Thread for discussing climate change

[ceeboo]

A crew of Mexicans roofed my house while it was 100 out. Jeans, long sleeve shirts and big straw hats. Not me!

Yup, That's what poor people end up being made to do.........

You automatically assume they are poor because they are Mexicans? Or because they are roofers? Or?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Argh. So frustrating. I was having solar installed today and the crew had to stop due to rain, which I’m glad they did because safety issues. Just venting …

- Doc

Congratulations! How many kilowatt-hours will you get out of your system during a nice sunny day when it is up and running? A supermarket that I visit in one fairly sunny country installed shades over part of their car park with solar panels on top, and hey presto! Cooler cars and free power! The whole thing has a big panel on the side showing the current power output in kilowatts at any instant, and the accumulate kWh energy for the preceding 7 days. It's a lot, and it's free bar the installation cost.

Hrm. I had to check the schematic. It appears I’m getting ten panels and it’s a “3200 watts” system with a system output of 15.83 amps. I guess I’ll have to google what that means. Ha.

eta: It’s a 320 watt module size, so according to a VIVINT Solar calculator it’s 320 watts x 6 (I’m just averaging daylight hours here) x 75% /1000 = 1.44 watts per panel.

I’m still not sure what that means. I’ll have to look at my electric bill to see what I use in kwh.

eta2: I just looked and this array should easily cover our energy usage during Summer hours. Cool.



- Doc

[Chap]

From https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/s ... rm-workers

Currently, the average American farm worker is exposed to 21 unsafe working days due to extreme heat each year. If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius — the goal established by the Paris climate agreement — those workers will face 39 days of extreme heat. According to a new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the number of days that feel like they exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit could more than double by midcentury. For many workers, it will be even worse. Imperial County, California, a major agricultural region, could see heat-indexed extremes topping 115 degrees, a level that U.S regulators label “high risk” for illness.

The human costs of this warming became all too evident this past summer. The heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest in June led to some 600 excess deaths, according to one analysis. Less certain, but no less real, were the financial losses imposed on workers and businesses. By one estimate, a collective $55 billion in outdoor workers’ earnings could be at risk annually in the U.S. by midcentury due to extreme heat. If farm workers are idle, the food supply chain will need to adjust, most likely with higher prices.

In recent years, farmers and other contributors to the food supply chain have become far more vocal about the need to adapt their practices to a changing climate, or face lower yields and profits. So far, policy makers haven’t done much in response.

I think we can take it for granted that as temperatures reach higher and higher levels, those working outside under unhealthy conditions (and 'unhealthy' here means potentially lethal, as set our above) will not be amongst the more highly paid members of society. Let's not divert into an off-topic discussion of the current economic status of particular ethnicities or occupations in the US, since that is not what this thread is about.

[ceeboo]

Let's not divert into an off-topic discussion of the current economic status of particular ethnicities or occupations in the US, since that is not what this thread is about.

Got it - This thread is not about stereotyping or racist comments - This thread is about climate change.

[Chap]

eta: It’s a 320 watt module size, so according to a VIVINT Solar calculator it’s 320 watts x 6 (I’m just averaging daylight hours here) x 75% /1000 = 1.44 watts per panel.

That should be 1.44 kilowatt-hours per panel per day.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

eta: It’s a 320 watt module size, so according to a VIVINT Solar calculator it’s 320 watts x 6 (I’m just averaging daylight hours here) x 75% /1000 = 1.44 watts per panel.

That should be 1.44 kilowatt-hours per panel per day.

So, perhaps in a good month I could pull around 430 kwh, and if I’m looking at my current utility bill’s energy usage graphic correctly I can actually produce more energy than I consume during optimal conditions. If I’m understanding it. I dunno. Remind me in a year and I’ll have a better data set.

- Doc

[Atlanticmike]

Manetho wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:28 pm
From https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/s ... rm-workers
Bloomberg News wrote:
Currently, the average American farm worker is exposed to 21 unsafe working days due to extreme heat each year. If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius — the goal established by the Paris climate agreement — those workers will face 39 days of extreme heat. According to a new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the number of days that feel like they exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit could more than double by midcentury. For many workers, it will be even worse. Imperial County, California, a major agricultural region, could see heat-indexed extremes topping c degrees, a level that U.S regulators label “high risk” for illness.

The human costs of this warming became all too evident this past summer. The heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest in June led to some 600 excess deaths, according to one analysis. Less certain, but no less real, were the financial losses imposed on workers and businesses. By one estimate, a collective $55 billion in outdoor workers’ earnings could be at risk annually in the U.S. by midcentury due to extreme heat. If farm workers are idle, the food supply chain will need to adjust, most likely with higher prices.

In recent years, farmers and other contributors to the food supply chain have become far more vocal about the need to adapt their practices to a changing climate, or face lower yields and profits. So far, policy makers haven’t done much in response.

Yup, That's what poor people end up being made to do. In the Arab Gulf states there are laws that name the temperature at which all building site work (usually done by immigrant labour from South Asia) must cease.

Funnily enough, the official thermometer is always just half a degree below that, however hot it gets. As the heating continues, more and more non-por people's lives wll become unlivable outside an air-conditioned space. But you can't have an air-conditioned farm, at least not an outdoors one.

What a ding dong. Lots of Mexican roofing crews, they're not "made" to do roofing. They're perfectly happy to roof in the heat of the summer. Most rather work when it in the 90s, not when it's 30 or 40 degrees outside. Make more money in the summer. And of course they wear long sleeves and a hat. Easier to regulate body temperature that way. Stop being so white!

We're not talking 90 Fahrenheit here, but more like 115. And the migrant labourers in Dubai are brown as brown.

No ethnicity can resist the kind of temperatures we are beginning to see more and more, and which will go higher still.

Oh lordy!! You're way too emotional. You do realize more people die because of the cold, right? Global warming will save lives. You're so worried about the people working and living in the heat, what about the people living in the freezing cold? Why did you conveniently forget about them?

[Chap]

Global warming will save lives. You're so worried about the people working and living in the heat, what about the people living in the freezing cold? Why did you conveniently forget about them?

Significant human populations have adapted very well to cold weather, even without modern housing and heating. You just have to wear enough clothes, stay indoors and stay together, and find a suitable diet based on available food sources. It can be done.

However, although you can do a lot about a very hot climate by wearing few clothes, developing melanin-rich skin, and using portable shields against the sun's UV such as parasols or wide hats, above a certain temperature the human body's temperature regulation can no longer cope, and physiological collapse and death will inevitably occur. The higher the humidity (which will make it difficult to cool through sweating), the lower the danger level of temperature is set.

People with money and a reliable electricity supply can stay indoors and use air-conditioning. But in the parts of the world where temperatures are already high, only a minority of relatively well-off people will be able to afford that.

Of course high temperatures will also kill food animals and food plants too ... and that won't do people any good either.

[Gunnar]

Significant human populations have adapted very well to cold weather, even without modern housing and heating. You just have to wear enough clothes, stay indoors and stay together, and find a suitable diet based on available food sources. It can be done.

This reminds me of an old Norwegian saying: "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

[Chap]

Significant human populations have adapted very well to cold weather, even without modern housing and heating. You just have to wear enough clothes, stay indoors and stay together, and find a suitable diet based on available food sources. It can be done.

This reminds me of an old Norwegian saying: "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

That's my experience - so far as cold weather is concerned.

I not infrequently visit a country that has really cold winters and very hot summers. The former is not a problem - I just wear warm stuff. But since I can't walk around the streets naked and spray water on myself under a sunshade, going outside in the summer is just too unpleasant - especially if you have just come out of an air-conditioned building. So nowadays, I just won't go there in the summer at all. The people who live there don't have that choice.