Yes the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland (Mt. Eyjafjallajökull) is dumping a lot of co2 into the air, but the real benefit of this volcano is that it is keeping thousands of planes from flying around Europe, removing hundreds of thousands of tonns of co2 out of the air.
The Iceland volcano will also pump lots of particles into the world’s air.
Some of the sunlight coming into earth’s atmosphere will strike these particles and reflect back into space – less heating of our atmosphere!
But don’t get too excited. We are at about 400 parts per million of CO2 in our atmosphere today. That CO2 is trapping a lot of heat already. But the volcano will tap the brakes a little bit.
Is it possible to create a volcanic eruption with, say, a large explosive device placed in existing volcano cones? If it is, we could pay poor countries to start volcanic eruptions in their remote regions, thus causing solar dimming, thus reducing sunlight hitting earth using a natural means.
Bill: You can reflect sunlight in that way, but it does nothing to stop the acidification of the oceans (co2 + seawater = acid). which is affecting the base of the food chain (algae and diatoms) because these tiny creatures may not be able to create shells because the water is too acidic, because most of the oxygen on the planet comes from the oceans (small plants in the water) we might want to address the source of the problem (co2). Plus if you start dumping particles into the air to dim the sun, if you ever stop doing it the earth will suddenly heat up very quickly.
overall its a bad way to cool the planet.
OK. You’re right. Scratch the idea of setting off more volcanoes.
But wait a second…I see your point if we turn off the oxygen machine of the oceans. So over time we have less oxygen. How long can we live from the lessening amount ocean creatures put into the atmosphere, plus the existing oxygen?
You are right about sudden heating if particles decline. It famously happened 9-11 when planes worldwide were grounded for only three days. A temperature increase of 1 degree C was recorded all over the world just from the drop pollution and contrails from planes alone.