Are the current European heat waves evidence, that global warming is real?

[Anonymous]

yes

no

not sure

[zeitgeist057]

I voted "No", because of the way you phrased the question.

The following statements are true:

1. Global warming is real.

2. The current European heat waves are NOT evidence that global warming (GW) is real.

This is the kind of half-baked science that gets us in trouble. For example, let's say you know for a fact that the sky is blue. That doesn't mean you can say things like "The ocean is blue and reflects the color of the sky, which proves that the sky is blue." or "Infrared light has lower energy and blue light has higher energy, which is why the sky is blue because it has more energy, being closer to the sun."

That's just spitting out random things and tying them together. That's not science. That's how people come to the conclusion that the earth is flat, that there's a giant snake eating people in space, or that vaccinations cause autism. ("There's mercury in some vaccines, and mercury is a deadly poison, therefore vaccines are deadly.")

The issue with saying that the current European heat wave means GW is real, is that GW is a trend, and a very slow, mild one. Temperatures range from one year to the next. Next year might be cooler, but that is not going to be evidence that GW is not happening anymore. As you can see in the chart I will post below, temperatures rise and fall, and the effect of GW is so small at this point it is measured in 1/2 degrees. This is not a difference a human will notice by feeling it, it is noticed by recording and analyzing data:

Actual evidence are things like:

Arctic ice cap reduction. Rise of global sea level. Rise in aggregate ocean temperature. Average air temperature rising (measured over the course of years and decades, not a single hot summer in Europe)

[zeitgeist057]

Here's a great example how "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" with this pseudo-scientist up in arms about vaccinations:
🤬 Is forced chemical castration moral? ↗

You'll see a lot of these on GaG and in the world.

[normalice]

No, the evidence that global warming is real is the measurable ppm of hydrocarbons in the air. You don't need to stab someone in the eye to prove that a dart to the eye can cause blindness. You simply have to know how eyes work and how pointy things work.

The thing is hydrocarbons have a studied and well understood effect of scattering infrared light (also known as heat) while transmitting visible light. This means light comes from sun and hits earth, warming the earth. But then that heat can't escape earth as easily as it could when all the hydrocarbons were underground instead of in the air. This isn't really something we need to "prove" or "need evidence for." These are well understood phenomena - indeed it is the sole reason Venus is uninhabitable.

Our options are to reflect the light back into space so it doesn't become heat, fully convert it to harnessable energy so it doesn't become heat, or stop pumping hydrocarbons into the air while maybe even taking measures to remove some. Likely, some combination is the most practical. But the people leading the charge in asking for "proof" are profiting off of inaction. Much like a dart manufacturer saying until you are willing to stick one in your eye, you haven't proved that it would blind you.

[lightbulb27]

could we just plant more trees? Plant tress ontop of most buildings in the big cities? What happens to the hydrocarbons sent into the air... stay there for ever, or get re-absorbed by trees and stored back in earth? If the later, then how to accelerate that process?
Maybe the ocean absorbing it is the bigger issue, changing acidity level.

[normalice]

Plant more trees? Maybe. Empress trees, in particular, are great for high carbon storage. However, I don't know if that process will be quick enough as trees could take several decades before they start consuming carbon in quantities of significance. I thought about maybe some fast growing weeds and then burying them each year, but I'm not really in a position to do or recommend anything that I come up with, so I don't really bother to try.

[alice55]

No, cause it's just a heatwave that stay less than one week, if it was all summer yes that would be global warming but in Europe our heatwave come because of hot air coming from the Sahara and it warm the temperature but we also have cold hair from Russia coming sometime and then we have extremely cold temperature (last time we had minus 23 degree).

Heatwave is just hot air coming in Europe and making everything hot but when there's no sahara hair coming our temperature are normal.

[EnglishEuropean]

I didn't downvote you, that was some other agitated meteorologist. But have you considered that it's not normal to have Saharan weather in Europe? The Gulf Stream used to take care of that.

[alice55]

@EnglishEuropean Yes but the weather getting warmer is normal when we first started to measure the weather it was on the coldest part of the period and now the period is slowly getting water (just like they were a part of middle age that was pretty hot and then then Renaissance it became pretty cold). We have period of cold and period of hotter weather it's normal. The Sahara used to be green but now isn't anymore maybe in some years it's Europe that would be super hot and the Sahara being green again.
Also I searched for meteo in some years and apparently we would have a mini glacial era between 2030 and 2040 so

[EnglishEuropean]

Yeah, no, this is far from normal. Cold weather is normal in Europe, yes. Warmer weather happens occasionally, yes. Saharan weather in Europe is definitely NOT normal but it might be the NEW normal.

[alice55]

@EnglishEuropean It's normal for climate to change. before in France we used to get huge flood, we still have some but not that much and not to the point we used to got them in the 19th century and before, climate change is normal.
Too with the war in Ukraine you can stop dreaming of everything ecologist happening, we're opening coal mine back again for this winter and new nuclear central. So every involving climate change or global warming nobody give a shit about it anymore. We will also search gas in our land (we stopped cause it was dangerous) but now we're searching gas in our land again.

[FreyaRed]

... and cold winters like we had them few years back are indicator for climate cooling off?
I mean we can find bones of lions, hyenas, elephants and other animals which prefer warm climate in northern Europa and continents didn't drift that much in last 200k years.

[Fireguy17]

Changes in Temps, heat wave, cold snaps are just part of mother nature.
We only have records that go back a hundredish years.
That isn't even a blink in mother nature's eye.
Our area used to be covered by glaciers, and that was long before man was around, yet they melted.
So logic would dictate the it got warmer because the climate changed.
Yet now it's a big deal because it has become political.
So because it is a couple of tenths of a degree warmer now than it was 40 years ago, remember, to mother nature that isn't anytime at all.
See what it is in 5,000 years, then you will have a trend, but we will all be long gone by then.

[love_conquers_lust]

Maybe. Chaos theory says we can’t really accurately predict the weather beyond 2 weeks because of how sensitive models are. However, it says nothing about historical trends where data has already been recorded and trends already identified. Local and recent weather patterns can’t really help you identify a trend until you compare it to the historical record beyond a few weeks. Need 3 years minimum to go through 3 full seasonal cycles to begin to establish a trend ie. it takes at least 3 data points

[Levin]

Well, whatever is happening,

In the UK, we've had two rather hot days of summer this year.

The rest the thermometer has struggled to get over 20oC. Pretty much every day has been tepid or overcast.

This is evidence of climate change and the ending of the species, to the BBC.

[FunkyMonkee]

Global warming is BULLSHIT!! If what we're going through is global warming, why are Jupiter and Uranus going through the same thing? How is what WE'RE doing, here, on this planet, causing THEM to heat up? The ONLY thing causing ANY of the planets to warm up is, THE SUN!! It goes through heat-up stages every few thousand years and, right now, is one of them!!

[I_Can_Help]

The pox got inside your skull, funkymonkee

[FunkyMonkee]

@I_Can_Help I don't go by CNN, I go by science. You should try it, some time!

[Anonymous]

Europe has historically had many major heatwaves over the centuries. Extremely hot summers / extremely cold winters caused what is known as famines - these aren't anything new by historical standards.

That isn't to say that pollution and human waste doesn't need to be curbed, but going entirely overboard with emissions only is surely going to cause more waste and misdirection than anything else (battery power especially).

[TexasRed95]

People misunderstand what global warming is. It doesn't mean the temperature is just hotter forever. It cycles from area to area. It's been going on for a long time. Besides there are studies suggesting there might be a huge temperature drop a bit away in the future.

[Brokenheartedx]

We are heading for an ice age as proven there has been quite a few over the millions of years

[Snsl153]

No, of course not. In order to come to that conclusion one would have to find a direct link between the two phenomena, and no one has ever been able to do that whenever we've had weather like this.

[Fromdusktilldawn]

Wow I am astounded that so many people disagree. Its for sure a sign for global warming. In the last decade heat waves and droughts became more and more frequent and severe. There is no denial in that. Most americans still deny climate change sadly

[Astarlessnightsky]

A day or a week of extreme heat is not evidence for climate change.

You need to take a look at the past 30 years and compare them to the 30 years before that, before you can make assumptiona about climate changes.

[DryGermanGuy]

They actually do that, you know. And modern weather data has been collected for some ~80 years.

[Astarlessnightsky]

I know.

[HighValue]

According to climate alarmists we already died 4 times in the last 50 years. the oceans rose too and drowned us. Notice how rich politicians that invest in green energy and talk about the ocean rising purchase beach houses like Obama? Hmm.

[purplepoppy]

You can't take a few days weather as evidence either way. Come the snow people will claim it proves its not true

[I_Can_Help]

It's been a few decades. Not days.

[OlderAndWiser]

It has been exceptionally rainy in my area this week. Does that prove that the climate is changing?

[Sargentcaptain]

Anyone recall the countless times when the left were arguing that weather and climate are two separate things?

[Anonymous]

Yes, and it should be taxed and all the money go to gender studies.

[bolverk]

Doubt it, the current heatwave is being caused by a double jet-stream that has warm air trapped between them, there was a similar occurrence like this in the mid 70's.

[Avicenna]

No more than a cold wave would be proof of global cooling.

[front2back]

I think it's more or a direct link showing that EUROPOORS aren't smart enough to use Air Conditioning.

[Anonymous]

Surprise how people do not believe this. Severe weather conditions are the biggest proof gobal warming is here and won't stop.

[KostasKouvalis]

Global Climate Change, though actually if you look at old climate records, the temperature is actually returning to how it was in the past

[animesenpai]

Bro science has been out for decades at this point global warming is fucking real questions like this give creadance morons