This volcanic eruption disproves global warming. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ve got the Corner on my RSS reader so I should find out soon enough.
Update. Holy shit, the Corner started making Al Gore jokes about this hours ago.
by DougJ| 64 Comments
This post is in: Good News For Conservatives, We Are All Mayans Now
This volcanic eruption disproves global warming. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ve got the Corner on my RSS reader so I should find out soon enough.
Update. Holy shit, the Corner started making Al Gore jokes about this hours ago.
Comments are closed.
[…] is astounded: Holy shit, the Corner started making Al Gore jokes about this hours […]
pharniel
Sadnees and sympathy to everyone trying to airtravel today.
asiangrrlMN
Yeah, it looks pretty brutal. Good luck to Europe with this. It’s gonna be hell to clean up, methinks (if that’s even possible).
Selfishly, this is just restricted to Europe, yes? I’m flying to North Carolina in a few hours, so I should be safe, right?
beltane
My mother-in-law flew to Amsterdam yesterday. Since we haven’t heard from her yet, I’m assuming she got there OK.
Why are the wingtards mocking Al Gore over a volcanic eruption? Do they think he blamed global warming for volcanoes? If so, they are more stupid than previously thought.
Mnemosyne
The “Year Without a Summer” of 1816 was caused by a volcanic eruption in Indonesia but affected weather and crops in northern Europe and Canada.
So this could have much more far-reaching effects than air travel.
Quaker in a Basement
I’m at a complete loss trying to understand the Corner’s Al Gore joke. The best I can make of it is that a guy in European air traffic control compared the ash cloud to other weather events and that somehow means Al Gore is Fat.
Sinister eyebrow
@asiangrrlMN: The weather in North Carolina is currently sunny, clear and quite pleasant. Even the pine trees have given us a break on the whole pollen storm thing.
dmsilev
Let me guess, “Al Gore is so fat, he ruptures the Earth’s crust, causing volcanos”. No?
Edit: OK, I looked. My joke was funnier, and yes that is clearing a very very low bar.
dms
David in NY
@Mnemosyne:
If this were of that scale of the 1816 eruptions, I think there would be no more Iceland.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
“Conservative humor” is an oxymoron (or is that “oxymoran“?)
PaulW
Let’s just remember one thing: Al Gore is always wrong. And greedy. And fat. And stoooopid. And a loser.
This has been your “Republicans Are Assholes” moment. We now return you to your regularly scheduled planetary demolition.
…by the by, we’ve had all these earthquakes everywhere, I mean Haiti, Chile, China, couple of other places. I’ve never remembered a time when there were so many quakes back-to-back like this. Now we’ve got this massive Icelandic eruption going on. Is there something afoot with our plate tetonics we need to worry aboot?
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: You’ll be fine, AG, it’s a million miles away.
Have a good trip.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
WTF can afford to go to Europe anymore? Even with the euro’s slight fall against the
dollarlira over the last couple of months, Bushie and crew made damn sure none of us would fly to the Eurozone ever again.Moonbatting Average
@Quaker in a Basement: They’re referencing that time Gore claimed to have invented Plate Tectonics
RSA
I wonder why Cornerites never make this argument about the economy?
Calouste
@Mnemosyne:
That eruption in 1816 was really massive. In the visitors centre at Mt St Helens, they have a comparative display with ash clouds from various eruptions, including that 1816 one and Mt St Helens in 1980. Mt St Helens generated a lot of ash (darkness at noon, inches of ash falling down over most of Washington state and Idaho and into Nebraska), but the cloud for Mt St Helens in the display is absolutely puny compared to the 1816 eruption.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: I know that intellectually. Thanks.
@Sinister eyebrow: When you say pleasant, you mean…?
Kirk Spencer
There’s a sneaky side-bit of “I hope scientists are using this to get real data on blocking gases.”
slap — scientists.
slap — real data.
slap — anthropogenic sources.
jl
OK, that does it. No one is that crazy/dumb. This is proof that the whole NRO operation is a DougJ spoof.
DougJ needs to quit it, because a lot of people do not realize it is a joke.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@PaulW:
I think it’s either an Al Qaida plot or the Rapture is nigh.
Or to put it in a Chinese dynastic context, it could be a sign that we (hooomans) have lost the Mandate of Heaven and the gods are prepping for a change.
It’s kinda like the Rapture now that I think about it.
When the New Madrid fault lets fly with a big one (which will level Memphis so make your pilgrimage to Graceland before it’s too late), I’ll definitely know something’s up.
I’m sure dinosaurs had this exact same kind of conversation right before they went extinct.
MikeJ
The denialists have been saying that increases in atmospheric co2 is due to volcanoes, not humans. Therefore, if a volcano erupts, humans don’t emit co2.
PeakVT
So this could have much more far-reaching effects than air travel.
So far this is a very minor eruption – much smaller than Mount St. Helens. To affect more than travel, the current eruption would have to expand to the size of the 1783 eruption of Laki, which was the last time an Icelandic volcano affected a large area.
tatertot
I am heartbroken – you have slandered Bjork, who I worship. Good outcome of Icelandic volcano dust: really good sunsets for a few months. Plus it’s been really nice here, in the w. of Scotland, to have a sunny, beautiful day with NO airplane trails littering the sky.
Calouste
@PaulW:
There are not statistically many more quakes, but the ones that have been have been near populated areas and thus make more headlines.
Last year for example there was a 7.8 earthquake in a basically uninhabited part of New Zealand. No casualties, no injuries and very minor property damage. That might not have even made the news at all.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Sunny day? In the British Isles?
That happens what, once or twice a year?
t jasper parnell
@Quaker in a Basement: I couldn’t figure it out either; I think that at this point Gore + ? = Joke for the right.
Linda Featheringill
The Guardian has some nice maps of wind patterns, and therefore ash fall patterns.
This whole volcano eruption thing is fascinating. It reminds me that we are all just little animals perched on a rock.
djork
What’s so bad about me?
Oh, B-Jork.
I rescind my question. Please no one answer it.
Ash Wing League
I must know:
(a) Is Al Gore fat?
(b) Does he own a large home?
(c) Does he own a large home because he’s fat?
FormerSwingVoter
@djork:
Do you want that list sorted alphabetically, or what?
tamied
There is nothing that makes you feel like a tiny bug more than going to Mt. St. Helen’s, standing on Johnston Ridge and realizing the mountain is still five miles away. It took seconds for that hot ash to make it that distance and incinerate poor David. 25 years later, it’s still an awesome sight. Volcanos are fascinating.
David in NY
Yeah, lucky that that Icelandic volcanic explosion was not on the scale of the 1815 explosion at Mount Tambora:
Wikipedia.
That’s a mile of mountain that got blown into the air in 1815.
LD50
@Quaker in a Basement:
I think the wingnuts’ policy is, every time the weather is mentioned in any way, make fun of Al Gore. You’re supposed to then make a joke about Gore ‘inventing the internet’, not ask ‘how the fuck do volcanoes disprove global warming?’
Cerberus
Okay, I love Icelandic people.
Read this article.
Apparently, a volcano explodes right on their doorstop and it’s basically, “meh”, and “shame about the flights being cancelled”.
Fuckers are crazy. Here’s a sample.
Gozer
Argh! It’s not weather, it’s a geological event and in any case global warming is not about “weather” it’s about climate change.
/rant
These fuckers make me want to punch babies.
LD50
@David in NY: And the global cooling that followed for a few years after Tambora is still more proof of Al Gore’s fatness.
jibeaux
@asiangrrlMN:
Welcome!
David in NY
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Is there really a fault there, right in the middle of N. America? Or what? I know there was a big event there in mid-19thC, but wasn’t sure there was an explanation for it.
lost in GA
Umm . . . I hope the title to the post was meant to be sarcastic, because, frankly, the wife and I love Bjork. Point taken either way. Good post.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
It’s not a fault in the sense that most people understand faults, ie., two plates colliding/rubbingtogther/slidingonewayortheother.
It’s more of a “thinness” in the crust in that area. As the overall plate moves, it changes the stresses or load or wtf geologists call it which is felt in the thin spots in the plate, ie., around New Madrid.
Wikipedia does a good job with this in the “Geology” section of the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone
asiangrrlMN
@jibeaux: That’s where you’re at? Cool! I am off now. If you don’t hear from me this weekend, get the bail money ready! I intend to kick up my heels in a big way.
Cris
So are we going to get to hear news anchors pronounce “Eyjafjallajokull” today?
Sinister eyebrow
@asiangrrlMN: Sunny, calm, 75 degrees in Raleigh. Asheville and Wilmington I’m not so sure about, but it is a nice day outside my window.
Comrade Mary
Yes, there’s really a fault there. EDIT: OK, technically a “thinness”. I stand corrected.
But the prospect of Yellowstone going kerblooie is much scarier.
Linda Featheringill
@David in NY: Yes, indeed. There is a New Madrid fault. Memphis and north [I don’t remember how far it stretches]. If it were to let loose, it would punch a hole in the continental US.
JL
Does Denis Boyles really believe that volcanic ash is weather? Or does he just believe his readers do?
Paul L.
Someone has forgot Al Gore in addition to being a premier Climate Scientist is also a Geologist.
Al Gore: Earth’s Core At “Several Million Degrees”
maus
@Gozer:
“What are you, some kinda Scientologist? All I know is that Al Gore is fat and it’s cold where I am, therefore global warming is a lie.”
Jason In the Peg
I’m supposed to go to Iceland in June. Hope the flights are still going.
bemused
@Cerberus:
I’ve been there once & would love to visit again. It is a strangely eerie and starkly beautiful place.
They take their elves living there very seriously. Icelanders who can see elves are consulted by the highway dept when making new roads or rerouting them so they do not go through an elf community.
David in NY
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: @Comrade Mary: @Linda Featheringill:
Thanks to all the New Madrid faultists for the information.
By the way, though I’ve never lived South of 40° latitude, I happen to know that one pronounces that “New Madrid”, or at least that’s what the guy driving a convertible and drinking Thunderbird told me at 8 a.m. after he picked me up hitchiking down to New Orleans in about 1971. Good times.
Brian Schmidt
As folks have said, wingtards confuse random short-term weather with long-term averages that climatology studies. They also confuse CO2 emissions from volcanoes with those from fossil fuels, even though the carbon isotopes make it possible to distinguish them.
#47 Paul – yes, Gore misspoke once in a live interview and said several million when he should’ve said several thousand degrees. If he had a pattern of doing this like those on the denialist side who “misspeak” in ways that help their cause, that would be important. But this isn’t even a factual error that helps his argument. In other words, give it a break.
Elizabelle
What drives me nuts is that yesterday’s NYTimes story on the whinging of “well-educated” tea partiers arrived with an email alert, whereas this one did not.
From their own story (and hey, this sounds like big news to me):
“The shutdown, among the most sweeping ever ordered in peacetime, forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and left airplanes stranded on the tarmac at some of the world’s busiest airports…
Deborah Seymour, a spokeswoman for Britain’s National Air Traffic Service, said the closure of the country’s airspace was the most extensive in recent memory. “It’s an extremely rare occurrence,” she said, noting that British airspace remained open even after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, except for a zone over central London…”
David in NY
@Paul L.:
Paul. Since your link shows that Gore was summarizing part of his book when he said “million degrees,” it might be fair to look at what his book says to see if he really does know what he’s talking about. But, of course, some people are just not interested in fair.
R-Jud
I live not too far off the BHX flight path. Didn’t realize how much noise planes add to our daily lives until they all stopped flying today.
We were thinking of flying to Spain this weekend. Glad we didn’t get around to booking the tickets.
Peter J
I guess there’s a joke about Al Gore being fat in there somewhere…
bjacques
Meanwhile vulcanologists are nervously watching for activity on nearby Asdfgdsf, Cynollo and Qwertyuiop.
The runway lights are going out all over Europe.
lou
My memory is rusty on this since I learned it in high school eons ago but I thought major volcano eruptions caused cooling, not warming? Wasn’t the year after that volcano erupted one of the coldest in the last 200 years? I seem to remember that the particles block the sun, or some such.
Of course, if this eruption does cause cooling, do expect Al Gore jokes from the denialists.
mclaren
The AGW deniers are fanatical crackpots — unfortunately, they seem to include a lot of smart well-educated people. If you check blogs like the fabius maximus blog, you’ll find that people who otherwise have a solid grasp of reality and who make insightful points about every other aspect of geopolitics suddenly start gibbering crazy drivel when the subject turns to global warming.
It’s bizarre and disheartening. And you can’t argue with these people. Cite the scientific references and they sneer, “You’re just giving a reading list, that’s nothing new.” Point out new record temperatures worldwide and they giggle, “Now you’re confusing weather with climate.” Point out the historical record of rising temperatures and they jeer, “The historical data are patchy.” Cite the chemistry and thermophysics of CO2 buildup in the earth’s atmosphere and they dismiss the entire subject with irrelevant digressions about “inaccuracies in the current climate models” and nonsense about “not accounting for the albedo” and so forth.
It’s like trying to argue with a flat-earther. No matter how much evidence you produce for AGW, it’s never enough. No matter how many different fields produce supporting evidence that converges on the conclusion that AGW is real, they dismiss it all by sneering about “unknown aspects of the current models” and nonsense involving the sunspot cycle (all long since debunked, but they either don’t know, or don’t care).
Polar Bear Squares
Wow.
If they are anything they are predictable.
Just ME in T
Lives being saved thru NOT flying right now…. could impact the weather for some time to come.
Is it any wonder then that because of the billowing plumes of ash coming from the Eyjafjallajokull glacier near Reykjavík, Iceland, hundreds of thousands of passengers now find themselves ‘fortunately’ grounded?
http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/04/under-proverbial-cloud.html
Fabius Maximus
The “This volcanic eruption disproves global warming” folks have it backwards. There is a theory that global warming causes more volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
* “Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes”, Reuters, 16 April 2010
* “Will present day glacier retreat increase volcanic activity?”, Carolina Pagli and Freysteinn Sigmundsson, Geophysical Research Letters, 7 May 2008 — “Stress induced by recent glacier retreat and its effect on magmatism at the Vatnajokull ice cap, Iceland”
* “Melting ice caps may trigger more volcanic eruptions”, New Scientist, 3 April 2008 — Article about the above study.
* “Retreating Glaciers Spur Alaskan Earthquakes”, NASA, 2 August 2004
A post at the FM website provides links and excerpts for these.
As for mclaren (#59): Keep trying! Eventually you’ll get something right on this subject.
Fabius Maximus
The “This volcanic eruption disproves global warming” folks have it backwards. There is a theory that global warming causes more volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
“Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes“, Reuters, 16 April 2010
“Will present day glacier retreat increase volcanic activity?“, Carolina Pagli and Freysteinn Sigmundsson, Geophysical Research Letters, 7 May 2008 — “Stress induced by recent glacier retreat and its effect on magmatism at the Vatnajokull ice cap, Iceland”
“Melting ice caps may trigger more volcanic eruptions“, New Scientist, 3 April 2008 — Article about the above study.
“Retreating Glaciers Spur Alaskan Earthquakes“, NASA, 2 August 2004
We see the two sides of the layperson’s climate science debate, looking at this comment and Mclaren’s (#59). Data vs name-calling. This is a more important division than that between the pro- and con- AGW camps. Which most strongly influences public opinion? Much depends on the result.
Fabius Maximus
Please delete comment #62. It is a dupe of #63, sent in error. I used the delete button, but it didn’t work.
Thanks!