Do you think weather control is a good way to stop heat waves?

[Alolan_Apples]

I know that we could prevent further heat waves if we reduce carbon emissions or find a way to trap carbon back into the Earth, but that’s only for the long run. What I’m looking into is the short run. Do you think it would be a good idea to technologically manipulate the weather to bust heat waves? Do you think it’s possible? It can be done by altering the air pressure from above the surface, but do you think that’s possible?

 

[Corrie]

I wish we could do something to control the weather. Where I am in Canada so far this summer, it's either raining or 30C+. Like what happened to 24C summers?

I waited six months of snow nonsense to just sit inside anyway due to it raining or being too hot. It sucks a lot. :c

 

[nightglow]

Personally I wouldn't be a fan. There is probably some sort of downside like an extreme opposite somewhere else.
Weather is like other eco systems. Do one thing, and it can effect something else.

I would be more for a natural way than technological, like planting more trees which intake carbon dioxide and send out oxygen. Trees are very underrated. They help prevent soil erosion, help keep moisture in soil, and improve it's health. Trees also provide shade, food, and housing for creatures. Cutting down trees raises carbon dioxide levels and increases levels of bad algae in water bodies.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

Personally I wouldn't be a fan. There is probably some sort of downside like an extreme opposite somewhere else.
Weather is like other eco systems. Do one thing, and it can effect something else.

I would be more for a natural way than technological, like planting more trees which intake carbon dioxide and send out oxygen. Trees are very underrated. They help prevent soil erosion, help keep moisture in soil, and improve it's health. Trees also provide shade, food, and housing for creatures. Cutting down trees raises carbon dioxide levels and increases levels of bad algae in water bodies.

That is true. Planting more trees would be a solution. I also mentioned artificial photosynthesis, which would remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, but that undermines the fact that global warming isn’t the only problem caused by carbon emissions.

But if weather control was implemented to lower the air pressure to allow for more rain and cooling, what other problems do you think could happen?

 

[Kitsuragi]

Is it possible? Idk. I do meteorology for hobby (read: anxiety) and most people I've talked to said it's not very easy to just manipulate weather, nigh impossible.

Do I think it would be a good idea? Probably not. It wouldn't be as easy as making it rain to end a drought unfortunately, there is a reason why weather is so unpredictable after all

 

[nightglow]

That is true. Planting more trees would be a solution. I also mentioned artificial photosynthesis, which would remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, but that undermines the fact that global warming isn’t the only problem caused by carbon emissions.

But if weather control was implemented to lower the air pressure to allow for more rain and cooling, what other problems do you think could happen?

The change we have on earth currently is the result of what we do, and what we do not do. Nature does react to changes and I personally believe the reaction is either nature adapting or nature trying to fix.
I think it is best to work with it rather than trying to control it. It will buck back.
I would need to know more details about what method people want for technological altering of weather, but a tree would fix more issues than artificial photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthesis would only take whatever out of the air and maybe give oxygen, but that doesn't help soil or particular animals or the natural cycle of wildfires for soil quality and ridding old diseased plant matter, ect.

I hope this makes sense. I find it a little difficult to put in words. Soil that retains moisture is effected by trees, and both effect the temperature of the environment.

It's like people getting rid of dandelions in their yard because they want grass, but also complain thier yard soil is compacted. But a dandelion's purpose is to find compacted soil, break it up, and bring calcium to the surface of the ground. Soil will then retain moisture better instead of the water just running away taking what little nutrients are left on the surface away. If the dandelions are left to do thier thing, they will eventually lessen and even go away. Their job makes the soil better and allow other plants to grow. If a person only hates the flowers being visible, I guess they could just take the flowers off, but dandelions are a bee's first food source after winter. And bees effect crop production.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

The change we have on earth currently is the result of what we do, and what we do not do. Nature does react to changes and I personally believe the reaction is either nature adapting or nature trying to fix.
I think it is best to work with it rather than trying to control it. It will buck back.
I would need to know more details about what method people want for technological altering of weather, but a tree would fix more issues than artificial photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthesis would only take whatever out of the air and maybe give oxygen, but that doesn't help soil or particular animals or the natural cycle of wildfires for soil quality and ridding old diseased plant matter, ect.

I hope this makes sense. I find it a little difficult to put in words. Soil that retains moisture is effected by trees, and both effect the temperature of the environment.

It's like people getting rid of dandelions in their yard because they want grass, but also complain thier yard soil is compacted. But a dandelion's purpose is to find compacted soil, break it up, and bring calcium to the surface of the ground. Soil will then retain moisture better instead of the water just running away taking what little nutrients are left on the surface away. If the dandelions are left to do thier thing, they will eventually lessen and even go away. Their job makes the soil better and allow other plants to grow. If a person only hates the flowers being visible, I guess they could just take the flowers off, but dandelions are a bee's first food source after winter. And bees effect crop production.

I wouldn’t consider artificial photosynthesis as an alternative to planting trees. It’s only for the carbon that has been trapped in the earth for millions of years, namely the carbon emitted by burning coal and oil. We can replace trees with trees.

 

[CylieDanny]

I think there are many things we should not have control of, and I think weather is one of them.

We may think controlling something will prevent things, but in reality were messing with something far bigger then we know. Thats defently not to be messed with.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

A simple solution that could help is to plant more trees in areas that people actually live in. Forests/nature reserves are good obviously but so many suburbs, cities, etc. have barely any full grown trees. Trees provide shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Trees do help with removing CO2 but it pales in comparison to the rate in which seaweed intakes CO2.

So plant more trees in urban/suburban areas where people live, take better care of the oceans, create seaweed farms.
Switching away from coal/oil energy to nuclear energy could probably help a lot as well.

As far as weather control technology goes, maybe it will be possible one day but i'm not sure we're anywhere near to achieving that any time soon. I think the main solutions we have right now are the ones people aren't too keen on because it would require huge changes to infrastructure, global policies, cuts to corporate profits probably, general sacrifices (for example, if we were to cut down or completely eliminate meat consumption), etc.

 

[Midoriya]

A simple solution that could help is to plant more trees in areas that people actually live in. Forests/nature reserves are good obviously but so many suburbs, cities, etc. have barely any full grown trees. Trees provide shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Trees do help with removing CO2 but it pales in comparison to the rate in which seaweed intakes CO2.

So plant more trees in urban/suburban areas where people live, take better care of the oceans, create seaweed farms.
Switching away from coal/oil energy to nuclear energy could probably help a lot as well.

I completely agree with this method. There's so many shopping villages, building complexes, etc. throughout the USA in particular that just have like... no trees. The good ones are the ones that build around the nature instead of just getting rid of all of it.

As for the main question at hand, I would agree with the others as well that tampering with the weather is far beyond our control.

 

[nightglow]

I wouldn’t consider artificial photosynthesis as an alternative to planting trees. It’s only for the carbon that has been trapped in the earth for millions of years, namely the carbon emitted by burning coal and oil. We can replace trees with trees.

Yeah. But the artificial photosynthesis will effect trees and other plants that intake carbon dioxide and help soil. I understand that there's a lot of carbon emissions, but it does encourage plant growth if we stop interfering in plant growth (preventing and destroying plants). And eventually even out, especially if we cut our own activities by having other ways to travel or other ways of mass production of items that emit less carbons. Which is needed or at the very least could be worked on by humans with a little care and action.
To have more trees and the artificial photosynthesis both, the artificial photosynthesis would eventually effect the trees and the soils wouldn't be worked on by artificial photosynthesis. And then you gotta account for the mining needed for parts for the artificial photosynthesis and processing those parts, then shipping those parts, and the disturbance and pollution that could be caused,... even decades later if broken parts aren't dealt with properly due to $ or mining and production waste. I know we already have this with other tech like our phones and other gadgets, but I feel like some of this could be by passed by just focusing on plants alone. More could be by passed by looking at other solutions that work with nature rather than controlling or doing whatever we want and trying to supplement here and there without account of what nature does have.
Things are more linked than many may realize. Isn't isn't separated into compartments. There are systems.
But of course this is just my thoughts. Maybe I'm too picky.
At the end of the day, somethings got to change though. I think most people are starting to agree with that who would not have 30 years ago or even 10. We can do better at the very least.

 

[ali.di.magix]

Maybe in an emergency or dire situation it wouldn't be a bad idea to prevent excessive harm to the people and environment. Like a short term solution for a short term problem. But I can't help but feel that if it was possible, people would use it as an excuse to not reduce carbon emissions.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

Maybe in an emergency or dire situation it wouldn't be a bad idea to prevent excessive harm to the people and environment. Like a short term solution for a short term problem. But I can't help but feel that if it was possible, people would use it as an excuse to not reduce carbon emissions.

Exactly. As I said before, global warming isn’t the only problem created by our carbon emissions. It makes our oceans acidic, it makes the air unbreathable, and most of our carbon emissions come from non-renewable resources, limited resources that do not replace themselves once used. If we use them all up, they’ll be gone for another million years.

 

[Violet Witch]

What the world needs to do to stop these awful apocalyptic style heatwaves from showing up is for governments to act on their promises now (naturally rather than artificially). It's okay to say they're cutting carbon emissions with end goals ten years from now, but thats not stopping today's weather and the fact that parts of the US, China and Southern Europe are seeing temperatures exceeding 40c this week is scary considering we still have another 6 weeks of summer to go. I dread to think what summer 2024 will bring once the full effects of El Niño kick in.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

What the world needs to do to stop these awful apocalyptic style heatwaves from showing up is for governments to act on their promises now (naturally rather than artificially). It's okay to say they're cutting carbon emissions with end goals ten years from now, but thats not stopping today's weather and the fact that parts of the US, China and Southern Europe are seeing temperatures exceeds 40c this week is scary considering we still have another 6 weeks of summer to go. I dread to think what summer 2024 will bring once the full effects of El Niño kick in.

Don’t forget, solar activity is approaching its maximum then. If we get a solar storm as bad as 1859, or worse, 1582, there would be a worldwide EMP, knocking out all power. Imagine a global power failure that would take weeks or months to fix during a heat wave where temperatures are over 104°F (40°C).

 

[LadyDestani]

My response was going to be very similar to @/MiniPocketWorld's, but they said it much better so I won't reiterate everything. I will just say that I think people messing with the natural order of things is what got us to this point and I don't think continuing down that path is the way to fix it.

I would also be afraid that if people had the technology to control the weather they would use it for the wrong ends. Rather than trying to right the current issues, I believe most people would be more concerned with negating 'bad' weather and trying to build their ideal environment instead of allowing the diverse ecosystems to exist.

 

[-Blue-]

There's plenty we can do, the problem is people are too lazy, stubborn, and greedy to change their ways. Planting trees and plants would help a lot. A forest is a lot cooler than a entire field and especially a concrete jungle.

Those in charge need to step up, but they're too busy lining their pockets and looking at the now and not the then because 'that's someone else's problem' That's how we've gotten to this point in the first part. There are places like India that are so full of trash because of their poor conditions and there was this whole movement to be more green in US/California only for them to realize the problem wasn't getting better because China's air pollution was being carried over there.

In 2022 they found a bunch of DDT that was dumped in the LA oceans which was worst than they thought it was. And while DDT is banned there are lots of places overseas that still sell/use products carrying it.

I just don't see the whole world coming together to take care of this issue because we're too stupid, stubborn and proud to admit we need to.

 

[oath2order]

I know that we could prevent further heat waves if we reduce carbon emissions or find a way to trap carbon back into the Earth, but that’s only for the long run. What I’m looking into is the short run. Do you think it would be a good idea to technologically manipulate the weather to bust heat waves? Do you think it’s possible? It can be done by altering the air pressure from above the surface, but do you think that’s possible?

As a huge fan of terraforming, especially in regards to other planets, I think it would be very cool if we could manage to do it, but I don't think we're anywhere near doing that technology any time soon.

What the world needs to do to stop these awful apocalyptic style heatwaves from showing up is for governments to act on their promises now (naturally rather than artificially). It's okay to say they're cutting carbon emissions with end goals ten years from now, but thats not stopping today's weather and the fact that parts of the US, China and Southern Europe are seeing temperatures exceeding 40c this week is scary considering we still have another 6 weeks of summer to go. I dread to think what summer 2024 will bring once the full effects of El Niño kick in.

I agree. The biggest problem that I see at the moment is that the US and Europe (I don't know enough about other larger economies in regards to this, like Brazil or China or India or Australia) are cutting emissions, while other places are industrializing quickly, which is kind of offsetting the emissions being cut from the other countries.