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> Do the Earth's volcanoes emit more CO2 than human activities? No.

I hope that a moderately dry and educational page like this would not be taken down for political satisfaction.



Large eruptions probably would. Short term anyway, they don’t really happen often enough.


People average 100x the annual CO2 from all volcanoes combined. Large eruptions release a great deal of matter but not that much CO2 as a percentage and not very quickly.

Even if by large you’re talking about once in 50 year events like the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo that lasted days during which it released 10 cubic kilometers of material. But it still only added 0.05 GT of CO2, roughly what people currently release every 12 hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_eruption_of_Mount_Pinatub...

There’s been larger eruptions, but I think we’re looking past what people consider ‘Large’ into apocalyptic events.


Why would we expect a volcano to emit more than incidental amounts of CO2 in the first place? Despite the superficial similarities, it's not a bonfire.


Carbon (usually in rocks like limestone) that is subducted is returned to the atmosphere by volcanoes.


Pinatubo affected the ozone layer as well


Your point?


People should be discussing it upfront but apparently Paul Crutzen thinks it’s a risk worth taking so I’ll watch and wait.




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