ARE VOLCANOES SLOWING GLOBAL WARMING?

courtesy : nat geo

The massive output of CO2 in the past couple of decades has prompted alarm bells to go off from every scientific watchdog group on the necessity to act to limit pollution of greenhouse gases.

But a question dogged scientists and delighted naysayers: the fact that temperature has not risen quite as fast as was predicted.

Scientists trying to answer that question might have found their answers.

Some studies had concluded that certain stratosperic aereosols had limited the degree of global warming by as much as 25%.  

This study points to the role that volcanoes are playing in slowing the warming of the planet.  

NOOA and other scientists have come at this conclusion after studying aerosol emissions.  Previously it was thought that most of them emanated from Asian countries, whose increases in sulfur dioxide emission grew by 60% in the past two decades.  

Instead the new study shows that particulates emitted by the moderate volcanic activity of the past two decades may be what is causing the slowdown.    

Stratospheric aerosols are reducing greenhouse effects by about 25% in the past ten years.

This finding suggests that volcanic influence should be more closely monitored, and especially activity and frequency of eruptions.  

However, in the long run, and especially given the random frequency of volcanic events, these geophysical occurrences cannot by themselves offset global warming.  

Studies were made by the Janus supercomputer into which were fed data of 10 years of atmospheric observations of coal burning activities in the Asian continent, and compared them to volcanic events in the same years.  

However, ten years activity is not enough to predict or determine climate trends, scientist caution.  

Source: Science Daily  3.2.13