The spectacular eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull Volcano has left Delphi questioning what the impacts on climate change might be. What kind of greenhouse gases are emitted? What about all that ash and sulphur dioxide? And what are the knock-on effects from grounded European aviation?
According to the US Geological Survey, volcanoes emit about 145-255 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That compares to about 27 billion tonnes of GHG s annually from human activities, making the human contribution to GHG emissions about 130 times greater than volcanic emissions.
The Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, disruptive as it is, is relatively small in terms of GHG emissions. It is estimated to be releasing about 15,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per day. While nobody is celebrating the grounded European aviation industry, the GHG comparison is worth noting. About 60% of European flights have been cancelled due to the eruption. European aviation accounts for about 3% of Europe’s emissions, which works out to be about 344,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent daily.
So, unexpectedly, there seems to be a significant net GHG savings due to the eruption, though emissions from peoples' alternative travel arrangements isn't being considered.
As far as the effects of extra sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, this volcano isn’t much of a shiner, either. So far, it’s emitting about 3,000 tonnes of the gas per day. For comparison, Australian industry alone emits about 7,000 tonnes per day. So unlike the gargantuan 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines that belched out about 15 million tonnes of the sulphur dioxide and was blamed for a cold summer and a temporary decline in global temperature of about 0.5°C, Eyjafjallajökull is negligible.
Thousands of travelers had to rearrange plans and some photographers got the picture of a lifetime, but the climate will barely notice Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull Volcano.
By Jeff Beyer, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
