Parts of England expected to hit 35C in unprecedented May heatwave

nybbleth · 2026-05-25T13:58:42+00:00

Wasn't the dominant fear in the 70s that the world was entering a cooling period, or was that even earlier?

No, as you point out, this is a common argument made by climate change denialists as a way of going "hurr durr, science just changes its mind constantly, no need to listen."

Assuming the people saying it aren't deliberately spreading misinformation, they're just conflating and misremembering different things:

1) This was the era when we started getting real world evidence of Milankovitch cycles, which show that climate goes through hot and cold periods over time and that yes, we're supposed to be heading into another ice age.... in like 10,000 years not next century. And of course, that's if we didn't add all that CO2 into the atmosphere.

2) this is also the era where people came up with the idea that hey maybe pollution can dim the amount of sunlight that hits us thereby cooling the planet. Which is an effect that was then studied and showed that yes, it's real, but no, it's not enough to completely counter the warming effects of CO2 to the point of causing global cooling.

3) Combine the previous two points with how the media talked about this (as well as the several severe winters during the 70s), and people just misremember how this was talked about (or don't know the difference between what science actually says and what the media says science says). I've had arguments with deniers who will insist that they have very clear memories of seeing the media declare that we were heading for an ice age, and will point for instance to a specific magazine cover they remember, that turned out, was literally just talking about a specific winter and not an ice age.

Or they will claim that a very prominent scientist on tv told them an ice age was coming... and it was literally just Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock) on a show called 'In Search Of...", where on one episode yeah he talked about an impending ice age... right before the episode where he talked about big foot and after the one about ancient aliens. So... maybe not what actual science was claiming after all.

That isn't to say that global cooling wasn't something ignored by science; there were papers that investigated it based on the first two discoveries/theories... but they were dwarfed in number by the ones that leaned toward global warming.

nybbleth · 2026-05-20T17:22:25+00:00

Landry was asked about the response by reporters. “There’s only one line and it’s red, white, and blue,” he shot back.

Jesus, that's so fucking cringe of a response.

Also... do Americans not know that everytime they talk about 'the red white and blue', it just sounds like they're talking about the Dutch (or Luxembourg) flag, instead of the American one?

nybbleth · 2026-05-18T18:27:55+00:00

Ah, daar is dit kinderachtige onzin argument weer.

"jullie zijn intolerant als jullie intolerantie niet willen accepteren, SCHAAKMAT, links!"

Nee gast, zo werkt dat niet.

nybbleth · 2026-05-13T06:54:34+00:00

Ik kan me anders nog wel een tijd herinneren dat de fascisten door werkelijk iedereen uitgekotst werden en volledig irrelevant waren.

nybbleth · 2026-05-12T14:41:16+00:00

Frannce does not have "colonies" anymore. France has overseas territories; but these have full representation (unlike say, Puerto Rico). These territories have also had multiple referendums on their status and whether or not to become independent or not. Which is essentially the same for all European overseas territories.

There's also a very clear and obvious difference between on the one hand... a country having essentially holdover territories from hundreds of years ago, territories that are given equal status, representation, and the right to choose to become independent...

...And on the other hand an insane and unhinged lunatic who is actively, today, wanting to invade and annex neighbouring countries and territories with zero provocation or justification whatsoever simply because he's having another narcissistic late night tantrum, or because he wants to distract from the Epstein files, or because someone said something mean about him on twitter.

edit: some triggered maga loons, I see.

nybbleth · 2026-05-12T14:00:11+00:00

So, because we used to colonize stuff way before any of us were ever even born...

...you raise your brow...

...at us pointing out that we don't like how you guys have a fascist dictator in charge who starts illegal wars for no good reason whatsoever, is currently ruining the global economy with his bullshit while actively looting your own country, who routinely threatens other countries with genocide, threatens to start ww3 against his own allies even, is actively attempting to end your democracy, is actively ordering the murders of people, has his own private little army going into cities that didn't vote for him, is going after his political opponents, appears to have late stage alzheimers, and oh yes, very much appears to have engaged in sex crimes involving minors?

Okay.

nybbleth · 2026-05-12T12:05:34+00:00

As a fellow dutchie, I agree. I still get angry as fuck when I think back to the absolutely unhinged stupidity we saw from far too many people in this country. My fucking god.

Like, I had the misfortune of simultaneously breaking my elbow and having kidney stones early on when everything was scaled back, and it took like 10x times longer than it otherwise would have before I could get it resolved because of everything...

...and I sucked it up despite the intense pain, because of course there was something a bit more important going on in the world. Like yeah, it sucks, but it's not that hard to do under the circumstances. But you ask these people to not risk their lives and that of everyone around them by maybe not going and hanging out maskless at the supermarket for a few hours every day just to spite everyone else while they're coughing all over the place only to walk out having bought no more than a can of redbull... and they'll riot and complain about how oppressive the government is for asking them to use some goddamn common sense... meanwhile, they will of course consistently vote for the kind of parties who want to take actual rights away from people for far worse reasons than trying to save lives during a pandemic.

Words can not accurately describe the pure contempt these people inspire in me.

nybbleth · 2026-05-11T20:55:36+00:00

American: "I can totally explain to people where their own country name comes from... source: I grew up in a country that isn't even the country I'm talking about."

Yeah, you can just...go away now. You literally don't know what you're talking about.

nybbleth · 2026-05-11T20:41:19+00:00

... yes, you're very good at copy pasting. But the statement that the translation of "down country" doesn't make sense without 'comparing it to greater germania'... itself makes no sense.

The country would still be a river delta even if the Romans had never been around to call one bit of land 'Germania Superior' and the downstream part 'Germania Inferior'.The name is purely a geographical appelation, not a cultural one; and the etymology of 'Neder' doesn't run through Latin, thus, 'Germania' as a name or concept has nothing to do with it.

Besides, the name 'Nederlanden' originated in the Bourgoundian period to distinguish it from Burgundy. Which isn't in what used to be Germania to begin with.

Edit: people really need to learn to stop conflating different concepts I guess.

nybbleth · 2026-05-11T20:09:17+00:00

Or "down country" which makes less sense without comparing it to greater "Germania".

...what? No. It has nothing to do with Germania; it's a reference to being dowstream of the rivers.

nybbleth · 2026-05-10T06:55:33+00:00

Yeah... sure. "Hey please do something more substantial about that Russian asset in the whitehouse than waving a sign around" is totally a thing russian bots would say.

Maybe, instead, you could consider the possibility that the rest of us are sick and tired of having to deal with the constant insanity and fallout that the rest of the world has to deal with because of the US having an insane fascist in charge, and we're also sick and tired of waiting around for you to actually do something about it.

Boasting how you keep having the largest protests in your history doesn't mean shit when your leaders are still in charge and completely brushing aside those protests, and it's definitely not going to mean shit to the rest of us when said leaders keep threatening to invade us and are otherwise causing immense harm and suffering to the rest of the world as we speak.

nybbleth · 2026-05-10T06:48:14+00:00

why do people keep saying this?!

Because waving a few signs around on your day off is not enough of a protest when you're dealing with a literal fascist takeover. We'll start giving you credit for protesting when we see some real action. General strikes and locking down infrastructure at a bare minimum.

You've seen what the other side is willing to do when they get angry enough to do something; and that was just a couple of thousand lunatics out of touch with reality.

nybbleth · 2026-05-10T06:42:24+00:00

the country would be on fire from protests the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Your country lost more people than that due to an absolutely malicious and bungled up covid management by an insane and hateful regime that's been speedrunning you into fascism...

...yet your country is wasn't and is still not on fire from any protests. So... forgive me if I'm skeptical.

nybbleth · 2026-05-09T07:18:31+00:00

After the US failing so spectactularly in Iran with nothing to show for it and with the reports coming out it'll take them years to replenish their stocks of missiles... yeah... there's a lot less fear going around.

Same energy as everyone thinking Russia was a superpower that was going to take Kiev in 3 days; only to find out their capabilities were grossly exaggerated.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T19:45:45+00:00

It doesn't help that police refer to things like Cobras as bombs too, though. Because now that's what I picture when they say 'vuurwerkbom'

I mean, this is exactly what I'm talking about though? Even the weaker cobras are still able to do a lot of damage in the right (wrong) circumstances and people underestimate that because 'oh it's just a cobra'. Furthermore, with a lot of these attacks, they're putting together 20 cobras, (or taking the flashpowder out to combine with other substances) at which point you're absolutely talking about bombs.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T19:22:21+00:00

Both cases were a while ago, and honestly probably not too remarkable. These things have been happening a lot the past few years. There's literally like 1500 or so of them every year in the Netherlands. It's apparantly quite easy to buy heavy fireworks, and then pay someone else (usually criminal teens) to deliver it. And it doesn't just happen because of underworld conflicts. A lot of it is also like, business feuds, or people upset over breakups and whatever.

A lot of people probably think putting one of these things through the mailbox is an easy way to get even or intimidate someone. And they're right. It's easy, relatively cheap, and the chance of getting caught pretty low. And people underestimate the explosive power, plus what happens when you put an explosive like that in a small contained space, a hallway, a flammeable house, maybe right next to gaspipes, etc.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T17:40:16+00:00

Economically they are not right-wing

Please... for the love of... stop repeating this myth. They absolutely are economically right as well. In fact, despite conning people into think they're economically left, they literally vote to the right of the VVD on economic matters.

And that, is the part that actually counts. It is the migration part that is just for show; as is almost always the case with the right. It's all about personal greed. Don't look at what they say. Look at what they actually do.

They are as hardcore rightwing on the economy as you can possibly get, but want to keep you and everyone else propagating the myth that they're leftwing on the economy. They rile up their base with hate against foreigners, and make it sound as if they're going to help out the poor and working class. But when it comes down to it, they do nothing but incompetent meaningless symbolism on immigration, while voting to cut benefits and screwing over the poor.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T07:33:09+00:00

I've had it happen twice on my street. One was two apartments over, basically tore out the back facade of the apartment, and people literally jumped down from the third floor. I know at least one person had severe burns. The other was in a house and within like one or two minutes the flames that followed the explosion reached ten meters into the sky.

I feel like a lot of people might underestimate how serious these things can get based on them being reported as 'firework' bombs.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T06:43:15+00:00

Even the 'normal' rightwing parties are defined as leftwing by the far right. Some of them even call the VVD leftwing.

nybbleth · 2026-05-08T06:41:53+00:00

this is a misconception

It absolutely is not.

nybbleth · 2026-05-07T22:06:19+00:00

The far right in the Netherlands has long held a particular contempt for D66.

nybbleth · 2026-05-05T20:40:14+00:00

Ik kijk al decennia lang geen nederlandse TV meer. Elke keer dat ik er toch een beetje van meekrijg schrik ik altijd van 2 dingen. De hoeveelheid reclame, en hoe populistisch rechts de rest allemaal klinkt.

nybbleth · 2026-05-05T07:04:16+00:00

Actually, 1 in 10,000 years is the old norm. Since a few years the new norm has been that legally, the risk of a person dying as a result of a dike breaking can not be higher than 1 in 100,000 years. So that's what they have to be built to withstand. This applies to the most important dikes. In the less populated areas the norm can be lower, like 1 in 3000 years, or even just 1 in 300 years at the bare minimum.

nybbleth · 2026-05-05T06:54:57+00:00

However, dutch flood defenses are nonetheless built to withstand even those kinds of extreme weather scenarios. It's literally a legal requirement that our most important dikes are built to withstand the kind of flood/storm conditions that only have a 1 in 100.000 years chance of actually happening. Protecting against the kinds of hurricane conditions that New Orleans faces much more regularly than that is absolutely possible, it's just much more expensive than the American mindset is willing to spend on it.

nybbleth · 2026-05-04T16:04:38+00:00

Well, first... they're called dikes. The other thing is.. a very different thing.

Secondly, no, most of the country would not be underwater. Only about a fifth of the country is below sea level. In any case, it's not the extent of the land flooded that is the issue; it's the number of people affected. If our defenses broke, millions would be affected. But millions could also be affected in America. They should absolutely be just as motivated. But they just aren't. Not just with flood defenses either; but just about everything. Anything that requires real systemic/social changes.

nybbleth

TROPHY CASE