we might in hindsight say that the death of a dinosaur was a harm to that dinosaur; but it's not like the dinosaur itself was aware of its situation and wrestling with the existential angst of considering its own mortality. Part of what makes human suffering, suffering, is our self-awareness of our plight: if we are dying of cancer, part of the pain is the psychological pain of fearing death and wanting to "hold on to life" in a psychologically self-aware way. Presumably non-human animals have none of that (or perhaps very little, e.g., in the case of the great apes). While death to the dinosaur was not neutral, it was also not "negative" or bad, not to the dinosaur. It simply appears that way to us, looking back in time and imposing human values on our interpretation of evolutionary and historical events.
Following on the post in the D&D thread though you're making an assumption that is as much imposing an interpretation the past. Latest evidence does show that there were dinosaurs who had relatively large brains and were capable of complex behaviors. Also given the paucity of the fossil records it's not impossible there was't even a dinosaur civilization. The Silurian hypothesis. Leaving aside whether a dinosaur civilization existed if dinosaurs had the same intelligence as modern animals such as wolves it is very likely the ones who weren't instantly vaporized would've been aware of something very bad happening to their environment that was going to lead to their demise.
That swath of Canada is arguably the third largest remaining intact forest system in the world. Our boreal forests are warming faster than the mid-latitudes.
This is a map of wet bulb temperatures. Wet bulb is a measure of heat and humidity taken by wrapping a thermometer in a wet cloth. When the wet bulb reaches 89, you're in the danger zone where even a healthy adult sitting in the shade with plenty of water can get heat stroke because their sweat does not evaporate, thus leaving the body no way to cool itself. When the wet bulb reaches 95, it's an unlivable environment for humans and other animals. Air conditioning is the only safe place. Yesterday, we reached wet bulb temps of 94 across parts of the South. The red and black on this map are decent representations of where the wet bulb is expected to reach 95 or more for 2-3 months a year over the next couple of decades. This is what we mean by brittle natural systems colliding with brittle human systems. Be careful and do your research before signing any 30-year mortgages.
Dry lightning over the last few days led to some new starts in Alberta and BC. More than a few existing Canadian fires took off today.
A small detail to add. It's not that sweat won't evaporate but it's the difference in temperature from evaporative cooling declines. I have been playing around with evaporative coolers and DIY setups lately. https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/wet-bulb You can calculate the wet bulb temp there. So like later today in Austin it's projected to be 101 with 36% relative humidity mid day. That equates to a wet bulb temp of about 79 degrees. Stated another way that is the lowest temp that can be achieved through evaporative cooling. If you have a fan outside and have a wet towel covering the fan then in theory that air temp coming out of the fan would be 79 degrees. To get a wet bulb temp of 95 degrees we would need humidity of 80% if it is 101 outside or stated another way the temperature will only drop by 6 degrees through evaporation. Next weekend in Vegas it's going to be 115 degrees with relative humidity of 5% which gives a wet bulb temp of 66 degrees meaning you can achieve a significant amount of evaporative cooling. edit...I just realized the NWS WBGT uses some different metrics https://www.weather.gov/arx/wbgt
Alarming deterioration of US National Weather Service tornado warnings https://judithcurry.com/2023/07/11/...us-national-weather-service-tornado-warnings/
"two months' worth of rain in a matter of hours" in Vermont. https://news.yahoo.com/vermont-flooding-catastrophic-montepelier-irene-phil-scott-161900606.html
Also, as the Mrs and I become temporary climate refugees b/c of storm Poly in the Netherlands... Worth watching the trampoline at about 1:20 at least. RIP.
I'm not sure about the gist of this article, but a National Disaster Review Board is sorely needed and is being pushed by a bunch of folks in my line of work. The political crux is how far do you go in looking at disasters--immediate effects and basic causes or the more complex systemic issues? The former will be of little use in preparation and prevention while the latter will demand more actions and make some politicians uncomfortable.
There's a dam above Montpelier that is close to overtopping and they may have to release more water downstream to keep it from failing. This would obviously add to and extend the flooding. The good news is that the folks who built the dam back in the 1920s over-engineered it for the time and it may hold. The bad news is that, like so many other pieces of our infrastructure, it is no longer adequate for our current world.
