What do you think of this theory that volcanic eruptions explain GW and that humans have no part in it?

Question

"Check the data about the eruption of Mount St. Helens. You will discover that it release thousands of times the "greenhouse gasses" than man has produced in our entire history. Then multiply that # by the amount of active volcanos in the last 10,000 years. I think it will make us seem somewhat insignificant." This was an A to this Q: How much of the recent warming has been caused by humans?
I would like to see arguments regarding how much of the warming over the past 100, 50, and/or 30 years has been caused by humans, and how much has been caused by other factors.

Pls provide evidence to support your argument. A's which do not provide supporting evidence will not be answering my question,& thus will be violating the community guidelines & will be reported"

The A was posted by someone who has yet to ask any Q at YA. Such people declare they have all the answers. & no Ignorance? So I have posed the Q for him.I believe all should put your assertions to the test of Public Opinion.

You do understand that humankind' economic and energy consumption demands are tipping or triggering the changes in the thermodynamic equilibriums in the Earth's bioshere. Changes in weather and climate that we mislabel CW are the consequences of the Greehouse Effect that retains more heat from the Sun which is the major source of energy driving the biosphere. It is the build-up in greenhouse gases bythe aforementioned human activitieswhich have triggered instabilities or tipped the equilibrium into new patterns of heat distribution and retention by the gaseos & aqueous layers we call the atmoisphere and hydosphere. Few of you can describe what I've just said. I know bec I havs asked YA participants to do so by Q's addressing the issue. (Pls no insults are called for and bec any will be reported.)

Statement of Facts and logical reasoning has to win over demagogery and lack of scientific understanding by amateurs or we and the future generations are doomed to suffer more than we and they have too!

I like the efforts to do sensitivity comparisons between the possible factors contributing to the greenhouse effect. That is part of doing good science searching for the significant causes among manny causes. Good effort Trevor!, Keep refining that method of argument!

magna sadly your your A in comparison to others is full of strawmen arguments and all kinds of adhominems. Also try breaking up your comments in paragraphs for easy reading-that is a stylistic suggestion and my remarks are not insults but a critque.

An intellectual, nonemotional, decent critique whih should not offend anyone..

Answer 1

Humans produce about 3.5 percent of the co2 in the atmosphere. A volcano can burp that much and not even cause wide spread volcanic damage. This G.W. gibberish is just the latest global apocalyptic trend to grace the apocalyptic minded. A review of the NYT since the mid 1800's shows a different apocalyptic theory about every 25 years. I'm old enough to remember the over population scare before the Global Cooling of the seventies. We now know the population of the planet could fit within the state of Texas ( I would not go to Texas and propose it though!) with the resulting population density of Paris (France). This is the religion of the left complete with the "Gore-orcal" as the high priest. Virtually every aspect of this nonsense has been disproved over and over with the latest being John Coleman's (founder of the Weather Channel) article. You people keep plodding along ignoring the truth (well meaning as most of you are) playing into the hands of those with socialist aims on the American way of life and allowing the U.N. to gain what they have always wanted...A way to levy a tax on the U.S.. KYOTO has been exposed as a scam. If Gore wasn't a scammer then would he really have a heated swimming pool in his home (one of four homes), a home that uses twenty times more energy than our homes use. Would he fly around in a 1977 Gulfstream that spews out co2 like a giant 1960's 2 stroke dirt bike) Think about it!! If he really believed this stuff would he use energy like a drunken sailor spends cash and just think he can "pay away" his carbon sins. This is his business and he's getting ultra rich off sucking in the "useful idiots" ( an old term used by the former Soviet Union to describe the American left that believed their propaganda). The sun is the primary mover of our earths temp and this latest solar maximum has about fifteen or twenty years to go. Then the next apocalyptic theory will be born. G.W. alarmist remind me of the people that burned witches at the stake or threw virgins in the volcanoes if the crops failed. Often as not the ones blamed probably stood in the way of someone else's political or economic goals just as we have today. I want a clean world for me , my granddaughter and her children to come but you G.W. alarmist are off target. Take a real look at your leaders ..they're kooks, scammers and socialist/communist and or combinations of all.
luvn ya'll
99magna

Answer 2

I believe that the amount CO2 'created' by man is in the 3-5% range.
http://www.amlibpub.com/essays/ipcc-global-warming-report.html
Plus CO2 is about 1-3% of the atmosphere = Very minor compared the H2O (CLOUDS) which have 100+ times the effects of other more important 'green house gases' than CO2.

That in no way proves CO2 affects global climate.
The number of volcanoes seem to be cumulative - the old/ancient volcanoes are STILL venting.
How many volcanoes are there in the world?
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-tours/volcanoes/faq/how_many_volcanoes.html
QUOTE: "there are about 1500 volcanoes on land that are known to have have been active, while the even larger number of submarine volcanoes is unknown."

The Oceans appear to be warming - which impacts the ability of oceans to ABSORB CO2.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/12/2088832.htm

There is a 'new focus' on Solar activity and climate change which more closely follows warming & weather fluxuations.
Right now there is what some call a 'Blank Sun' = NO ACTIVITY (coronial ejections) or sun spots.
We have just come out of an 11 year sun spot cycle and the next few months will prove or disprove this theory.

____________________________________________
Is not one of the contentions of the GW CO2 theory that CO2
rises up into the atmosphere to 'reflect/hold' the sun's heat back to earth???
What about CO2 sinking back to the ground - found at:
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/VolGas/volgas.html
"Carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air and the gas can flow into in low-lying areas; breathing air with more than 30% CO2 can quickly induce unconsciousness and cause death."
Can Anyone answer this?

Answer 3

Volcanoes is just one in a long line of excuses that are trotted out by global warming skeptics. I assume they think that everyone who reads their answer is an idiot - it only takes a schoolkid with a calculator and a couple of minutes to realise what utter nonsense statements like that are.

If the statement about Mt St Helens was correct it would mean it emitted approx 3 trillion tons of greenhouse gases, by volume that would be 1.5 million cubic kilometres. Thank God volcanoes don't produce anything like that amount of CO2, we'd all be dead if that were the case.

The reality is that, averaged over time, volcanoes contribute 300 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere each year.

At the end of the day, anyone who comes up with a statement like that has a very limited understanding of the climate, no concept of the true role that volcanoes play in affecting our climate and no comprehension of maths.

When I get a moment I'll answer Dana's question about the role humans have played. I have all the numbers here, I just need to dig them up off the computer.

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ADDED AFTERWARDS

There are very few people that really understand the dynamics of climate change, that's to be expected as it's an extremely complex process with many interacting factors.

The above answer (Rick's) demonstrates this, although to be fair to Rick he does qualify his openinjg statement by saying 'I believe...' (many skeptics simply pass off what they believe as fact).

The component of atmopsheric carbon dioxide caused by human activities is 38%. The amount of CO2 in the atmopshere isn't 1 to 3% it's 0.03877%. Clouds are not water vapour (they're water droplets - solid matter as opposed to gaseous), they have a role to play in global warming and cooling but not in the context alluded to by Rick. Water vapour (clouds) do not have 100+ times the effects. Water vapour is an extremely weak gas but is an important one because it exists in far greater volume than all the other greenhouse gases. The role of water vapour in contributing to global warming is between 37 and 64% (overlapping forcing mean it's impossible to assign specific values). By comparison to CO2, water vapour is one fourteenth as potent in terms of it's Global Warming Potential etc etc etc. And these are just the errors in the first paragraph.

Apologies to Rick, it just happened that your question was the one immediately before mine - I'd have done the same whoever's answer it ws.

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TO RICK: Re your added comment about CO2 being heavier than air.

The atmopshere consists of many different gases, the lightest being hydrogen and the heaviest being radon. Fortunately they don't spearate out according to their mass (weight), if that were the case we'd have a layer of radon at ground level and would all be dead.

Through the process of diffusion the atoms and molecules of gas are distributed throughout the atmosphere as a consequence of thermal agitation and the tendency to move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. And of course, when the wind blows there is large scale mixing. There are pockets of gas, including CO2, that form for any one of a number of reasons; in time they are dispersed into the wider atmopshere.

Answer 4

I could make some smart a$$ remark like: Daa---This is news? Al Gore taking advantage of a natural occurrence, you mean like when he said he was going to defeat El Nino? The real Al Gore will say we have to stop volcano's and it is caused by man use of oil, eating cows and growing wheat. The sad part of this disaster is some people would believe Al Gore.

Answer 5

It's a fairly common belief which is based upon ignorance.

Humans emit approximately 150 times the CO2 that volanoes emit annually, on average.

Answer 6

http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/GlobalWarmingSteigerwald/main.asp


I don't believe Global Warming exists as anything more than a climate change in the normal life of the earth, if it exists at all.
This scientist agrees.