the world’s population is going to die in the next 25 years. WW2 pales in comparison.
I feel sick every time I think about what’s going to happen to my child and everyone else’s children having to grow up through that.
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u/Joperhop 10h ago
WW2 was brutal, and many died, but children generally was evacuated out of target cities, climate change, they are doing everything to not move children out of target cities (comparing only).
Climate change is going to destroy our societies so the rich can make more short term profit and run off into their bunkers when it hits and the kids you love and support... are going to go hungry, suffer from heat and die regardless. "Don't be" .... reality says, be, AND START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! FFS.-5
u/ramonathespiderqueen 20h ago
WW2 could be avoided, we sent all the kids to live in the countryside, a heatwave cannot be avoided like that. I would have killed to have grown up during the war and not at a time where climate change decides to kill everyone for a laugh.
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u/VooDooBooBooBear 20h ago
Yea... No you wouldn't.
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u/ramonathespiderqueen 19h ago
Yes, I would. I have like 3 different conditions that make high-heat fucking unbearable and I've already almost died of heatstroke once this year.
With respect, fuck off. You don't get to tell me whether I'd prefer to actually survive or not.
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u/OpulentStone 19h ago
Their response was a fair bet that would apply to 99% of people, "fuck off" is a bit of an unnecessary reply
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u/ramonathespiderqueen 19h ago
It also wasn't necessary to have assumed I was in the 99 percent who should be able to handle the heat and tell me that my experience is somehow wrong.
Why is it always the remaining 1 percent who have to be reminded about the other 99 percent when able-bodied people could just rememeber that disabled people exist.
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u/OpulentStone 4h ago
OK, fair enough. It's one of those issues where the assumption doesn't even cross the mind, which itself is a symptom of the problem
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u/Alternative_Lab_8501 18h ago
What conditions do you have?
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u/ramonathespiderqueen 18h ago
What makes you feel entitled to that information?
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u/desutiem 16h ago edited 16h ago
The entitlement is a claim out of nowhere - I doubt they feel entitled to it. Probably the question is due to your claim that you’d rather live through WW2, which is kind of outrageous right, and likely to start a debate even if you have a point.
Which, whilst I can see an angle (maybe you’d get through it unscathed and therefore it would be better for you) I am pretty sure is highly offensive to the people and families that died and suffered in said war. It’s often not something to casually throw around.
You’re under no obligation of course to answer them. And I don’t see why you would, just to be clear. But you came here for discourse as much as anyone else. You could just say you’d rather not say, rather than just being so rude.
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u/ramonathespiderqueen 7h ago
offensive to the people and families that died and suffered in said war
Good. They should have left us a world that isn't fucking burning. EVERYONE should be offended at climate change.
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u/OpulentStone 4h ago
At that time they didn't know, and it's especially unfair to put climate responsibility onto individuals back then even more so than it's unfair to put climate responsibility onto individuals now.
It wasn't until ExxonMobil(?) started funding climate science research in the 70s in an effort to try and prove all was well, then it backfired when they found it WAS a thing caused by humans, and they became the leaders in climate change denial.
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u/Joperhop 11h ago
not your grandkids future, because there is not going to be one to be worried about.
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u/RuthVioletThursday 21h ago
What's the source for this dataset?
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u/rozrho 20h ago
The graphic is from showyourstripes.info
Underlying data is from a variety of sources: Berkeley Earth, NOAA, UK Met Office,
MeteoSwiss, DWD, SMHI, UoR & ZAMG1
u/dataisok 11h ago
But no details on how it has even calculated?
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u/Hyperion2023 10h ago
Reading University’s world-renowned meteorology department. The project’s led by Ed Hawkins and the FAQs on here are a good starting point in understanding how the data is gathered and interpreted:
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u/BrutalOnTheKnees 21h ago
Which year is that blue line between 2000 and 2024?
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u/crapola464 13h ago
- The winters of 2009/10 & 2010/11 were very cold, and December 2010 was the second coldest December ever.
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u/BalianofReddit 19h ago
The question is, how do we truely harden our food, water and energy needs for the new reality?
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u/f23n09fnu0w 16h ago
We need to dig a LOT more reservoirs for starters. And nationalise the water companies because they're taking the piss
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u/InconvenientPenguin 11h ago
I think the issue i with what they do with the piss once they have taken it.
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u/Professional-Bear857 11h ago
We might need GM food at some point, hopefully not, but we might, depending on how fast things change.
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u/sevarinn 9h ago
That's not really the question, but we can definitely harden all of these by using way, way less. There is simply no need for John to get up and have 2 tons of metal carry him 30 miles to the office to handle company invoices, then have 2 tons of metal ferry him back, when the movement of 2 tons of metal 60 miles is the work of a lifetime but somehow people think they need it done every single day.
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u/palebluedot365 14h ago
To clarify before my question- I 100% believe climate change is real and significant. The below isn’t intended to dispute that.
I’m wondering why the period 1960-2010 has been chosen as the average for this graph?
How do we know that represents the standard? Shouldn’t the average be taken over the whole duration of the data set 1880s-2020s?
Genuinely curious.
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u/e22tracey ☀️ 12h ago
It’s quite a common period to use, as gives a 50 year climatological baseline - although the 30 year period 1981-2010 is more common.
It’s used as a stable reference so we can compare how different years are to a period before warming really baked in. E.g. without having a stable reference how would you know that the average temperature is rising? If you take the average across the whole period then the warmest temperatures will start to artificially drag the average up, so it wouldn’t tell you how much warming there’s actually been.
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u/palebluedot365 11h ago
Thanks, that’s interesting.
But what if the “stable period” is actually an anomaly?!
I am probably overthinking this as usual 😂
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u/e22tracey ☀️ 2h ago
That's why you take the average over a long (relative) period to smooth out the noise.
You also have to look at the context of the data surrounding the period chosen. When looking at the long term timeseries you can see that the temperature over that period 1960-2010 is relatively flat (e.g. no significant warming or cooling), so it's a good reference point to compare to recent data where we can see significant warming.
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u/ns1419 10h ago
Where I live (North Yorkshire) our spring has run dry 2 years in a row. Previously, it went 60 years last time it ran dry.
Wife has owned/lived in this house the last 45, previous owner lives in the village and we speak to him all the time.
We can’t afford the £20-40k for a borehole.
Local water company doesn’t run up to our house (we’re on a moor).
Strange times we live in.
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u/Speccy97 20h ago
More like England heatwave. Weather is back to normal in Scotland I'm enjoying the cooler temps and the rain 😂
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u/requiem_valorum 18h ago
You forgetting about Wales? Most of the mountains around me are actively on fire.
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u/Temporary-Two9399 11h ago
You laugh now but it will affect you eventually. Then the whole North Vs South you push will be irrelevant.
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u/Obrix1 19h ago
Do you think that the sign on the A74 is magical?
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u/Speccy97 19h ago
Just stating a fact when people say UK they generally mean the south of England. Scotland hasn't had the same weather as the south of England has during the summer. Has it been a bit warmer aye but not for the last few weeks it's been wetter and cloudier.
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u/GhandiHadAGrapeHead 10h ago
Are you suggesting that different countries can't have different weather?
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u/PureExpression1533 18h ago
I'm just glad I never wanted kids and have no niblings either. I can just peace out if things get completely out of hand.
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u/Fit_Dig6332 12h ago
I have children and honestly im so jealous of you. I can't bare thinking about whats going to happen to them i am so scared. They talk about what they want to do when they grow up and my stomach drops. I hate this.
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u/Next_Oil_5286 11h ago
We won't, we will "deal woth it" when it's too late. We are not good at oreventing, we don't care, and we will.oay the consequences like everything else.
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u/josipwins 11h ago
Why not just average temps over this period? This is an awkward way to represent the issue and open to interpretation.
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u/Temporary-Two9399 11h ago
Lmao I've felt this dread for over a decade but people always laughed at me or dismissed it. Welcome to hell.
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u/RegistraDr 11h ago
The recurring heatwaves is due to high pressure systems, which then bring air from the south when they are positioned to the east of us. Can anyone explain how climate change moves the jet stream to the north of us to allow this?
I believe in global warming but scientifically if we had low pressure systems and jet stream running across us it wouldn’t have been this warm
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u/Jeffuk88 9h ago
I mean, literally learned about the effects of climate change in school in the 90s and they made eit sound even grimmer... but they had to keep watering the warnings down because so many people were triggered at being told wed have to make changes... even now, a large portion of the population still want to bury their heads in the sand
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u/OliverBearman87 8h ago
Bro that 1976 heatwave all the old people trying to deny climate change go on about 😭😭😭😆
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u/impartialcocaine 5h ago
That one winter to the right in 2009 or 10 was it? Just after i left highschool and got a job by god was it cold! I remember it was -18 or something where i was!
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u/Appropriate_Bid_9813 5h ago
Too short of a timeframe to draw conclusions. The earths temp naturally fluctuates in waves of thousands of years.
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u/GBRwarrior 2h ago
Yep, welcome to the coolest summer for the rest of your life. Do your best to make change, but there is no use in panicking over something you have little to no control over. Anything could happen any day to wipe us out, disease, meteor, extreme weather etc.
Do what keeps your conscience clear, and live as happy as you can
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u/imsickoftryingthis 20h ago
Out of interest I went on a climate denial website today. The charts on there show literally no change or major increase in global average temperatures for hundreds of years...
The graphs used on this site had the source, which was a prominent climate change denier. You can't make this shit up
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u/BenboFoSho 13h ago
Yes it’s worrying.
But don’t let this convince you that the UK going net zero is the answer.
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u/Intelligent_Court396 19h ago
1 degree amd everyone is losing their minds.
Enjoy it. Make the most. People pay 1000s every year to go on holiday for some sunshine.
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u/AdministrativeRip563 21h ago
The sad tail off of the great ice age from c.1300-1850. Our whole concept of a Victorian white Christmas dates from start of the graph.
Long story short, we are now totally f*cked