<i>The appearance of firefighters minutes later and his own heroic efforts saved the entire neighbourhood from being reduced to cinders.<p>Like many, Rizos believes the climate emergency will only get worse. “We’re ecologists, we love nature in my family and we want to protect the environment, not install air conditioners that will destroy it. But with temperatures of 45C, that’s going to be hard. We have to adapt. For sure, I’ll be replacing pine trees with other trees that don’t burn so easily.”</i><p>We need more people thinking like this. I don't know how we get people to take things seriously and act.<p>It needs to be local. It needs to be wise more than smart. We need more small solutions to push back against the effects of our top-heavy world where money and power and the like often sweep in with no respect for local traditions just because they can.<p>I don't know how we get there from here. I know it doesn't help to presume it is a foregone conclusion that we can't make a meaningful difference at this point and we are simply doomed.
We need a CO2 tax to account for this devastation. Folks that want to save money today by not introducing a CO2 tax ought to consider what precious little that saved money will buy if crop land turns to desert and the world is aflame. Folks can’t spend money if they end up in an early grave.<p>So put the CO2 tax money toward EV credits, solar, wind, batteries, carbon capture and power-to-gas tech, etc...<p>This isn’t a consequence free world we live in. If we forsake the earth, I’m afraid we will be forsaken.
I am not looking forward to the future “resource” wars as we begin to see significant decreases in habitable land; water scarcity; food shortages; and decreases in oxygen quality (clean air).
Regardless of any heroic action on climate, the trend will probably continue. I think it's time to stop hoping for "a solution to climate change" and start considering mitigations.<p>The problems of excess heat, from heatstroke to infernos, can be partially addressed by water management. We know we are already approaching shortages of fresh water. So one big mitigation we could do is a new strategy to conserve and distribute water where it's most needed due to climate change.<p>I imagine massive engineering projects to identify sources of fresh water and start distributing them over populated areas. The Romans built their aqueducts over hundreds of miles to bring water into their cities. Well, imagine a <i>nation-wide</i> distribution of water. Unless we want to completely abandon formerly-habitable swaths of the planet, we may need to start "plumbing the world" to share what little water remains.<p>Imagine root-like networks of fresh water that can be activated to tamp down on the spread of fires into cities, or accessed for cool drinking water by anyone who needs it on a hot day. More acquifers to collect and process rainwater. Tighter regulations and enforcement around the dumping of harmful material into waterways. Additional regulations or taxes on excess commercial uses of water. Desalination plants to contribute more water (regardless of cost, it will probably be necessary due to increasing lack of fresh water). Development of new technology to reduce the need for water. And finally, regulations to eliminate wasteful use of water in general (we can't keep watering lawns forever).
Footage from a ferry escaping the fires <a href="https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1423916668116418560?s=19" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/dinosofos/status/1423916668116418560?s=1...</a>
If this is 1°C, what's 2° going to be like? 3.5°?<p>I fear the only possible way through this by deploying solar geoengineering-- soon-- in order to buy us enough time to scale up carbon capture. In addition to transitioning our energy infrastructure and transportation. It can be done.<p>Letting these conditions continue will almost certainly result in destabilization that make an organized response even less tenable.
> On the ground, there are tales of heroism<p>> His wife and child safely evacuated<p>> I hid when the order arrived to evacuate<p>This isn't heroism. This is complete and utter stupidity. Whoever wrote this article should be fired on the spot.<p>The advice is there for a reason. People die doing this all the time. I know someone (a child at the time) whose parents went back to try protect their house. That child was raised without parents.<p>Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Denver worst among international cities for air pollution today, smoke plus ozone. We've had 34 straight days of warnings, with recommendation to only drive ZEVs, not go outside if you're in a vulnerable category which happens to include young children. Local politicians have rejected all mandatory actions, and only support voluntary solutions. As a result of EPA policy, we'll get a new mix of gasoline... next year.
I listened to a podcast once about somebody wanting to build a mr burns style sun blocker, except in space and extremely far away from us. The idea was to reduce the amount of sun that hits the earth by a couple of percentage points. It wouldn’t even be visible in the sky they said<p>The podcast might have been called “moonshots”?
Does anyone know how the current situation compares to the fires of the 2007 Greek forest fires? [1]<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Greek_forest_fires" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Greek_forest_fires</a>