By Alan
Caruba
While
Americans coped with massive snowfalls in the South, Midwest and Northeast, a
dramatic volcanic eruption occurred on February 13th in Indonesia when Mount
Kelud in the province of East Java erupted so loudly it could be heard 120
miles away.
It is one
of 130 volcanos in the world’s fourth most populous nation, located on the
“ring of fire” volcanic belt around the shores of the Pacific Ocean. About
200,000 people were affected and more than 76,000 had to be evacuated according
to Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The affect was dramatic,
shutting down an airport in Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya, a
major industrial center, along with those in five other cities as well as a
major oil refinery that provides more than a third of Indonesia’s total output
of refined products.
Earlier
this month, the eruption of Mount Sinabung in the north of the island of
Sumatra was credited with the death of eleven people. It had been spewing lava
and ash for months and forced thousands to flee the area.
There are
about 1,500 active volcanos worldwide with the majority on the Pacific “ring of
fire.” Some fifty of these erupt every year, An estimated 500 million people
worldwide live near active volcanoes.
While
environmentalists are forever blathering about carbon dioxide (C02) emissions
from cars, plants that produce electricity, and all forms of manufacturing,
volcanos produce from 145 million to 255 million short tons of CO2 every year.
Large,
explosive eruptions, in addition to CO2, put large amounts of water vapor,
sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, and ash, pulverized rock
and pumice, into the stratosphere to heights of 10 to 20 miles above the
Earth’s surface. Sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid condense rapidly in the
stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols that reflect the Sun’s radiation,
cooling the Earth’s lower atmosphere or troposphere while also absorbing heat
radiated from the Earth. In the past century, several eruptions during the past
century cooled the Earth by up to half a degree Fahrenheit for periods of one
to three years.
I cite
this to drive home the fundamental scientific fact that, as opposed to all the
nonsense about human control or effect on the Earth’s temperatures, volcanoes
by comparison render the human component infinitesimal.
Moreover,
CO2 plays virtually no role in the Earth’s overall temperature. Shutting down
coal-fired electrical plants and preventing the construction of new ones has no
basis in science. The outcry against CO2 ignores the fact that all life on
Earth depends on it to provide the “food” that all vegetation requires. More
Co2, not less, is good for the Earth.
What
Americans need to worry about is the eruption of a super volcano with a large
caldera such as the Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park and the
Valles Caldera in New Mexico. Both have been dormant for thousands of years.
The Earth
has been around for 4.5 billion years compared to its human component that only
began to create what we call modern civilization for about five thousand years.
Its volcanos, potential earthquakes, floods, blizzards, and other natural
hazards pose some serious threats. Massive eruptions such as those about 250
million years ago are believed to have been the cause of the “Great Dying” that
is estimated to have killed 90% of the species existing at the time.
When I
read and hear about people speaking about how humans are causing major species
declines or industry threatening the climate, I am reminded of how Nature, the
action or inaction of the Sun, volcanoes and other natural events dwarf
anything that is attributed to human activity.
Thanks to
the environmentalists, we are crippling and denying the ability of this nation
to construct the pipelines, expand our industrial base, and provide the housing
needed for an expanding population.
Look
around you. Pretend you’re a dinosaur Then remember they dominated the Earth for
thousands of years until Nature eliminated them.
© Alan
Caruba, 2014
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