[Geology2] Re: your opinions

How would we know if Plimer's claim that the a decade of CO2 reduction was wiped out in 4 days of volcanic eruption is even remotely true? He includes no figures in support, and from what I have read he is an untrustworthy source of information. He once said, "Over the past 250 years, humans have added just one part of CO2 in 10,000 to the atmosphere. One volcanic cough can do this in a day", when in fact fossil fuels emissions numbers are about 100 times bigger than even the maximum estimated volcanic CO2 emissions.
(http://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warming.htm)

The volcanoes are not even a significant part of the equation. The real question is how much reduction in emissions is needed and how do we get there. He implies we can't - an awfully big assertion without any numbers whatsoever to back it up, and totally untrustworthy. The IPCC with the backing of the great majority of climatologists, thinks otherwise. The problem is not that it can't be done but that we are not doing it, not that it costs too much, but that we are not willing to spend enough. It would take a coordinated long-term effort in a short-sighted world, that is continually less inclined to invest in government projects.

The chances seem less likely the longer it is delayed. We may have to just suffer the consequences until the cost becomes so high that we have to go to one of the alternative fixes like the sun-blocking orbiters. All of those alternatives are expensive too, and have their own consequences, including those we can't foresee. We can't really know how well they would work until we are forced to use them.




--- In geology2@yahoogroups.com, MEM <mstreman53@...> wrote:
>
> I believe the original point was that all the human efforts at CO2 reduction over the decade it was in effect, was wiped-out in  4 days worth of eruptions.  It has been a while since I looked at the charts as to "carbon" savings(sic) but it seems about right.  For all the talk and all the fervor there really has been a minuscule amount of CO2 reduction in 10 years when compared to the total CO2 levels.  Be it remembered this was a ramp up over 30(?) years within the now abandoned Koyoto Protocol so it really hadn't come into broad active efforts of the long term goals.
>
> Be it also remembered that this alleged letter supposed Op-Ed piece is not a peer reviewed scientific paper. It doesn't address any cumulative volcanic input, or weather extremes or overall temperature trends--just the balance sheet of human efforts to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels vs the occasional volcanic eruption.
>
> The wisdom I would derive from this is that our efforts at reduction are ineffective and research and governmental policy should focus more on adaptation.  The fact that the debate has become a religion by the largely uninformed activist prevents any meaningful research into adaptation.  One of my favorites proposals which has languished in the waiting room of development, are the Mylar parasols placed in low orbit which can be expanded or contracted to match isolation levels which stabilize temperatures-- sort of like beach umbrellas for the planet. 
>
>
> Or we can keep spending money on the most expensive, least enforceable, least effective means at temperature control.  In all the name calling, we tend to forget that the issue isn't controlling CO2 levels but stabilizing global temperatures in the long run.
>
> Eman
>
>
> >________________________________
> >
>




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