Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano’s ash cloud has many effects: creating stunning photos, stranding travelers, scaring horses (and even disrupting their semen shipments). Hotly debated by some has been the effect of the volcano on the earth’s climate. The grounding of thousands of flights per day surely represents a drop in emissions, but volcanoes emit CO2, among other gases, brazenly ignoring any emissions caps. As the chart below demonstrates, however, the net effect is likely a short-term, substantial decrease in total CO2 emissions in Europe.
Not included in this chart is the impact that other volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide will have on the earth’s climate by reflecting sunlight back into space. Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in the Philippines in 1991 temporarily cooled the planet by 0.5-0.6°C. Scientists think that the current scale of the Icelandic eruption isn’t large enough to have a significant effect on the climate. If the eruption grows, or if additional volcanoes are triggered by its eruption, that could of course change. In the meantime, the CO2 reduction by grounded flights is perhaps a tiny comfort for the thousands stranded or inconvenienced by Eyjafjallajökull.
