Hal Pomeranz
Load averageWe should retire the "once in $x years" format for describing weather events.
But that would require that we be honest about climate change.
@laprice South Florida has been having “once per century” flooding for the last 5-6 years. Sigh.
Random Canuck 🍁😷 💉 VE3ZDN@laprice this is the problem with using long term probabilities during periods of rapid change. If you ignore the data from the last 40 years and look at data from the preceding 200, then the “once in X years event” makes sense. It’s predicated on reasonably stable climatic conditions. But we’re now in a period of great instability, and those probabilities are no longer meaningful. Predicting weather events now is increasingly difficult.
@RandomCanuck yup. And the fact that powerful interests resist acknowledging that we are in a time of change is part of why climate change is such a wicked problem. And at this point the US appears to be on track to destroy it's ability to do science in order to maintain that ignorance.
@laprice indeed. The destruction of the scientific and academic communities in the US is a way to ensure ignorance. Science and academia have been the informed opposition to the ideology pushed by the extremists. Solution: get rid of science and academia.
John True Connection@laprice we should retire the phrase "avoid it like the plague", because it turns out that is something humans do not do.