The reason why a lot of ordinary people don’t take much notice of climate change is that so many lies are told by the alarmist side. It is a highly exaggerated scare story. Their offerings go in one ear and out of the other ear. However, because of the never ending deluge of hype from the media some of the stuff sticks, and even contrarians pay lip service in one way or another. An example of this is on this week’s ‘The Week That Was‘ at http://www.sepp.org/the-week-that-was.cfm … for October 29th 2022. It comes courtesy of Professor Wyss Yim of Hong Kong University. His specialty is the study of tectonics and volcanoes and he is not impressed by the alarmist treatment of the subject. He makes the point that tectonics, particularly volcanoes, can change weather conditions for several years in the aftermath. The eruption of Tabora in Indonesia in 1815 is again cited as an example. It was not that far away from China. It coincided with failed harvests and famine across Europe and is well documented. However, volcanoes can be divided into 3 groups, some of which are better at sending plumes that penetrate the stratosphere. Terrestrial volcanoes have an explosive index of 1 to 8, VEI. The last VEI-8 eruption was Taupa in New Zealand around 26,000 years ago. Interestingly, the demise of megafauna in Australia has recently been dated 25,000 years ago [but that is another story]. Generally, terrestrial volcanoes are associated with cooling – but they do release a lot of water vapour into the atmosphere. This can cause warming in arid zones.
Submarine volcanoes are not well understood and are often excluded from climate change literature. The fact that volcanoes underlie the West Antarctic Ridge is well known but generally ignored by the alarmists. Many undersea volcanoes exist in the Pacific. The so called Ring of Fire is thought to play a role.
The eruption of terrestrial volcanoes such as El Chichon in Mexico was VEI-5 and resulted in Hong Kong having the wettest year on record. Surprisingly, he also says that Mount St Helens was a VEI-5 volcano. Pinatubo, on the other hand, was VEI-6. It brought about a change in atmospheric circulation. Unfortunately, the difficulty in observing submarine volcanoes has led to many false claims, he adds, from both individuals and from organisations. This seems to be down to their inability to understand the so called greenhouse effect, which is being generous I would have thought as others might say it was deliberate in order to deceive. Infrared radiation radiated downwards cannot penetrate the oceans beyond a couple of millimetres deep. Thus, greenhouse gas warming has a minimal effect on the oceans. Warming oceans must have another vector. However, if greenhouse gas warming did actually manage to warm the atmosphere that would raise global temperatures and probably oceanic temperatures as well. Such an amount of warming has never been observed – but endlessly talked about. He goes on to provide some examples of hoodwinking propaganda involving submarine volcanoes. A couple of years ago volcanic activity off the cost of the Canaries caused the Atlantic to boil, cooking fish. This was quickly blamed on global warming caused by rising co2 levels. I would have thought a lot of people would have scoffed at that claim. However, the warm water subsequently was transported north into the Arctic Ocean, causing a reduction in sea ice. Naturally, that was blamed on co2 warming but people were less likely to scoff. Actually, the alarmists have a history on this process as El Ninos produce a plume of warm water that eventually reaches the Arctic, and it also caused sea ice to diminish.
Another submarine volcano in the NW Pacific cooked crabs and other marine life. It became known as the Pacific Blob [the warm water] and once again, co2 warming was blamed. A superficial reading of the event would make people think that something terrible was happening when in fact it was simply a volcano belching forth under the sea. The blob was dispersed in the aftermath by ocean currents. Submarine volcanoes, he says, can cause prolonged changes in local climates – and create warm sea water. Yim makes the point that polar sea ice melting can be attributed, in part, to ocean heat waves generated by submarine volcanoes. He doesn’t expand this to El Ninos as that is not his particular subject, but the inference is clearly there. The much vaunted melting of the West Antarctic peninsular has a distinct link to warm water El Nino episodes passing from the Indian to South Atlantic oceans as well as volcanoes known to exist under the ice. This is why the peninsular is news for one week and out of the news in the weeks that follow. It is an occasional event. It has nothing to do with rising co2 levels. At the moment we are in a La Nina dominated cycle and El Ninos and the peninsular are ignored. Next time there is an El Nino event it may come back to prominence, and of course, all the hype will be regurgitated. Fascinating the way the propaganda is driven and how easy it is to contradict it – yet the media are relentless in their projection. Somebody would seem to be trousering a lot of the loot.