this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Temperature is what matters. The same amount of heat out into a river can significantly warm the whole river downstream, but have no detectable effect on the ocean temperature, just because the heat is diluted so much.
Like, dilute a bottle of tequila with two liters of cola, sure you'll get drunk - but pour that same tequila into a full swimming pool, and you'd never get drunk even if you drink the pool water all day.
You understand rivers largely empty into oceans, right? Your tequila analogy leaves that part out. Eventually, you're still dumping tequila (heat) into the pool (ocean).
It's a matter of size. You'll be dumping the tequila into the pool, but the alcohol percentage of the pool is in all practical sense, still 0.
The size of the pool is of no importance globally. You're still creating the same amount of heat
The only real difference is that the river heat can get higher because it's more localised and, therefore, can cause more trouble along the way.
But from the pov of the ocean ? Rounding error