Can Recent Volcanic Eruption Solve Global Warming?

The focus of nations around the world for the past two decades has been the onset of global warming. World leaders have sat down at summits trying to figure out what to do to slow the build-up of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, and try and prevent the destruction via a massive meltdown of our polar icecaps and our ozone layer.

Many proposals have been put forth beginning with the early ban on CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons - commonly found in aerosols before 1989); to further commitment by industrialized nations to reduce carbon emissions in the recent G-20 summit. Even with the promises by these nations to cut back, the continued destruction of the ozone layer is assured because no one nation is willing to cut back enough to do any good. Global warming marches on.

The funny thing is, according to Nathan Myhrvold, a former officer of Microsoft, all the earth really needs is a good volcanic eruption. His research shows that the emission of volcanic ash (sulfur gas particles) into the upper atmosphere forms a shield that reflects solar rays back out into space. This ash lasts for about two years. Earth recovers from the ash in the atmosphere and the collective reduction of temperature globally is about one degree (exactly enough to cool the planet and prevent the melting of our glaciers, thus saving our icecaps and all the wildlife that live and thrive there). Amazing.

Myhrvold goes on to say that something as simple as a really long garden hose run up into the atmosphere could be the instrument whereby sulfur gas particles could be pumped up into the wild yonder.

While all this debate among nations and scientists has been going on (putting yet more hot air into the atmosphere), an Icelandic volcano obligingly erupted this week.

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano let loose after being silent for about 200 hundred years. Scientists say that all their historical evidence of this particular volcano shows that when it erupts, the nearby Katla volcano follows suit. It may just be that not one, but two volcanoes will solve the problem of global warming.

This presents an interesting idea; Mother Nature takes care of her own. Despite the assault that man puts upon the very planet that provides him life, and all efforts to correct the unforgivable sins man visits on the environment, Earth takes care of herself. Now, this is not to say these eruptions have fixed the problem entirely (or at all as we've yet to see) or that we, as decent human beings, shouldn't continue to try and reduce our carbon footprint, but we should consider that there are thousand-year old cycles that the earth goes through for which we haven't been alive long enough to be completely aware.

So behold the awesome power of our planet. Only recently she has whipped up hurricanes, typhoons, landslides, fires, and even earthquakes that have shortened our day by milliseconds. Earth is going through a change, and we should expect to do our part by paying attention, being prepared for disasters, and respecting the land upon which we stand, daily. Such changes as these brought on an ice-age, and even wiped out the mighty dinosaur in the past.

Let us hope that these recent events have been Earth's way of performing corrective measures.