So, damn. I was hoping for a very cool report on how we would die instantly in a fiery explosion, but it’s just dumping more carbon into the atmosphere and slowly worsening climate change.
Volcanoes release less than 1% of the CO2 of anthropogenic emissions, according to USGS. But they also have a cooling effect by releasing sulfur particles that reflect sunlight. So yeah, volcanoes pretty much a wash, or at least de minimis compared to humans.
I don’t think you’re accounting for the massive difference in scale when considering a super-volcanic eruption. It would cause global famine and a massive die-off of most species including humans. If Yellowstone went off, for instance, we would be living under volcanic winter for at least a decade. It would release something like 1,000 gigatons of CO2, which would be roughly equivalent to all human caused CO2 since the industrial revolution, and it would do it all at once.
By way of example, the Toba supervolcano was so devastating and caused so much death it literally created a pronounced genetic bottleneck in the history of human genome.
Well, no. The article is not talking about the kind of catastrophic supervolcano eruption that you are. It’s talking about small-scale emissions, 4000-5000 tons per day from a single supervolcano crater in Italy, which totals less than 2 million tons per year or about 0.005% of global CO2 inventory.
You introduced the concept of a catastrophic supervolcano eruption for the first time. That wasn’t the topic of the article or the comment chain I responded to.
It’s talking about how those small-scale emissions indicate higher risk of super-volcanic eruption, which is the part of the topic of the third section of the article and is the implicit concern throughout the article.
So, damn. I was hoping for a very cool report on how we would die instantly in a fiery explosion, but it’s just dumping more carbon into the atmosphere and slowly worsening climate change.
I can hear climate change deniers already. “It’s not humans, it’s the volcanoes”
It is true that volcanoes have an effect. It’s just nothing compared to the scale humans are working at.
Volcanoes release less than 1% of the CO2 of anthropogenic emissions, according to USGS. But they also have a cooling effect by releasing sulfur particles that reflect sunlight. So yeah, volcanoes pretty much a wash, or at least de minimis compared to humans.
I don’t think you’re accounting for the massive difference in scale when considering a super-volcanic eruption. It would cause global famine and a massive die-off of most species including humans. If Yellowstone went off, for instance, we would be living under volcanic winter for at least a decade. It would release something like 1,000 gigatons of CO2, which would be roughly equivalent to all human caused CO2 since the industrial revolution, and it would do it all at once.
By way of example, the Toba supervolcano was so devastating and caused so much death it literally created a pronounced genetic bottleneck in the history of human genome.
The article is not referencing a catastrophic eruption. Super volcanoes don’t have to end the world, they can, but they don’t have to.
Brother, if Yellowstone erupted, global warming would be the least of our problems.
Yeah, it would mostly be the sulfur and volcanic winter. And the famine.
The article is talking about supervolcanoes, and you’re talking about regular volcanic eruptions. I’m clarifying the difference in magnitude.
Well, no. The article is not talking about the kind of catastrophic supervolcano eruption that you are. It’s talking about small-scale emissions, 4000-5000 tons per day from a single supervolcano crater in Italy, which totals less than 2 million tons per year or about 0.005% of global CO2 inventory.
You introduced the concept of a catastrophic supervolcano eruption for the first time. That wasn’t the topic of the article or the comment chain I responded to.
It’s talking about how those small-scale emissions indicate higher risk of super-volcanic eruption, which is the part of the topic of the third section of the article and is the implicit concern throughout the article.
In fact, the entire point of the article is to discuss how analyzing these emissions can be used to determine if it’s simply the “dissolution of calcite in the surrounding rocks” or if it is “traced back to underground magma,” allowing geologists to determine if volcanic activity and eruption risk is increasing. This data was used to raise the “warning level” of the area from green to yellow.
followed by Trump drawing a cartoon
dicknuke on the map and claiming it’s the only way to stop climate change.Swear to god I’ve heard this before.
That’s unfortunate. Come on Giant Meteor. ☄️