Pictures: Global Warming Caused Eyjafjallajokull Volcano
IN Iceland, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has exploded. And global warming is to blame. (Just like it was to blame for that earthquke in Haiti.) Gaia has joned Plane Stupid to stop us from flying. Bill McGuire, of the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre at University College London, author of Seven Years to Save the Planet and an invitation to…:
Imagine a volcanic blast so devastating it obliterates at a stroke the English county of Yorkshire or the US state of Connecticut; a detonation so titanic it buries a continent in ash and plunges the entire world into a bitter volcanic winter.
No, sorry. Can’t. No Yorkshire? But the kids might be able to imagine the horror – article continues after gallery of the volcano…
In this image made available by the Icelandic Coastguard taken Wednesday April 14, 2010, smoke and steam rises from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, which erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters. Authorities evacuated 800 residents from around the glacier as rivers rose by up to 10 feet (3 meters). Emergency officials and scientists said the eruption under the ice cap was 10 to 20 times more powerful than one last month, and carried a much greater risk of widespread flooding.(AP Photo/Icelandic Coastguard, ho) **EDITORIAL USE ONLY** LON204APTOPIX ICELAND VOLCANO
To accompany Playhouse Disney’s Playing for the Planet Awards for budding eco-warriors, Bill McGuire has drawn up a list of tips to help pre-schoolers and their parents reduce their own and the UK’s carbon footprint
The basic ideas is when the ice melts the land bounces back (it being free of weighty ice). Then the water in the seas is heavier on the sea bed. The floor of the oceans can’t take the impact and bends. And… Kapow! And then there are the “ice-quakes” that could trigger volcanic eruptions.
“Periods of exceptional climate change in Earth history are associated with a dynamic response from the geosphere.” Responses include volcanic activity, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, glacial outbursts, rock-dam failure floods, debris flows, and destabilizations of gas-hydrates, which are crystalline solids consisting of gas molecules encaged by water molecules. According to McGuire, anthropogenic climate change doesn’t just affect oceans and the atmosphere.
What can be done? Bill McGuire has an idea, and involves the IPCC:
“In relation to anthropogenic climate change, modelling studies and projection of current trends point towards increased risk in relation to a spectrum of geological and geomorphological hazards in a warmer world, while observations suggest that the ongoing rise in global average temperatures may already be eliciting a hazardous response from the geosphere.”
May? Adding:
“In order to improve knowledge and reduce uncertainty, a programme of focused research is advocated … The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] is also strongly exhorted to address more explicitly in future assessments the impact of anthropogenic climate change on the geosphere, together with its manifold potentially hazardous consequences.”
And then pray…
Posted: 19th, April 2010 | In: Key Posts Comments (17) | TrackBack | Permalink
