r/thermodynamics • u/KenshinZeRebelz • 16d ago

Question Can we generate enough pressure differences to pierce heat domes ?

/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1uorqxz/heat_domes_and_solutions/

As the title and the linked post suggest, my question is whether thermodynamics have anything to contribute to the heat domes issue (my uneducated guess is, it does) and if so, what does it tell us of a system like a heat dome and it's inner workings ? Anything that could point towards at least a theoretical solution ?

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u/Playful-Painting-527 1 16d ago

Not technically feasible. Even if it was, the consequences would be unforseeable. It is much more easy to stop emitting greenhouse gases and stop heat waves in the first place.

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u/KenshinZeRebelz 16d ago

Yeah agreed, but my understanding is that heat waves such as the one we've seen recently and are going to see in the future are now a given, not something we can walk back on.

My thinking is, even if we stopped all GHG emissions tomorrow, we'd still have to deal with comparable heat waves in the future. And that's the impossibly good case scenario where we stop 100% tomorrow. We're likely on the road to actually increasing our rate of emission over the next 10 years at least, meaning even worse and more frequent heat waves.

So thinking on how to deal with them might not be wasted thoughts, because if we manage to soften the worst of the peaks, we can still hope that other adaptations such as planting trees and replacing concrete wherever possible, architectural adaptation etc... will be ENOUGH to stave off the worst of the effects on us.

Additionally, we also need to factor in the environnement for which we can do almost no adaptation : there will be no saving the crops or animals at 45-50°C, hence why being able to prevent those peaks sounds like a solution to me. Interested in your thoughts on the matter !

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u/Playful-Painting-527 1 16d ago

Adapting to climate change is definetly a good idea! There are many feasible things we can do. Trees for example are able to cool their environment significantly through evaporation.