I read an article that came out today on guardian.co.uk on how large the carbon footprint of volcanoes is. I thought this would be an interesting article considering we have talked in class about how many disaster events are incorrectly linked to global warming. I liked how this article dispelled the idea that volcanoes produce more carbon than humans do because placing some of the burden of carbon emissions on something out of our control seems like something some people would try to do.
Also this article stated that sulphur dioxide and ash spewed from the volcano causes a bit of global cooling, but hints that it doesn't do enough to severely hinder global warming. I found all this information really interesting and was quick to believe it because I don't really have much previous knowledge on volcanoes. Since we discussed how naive views can be changed easily just by how the information is presented. Since this article on this website seemed nicely laid out and the facts seemed to make sense, I was quick to believe it. It is very possible that this could be untrue information, tricking ignorant people like myself, however, I highly doubt it. Just to double check I looked up more information on volcanoes and global cooling. In an article on msnbc.com it also discusses how volcanoes cause a bit of global cooling. This article in particular was from April about a volcano in Iceland. This article said that massive volcanic activity (like volcano Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991) must happen for any significant cooling to occur, which supported what was said in the guardian.co.uk article.
Links:
article on guardian.co.uk entitled "What's the Carbon Footprint of... a Volcano?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/oct/07/carbon-footprint-volcano
article on msnbc.com entitled "Volcano Could Mean Cooling, Acid Rain"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36556083
CBS news on the Ireland volcano (April), but also has information on Philippines eruption, volcanoes and global cooling in general
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