Posted on 08/20/2007 5:00:40 PM PDT by Lorianne
A controversial theory proposes mimicking volcanoes to fight global warming. But throwing sulfur particles into the sky may do more harm than good, a new study says.
The temporary solution would pump particles of sulfur high into the atmospheresimulating the effect of a massive volcano by blocking out some of the sun's rays. This intervention, advocates argue, would buy a little time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But as well as cooling the planet, the sulfur particles would reduce rainfall and cause serious global drought, a new study says.
"It is a Band-Aid fix that does not work," said study co-author Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
It's just one of several drastic measures proposed to combat global warming, now that most scientists are in agreement that carbon dioxide, primarily from burning fossil fuels, is changing Earth's climate.
Drying Effects
Trenberth and NCAR colleague Aiguo Dai studied worldwide rainfall and streamflow records for the world's largest rivers between 1950 and 2004.
During this period three major volcanic eruptions occurred: Mount Agung in Indonesia in 1963, El Chichón in Mexico in 1982, and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.
It's well known that particles thrown into the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions cause a global cooling effect by reflecting back sunlight.
In the case of Mount Pinatubo, global temperatures dropped by an average of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) the following year. But until now, no one had been able to pin down the effect that these volcanoes might have had on rainfall.
By carrying out statistical analysis on rainfall and streamflow records, the researchers were able to detect a significant drying effect after Mount Pinatubo's eruption.
There was less rainfall over land, and a record decrease in runoff and ocean discharge into the ocean from October 1991 to September 1992, the scientists report this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
unbelievable
They are nuts...but they get their money from “creative thinking”. The object should be to save lives caused by natural disasters...not try to change the universe because they know only a pinch about how it works.
The Krakatoa method!
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
this worked so well in The Matrix movies for humnaity. “If we black out the sun, the solar powered machines will die right????......”
They're a waste of good oxygen.
“volcano cure for global warming.”
dingbats extraordinaire. another trip to onanism central for these loons. (what a bunch of f^&*($g idiots.)
There wasn’t any ice age. They were wrong about last year’s hurricane season and once and for all: They can’t successfully predict the temperature for NEXT WEEK.
I don’t claim the intellectual superiority that many do on here and I don’t access a bunch of websites to do my thinking, but it seems to me that a scientific theory becomes fact when its outcomes are predictable over a wide range of time and conditions. I thought I read that somewhere. These guys can’t make accurate predictions for next week but they can tell us about fifty years from now?
This is silly, it’s much easier to simply trip the breaker on the Sun to cool things down a bit.
Global warming, global warming...is that all people think about these days? For me, the global warming indoctrination started in fifth grade...we were given “Time for Kids” magazine and there was an article about CO2 emissions warming the planet. As if fifth graders really care about that...Anyway, it was pretty much silent on GW until my senior year, when I had to watch (or more like sleep through) An Inconvenient Truth in AP bio. And ours wasn’t the only science class watching it either. As a message to Al Gore and all the warming nuts who come up with “cures” like this volcano nonsense, allow me to present my possibly-future tagline:
IT’S THE SUN, STUPID!
Global warming could be very good for life on earth and global cooling could be very bad.
Neither would be good if they go extreme, while a tiny bit of global cooling wouldn't be too bad.
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I vote we sacrifice Hansen from NASA to a volcano - that should stop all the global-warming BS once and for all.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884148/posts
James Hansen has released a new scientific paper
Gee....
We forgot to take into account the secondary, tertiary and quarternary effects of our immetiate, knee-jerk action.
Sorry about that world.
Idiots
I see no harm in a little experiment where we put a few hundred tons of sulfur in the air and see what happens. It would be like peeing in the ocean compared to what volcanos do. I think the global warming supporters are deathly afraid of a technological solution that would allow the world’s people to achieve a Western standard of living. I’ve read their stuff and global warming is just an excuse for stopping economic growth and more specifically to hurt America’s economy. I support macro-engineering. If the planet really does get too hot, we can use sulfur to cool it down. If it gets too cold then we stop injecting the sulfur. Its totally reversible and controllable.
Why not just set Al Gore on fire? That oughtta do it.
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