I think this is a good idea as there is a lot that needs to be done such as addressing beach erosion, building flood control and preventing forest fires. If we can get a program that also helps out some of those who are otherwise economically disadvantaged that could be big benefit.
The reality is that humans will need to adapt to the changing climate, and we are likely one of the species most capable of adapting due to our technology, ingenuity, and problem-solving abilities. Unlike other species that must biologically adapt over generations, we can develop new technologies and strategies relatively rapidly to deal with rising seas, droughts, and extreme weather. While adapting to climate change won't be easy, and some genuinely believe the outlook is dire, I think we should maintain an optimistic mindset that we can overcome the challenges through innovation and collaboration. There are opportunities to build more resilient infrastructure and develop new sustainable technologies. Though our bodies cannot alter to handle higher temperatures or rising seas, our capacity for learning, creativity and tool-building gives us unique power to adapt if we have the foresight and will. Adapting to climate change will be an ongoing process as conditions continue to shift, but by maintaining faith in human ingenuity and working together to find solutions, we can meet this crisis head-on. However, the refusal of some, like some Republicans, to even acknowledge climate change is a pessimistic viewpoint that hampers action. Overcoming politicization and coming together to address climate change realistically yet optimistically will be key to finding solutions. I'm much less confident that we can do that.
If that were true then being closer to the sun would make us warmer right? But that's not the case. Summer's are when the earth is further out from sun. The tilt of the earth is more important than how hot or how far the sun is. CO2 plays a massive role as well in controlling the climate. Too little and the earth would be a frozen ice-pop. Too much and the oceans would boil.
This might be easier to understand for common sense folks. It's 100F outside. Go inside a car with windows all closed up. What's the primary driver of rising heat in the car? Those tweets shared by ATW are hilarious though in how they exhibit ignorance. Clauser acknowledges CO2 is rising and isn't saying the Sun is all that controls the climate. His hypothesis is co2 doesn't matter and that clouds themselves will act as a thermostat, self-regulating the Earth's temperature. That hypothesis is wrong though, based on data that the Earth's temperature has had large historical swings.
It's actually somewhat more complex than that. But the gist that people don't understand science is very true. They have already disproven that warming is caused by solar forcing.
She is really honest and I appreciate her perspective although when it comes to the things she supports, she can be a bit biased (like super-determinism). Still, if people want to actually understand the truth to many of these things, including climate change, she would be a good place to start. It amuses me when people say the sun is the source of climate change - when it has been proven scientifically that in fact it is the increase in CO2 driving the current warming.
We’re already having to adapt to climate change. Many of those who deny it are literally already paying for us adapting to climate change through higher insurance premiums, higher utility prices, higher property taxes and higher fees for things like beach access. People can claim and spin all sorts of things but it’s happening and as a civilization we’re having to deal with it one way or the other. The
Jeremy Lin fans haven’t adapted to him not being the only bad basketball player in the chinese league
US taxpayers are also paying extra for the multi-billions in damages from more extreme weather. We are very likely to exceed a trillion dollars in federal disaster assistance this decade. Taking those costs together, each US family is already paying thousands of extra dollars each year, and it will increase much more. Anyway, here is one mitigation effort in Singapore to slow the impact of climate change that you might be interested in: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/18/world/asia/singapore-heat.html Singapore’s prime minister has described climate change as “life and death.” He has reason to worry: Stifling temperatures and humidity already last all year, and the city-state has warmed at twice the global average over the past six decades. Preventing climate change is out of Singapore’s control: The city-state emits less than 0.1% of global carbon emissions. But there is a surefire way to limit city temperatures, researchers say: Revive the natural processes that cooled the land before urbanization. Most cities do not have Singapore’s wealth and centralized political system, which allow it to move quickly to build new infrastructure. But while some of Singapore’s strategies to reduce excess heat are expensive, many of them are straightforward, and cheaper than planning for, say, floods or hurricanes. As temperature records were shattered around the world this summer, Singapore’s blueprint for slowing the urban impacts of extreme heat is gaining urgency. Researchers say that planting more trees is the most effective way to reduce a city’s temperature. “If you wanted to invent the most effective kind of climate management technology from the ground up, you could spend a lot of time trying to do that. You would just engineer a tree,” said Brian Stone Jr., director of the Urban Climate Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The streets around the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital are lined with trees, and the central courtyard of the building is full of dense foliage. During the day, trees shield pedestrians from the beating sun and prevent the sun’s rays from warming the concrete sidewalk. At night, temperatures are lower, as there’s less heat released from the sidewalk. In order to rely on trees to regulate climate stress, cities will need to treat them as infrastructure to ensure they are healthy and effective, according to Dr. Stone. That will come at a cost, but just a fraction of what cities spend on other environmental protections. “It’s a real budget item, but it’s not out of proportion to what we already spend on environmental management in cities,” he said. “It’s less than 1 percent of what we spend maintaining storm sewers in L.A. every year.” Singapore is also encouraging the integration of greenery directly into buildings by offering financial incentives for rooftop gardens and vertical green facades. The foliage works as natural blinds, shading the structure and insulating the building’s material from the heat, reducing the need for air conditioning. Singapore has painted the roofs of some buildings with light-colored reflective paints, which absorb less heat and could reduce the ambient temperature around the buildings by up to 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, initial studies suggest. A similar program in New York City has covered more than 10 million square feet of rooftops with reflective paints since 2009, reducing the need for air conditioning and the waste heat it generates. Simple design decisions can also have a big impact on a building’s temperature. Buildings in the new Jurong Lake District avoid directly facing the sun, cooling indoor temperatures. And architects are designing buildings that encourage cross-ventilation, which allows air to move from one side of a building to another, pushing hotter air out and bringing cooler air in. “You can have a big area that’s not energy dependent on churning out lots of air conditioning to make it comfortable,” said Richard Hassell, founding director of WOHA Architects, which designed the Parkroyal hotel. “You can make it passively comfortable.” There are limits to what can be achieved by rethinking a city only one building at a time. Even the most cutting-edge buildings can negatively influence their surroundings in unforeseen ways. A new residential development with all the “bells and whistles” of efficient urban design could still make the neighborhood hotter if it blocks wind flow, said Winston Chow, principal investigator at Cooling Singapore, a research group. “You’ve got a new residential development that cancels everything out, so it’s a net loss,” he said. To tackle the urban heat island effect, it’s vital to not only improve the design of each building, but to consider its relationship with the surrounding city. A similar dynamic plays out in most cities with hot climates. Buildings are cooled one at a time, lowering their temperature at the expense of making the environment hotter. Instead of cooling small spaces individually, Singapore’s Marina Bay, which was centrally planned, cools down many buildings at once by running chilled water through a network of insulated pipes. The district cooling network is far more efficient than multiple small A.C. units, reducing both energy consumption and waste heat. Other cities have similar systems, including Paris, and so do some American college campuses. But to work efficiently, district cooling often requires coordination between multiple landowners and developers, and retrofitting existing structures is expensive. Singapore, which can centrally plan a large-scale new development like Marina Bay, has an advantage. Large green spaces like parks are a more widely practical intervention, cooling areas beyond their boundaries, researchers say. Air temperature measurements show that Singapore’s 155-acre Bishan Park can be up to about 3 degrees cooler than high-density residential blocks in the middle of the city. “The larger the park space, the further it penetrates into the residential areas as well,” said Mr. Chow from Cooling Singapore. But even parks have their limits. Singapore has built out a more systematic solution, a network of green corridors that connect green spaces together and allow cool air to flow throughout the city. Green corridors have been successful in other cities, including in Medellín, Colombia. The city has planted more than 880,000 trees across 30 corridors, which reportedly reduced the average air temperature in the corridors by more than 8 degrees Fahrenheit. “A corridor can at least generate this kind of cool air circulation in a city. And the cool air can extend to the outside area, creating pockets of relief from the heat,” said Tamara Iungman, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Widely planting street-level trees along sidewalks across the city is the most effective solution to reduce temperature, according to researchers at the Urban Climate Lab. “We can’t rely on a centralized, intense clustering of urban forests or microforest to provide cooling for the whole city. We really have to disperse,” said Dr. Stone from the Urban Climate Lab. Can Singapore’s efforts to reduce urban heat islands actually outpace rising global temperatures? Probably not, local officials acknowledge. But holding temperatures steady would be a huge victory. “I think we’re just trying to not see the increases that we anticipate if we don’t do anything,” said Adele Tan, deputy chief executive of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. Urban planners and policymakers are recognizing that inventions to cool down cities also help in other ways. Green corridors and large green spaces support biodiversity, provide recreational spaces for residents and aid flood prevention. “It’s a pleasant surprise to be here at this moment in climate change, realizing that our number one intervention has all these other benefits,” Dr. Stone said.
I wish them all the luck in the world. But I'm skeptical this will be a win for them while the rest of our nuclear industry is in the dumps. (Oh, and I'd really like to know what their plan is for disposing of their nuclear waste.)
Thanks and I’ve been aware of the changes including green infrastructure that Singapore has been doing. One interesting side effect of Singapore’s green corridors are that they have allowed otters to get almost everywhere in Singapore. Singapore’s solutions are hard to replicate in other spaces because of its climate, economy and most of all political organization. FYI my Master’s thesis was in adapting Singapore’s housing system to US.
