“The Next Big Volcano Could Briefly Cool Earth. NASA Wants to Be Ready.”

Clio Dakolias

AP Bio

Mr. Ippolito

February 5, 2017

CE 15

Fountain, Henry. “The Next Big Volcano Could Briefly Cool Earth. NASA Wants to Be Ready.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/climate/volcano-geoengineering.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/science&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront.

For Current Event 15, I chose to review an article from The New York Times titled “The Next Big Volcano Could Briefly Cool Earth. NASA Wants to Be Ready,” by Henry Fountain. Volcanic eruptions are responsible for releasing molten rock, or lava, from deep within the Earth, forming new rock on Earth’s surface. But eruptions also have an impact on Earth’s atmosphere. The gases and dust particles thrown into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions have influences on the climate. Most of the particles- typically droplets of sulfuric acid -spewed from volcanoes cool the planet by shading incoming radiation. The tiny particles are so light that they can stay in the stratosphere for months, blocking sunlight and causing cooling over large areas of the Earth. This temporary cooling effect can last for months or years, depending on the characteristics of the eruption. In 1991, a volcano in the Philippines- Pinatubo -spewed a cubic mile of rock, ash, and sulfur dioxide gas into the atmosphere. The gas spread around the world, and formed aerosols by combining with water vapor. The consequential result was a drop in average global temperatures by about one degree Fahrenheit for a period of several years. Such eruptions are one of the biggest natural influences on the climate, and eruptions such as Pinatubo are a natural analog of geoengineering, the intervening in the atmosphere to deliberately cool the planet. Scientists, including some from NASA, are planning to study the next big volcanic eruption in order to learn how techniques could be utilized and carried out. Alan Robock, a Rutgers University researcher, stated the following: “‘...even if there were no such thing as geoengineering, it’s still important to understand how volcanoes affect climate.’” While the plan to study the next big volcanic eruption has been in discussion for years, it has gained some momentum, as well as urgency in recent weeks. “Mount Agung, a volcano in Bali, began erupting at the end of November. Agung’s last major eruption occurred in 1963, and should it fully blow with similar fury it could pump enough sulfur dioxide gas high enough into the atmosphere to have a measurable cooling effect.” Many large volcanic eruptions which rank high on an “explosivity index,” or a scale from 0 to 8 depending largely on the volume of ejected as and gas, are not necessarily helpful to study. This is because the index does not necessarily correlate to impact on climate, as the ash and gas has to be expelled upward rather than laterally to have a measurable cooling effect. NASA researchers are in the process of mapping out a plan to monitor the next large eruption, whether it be Agung or another volcano. Even if learning more about major eruptions’ does not lead to progress in geoengineering, it is still imperative to learn more about volcanoes’ impact on the climate, in both positive and negative lights.  

Geoengineering offers the hope of temporarily reversing some aspects of global warming and allowing the natural climate to be substantially preserved whilst greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control and removed from the atmosphere by natural or artificial processes. Studying volcanoes can help to further these plans, which could have a large impact on Earth. Climate change is important because it is happening, and it might not be visible to some, but the Earth is rapidly changing in a completely irreversible way, and extreme weather is becoming much more deadly and dangerous. As climate change and greenhouse gases begin to take a larger toll on the future of our planet, measures to slow down the rate of warming are becoming more desperate and risky. Many argue that the risks of geoengineering, such as the possibility of the proposed techniques falling short of predictions, outweigh the possible benefits, but we are at a pivotal time, where something must be done before it is too late to save our planet, and that time is racing closer and closer. Some argue about the ethics of geoengineering, such as the question as to if humans have the right to change the climate deliberately. This argument has little substance, as humans are arguably solely responsible for climate change, and it is therefore our duty to do all we can to attempt to save the planet.

Fountain, the author, did a great job on this article, including quotations from different studies and researchers, and discussing the effect of major eruptions on the atmosphere as well as the technique of geoengineering. The overall article was very well written, but the author should have included more about the importance of stopping climate change before it is too late. There was no sense of urgency about the article, which was definitely something they could have done better, as climate change is a very real and current problem that affects the future of our planet.