The Gaia Hypothesis?

A handful of Right Wing Nut Jobs are trying to claim that that the erupting volcano in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced "ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl"...really, motherfuckers? some English phoneticist somewhere really thinks that helps?) is spewing more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere than all of greenhouse gasses ever produced by humans in the history of the planet Earth! Therefore the idea that human activity is responsible for global climate change (yes Change, not Warming...human activity and emissions disrupt normal weather patterns leading to warming in some areas, colling in other areas and a change in the flow of oceanic and atmospheric currents) must be FALSE!




Well, first of all, I'll wait for a peer reviewed scientific paper by educated people who know what the fuck they are talking about analyzing the output of that unpronounceable fucking volcano before I blindly accept the bold assertion of some blogger with a political agenda.

Second of all, they demonstrate their ignorance of science and, well, rationality, by making that claim in the first place.

It's like claiming that because the detonation of Big Ivan released more radioactivity than all of the medical X-Rays ever given and we're all still here, radioactivity must not be harmful to humans!




Apparently they lack the mental discipline to distinguish between a single, huge, one-time, local event and a lower level, sustained, global event that persists over hundreds of years.

A chemical rocket, like the Saturn V, can explode with over 1.7 million pounds of thrust and hurl a payload at extraordinary speeds. But much like an 18 year old boy, it only lasts a few minutes.



But an Ion or Plasma rocket can generate very little thrust over very long periods of time and achieve much greater velocities.




The volcano vs. human argument has no basis in fact and is put forth by people who don't know what they are talking about.

But if you adhere to a New Age Hippie point of view, the eruption of whateverthfuckyoucallit could actually PROVE that human-caused global climate change is true.

"The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts...[Gaia can be defined] as a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback of cybernetic systems which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet."

Dr James Lovelock - Gaia - A New Look at Life on Earth"

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 was MUCH larger than Eyewannafeelya in Iceland.

"In June 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century took place on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, a mere 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of the capital city Manila.

Up to 800 people were killed and 100,000 became homeless following the Mount Pinatubo eruption, which climaxed with nine hours of eruption on June 15, 1991.

On June 15, millions of tons of sulfur dioxide were discharged into the atmosphere, resulting in a decrease in the temperature worldwide over the next few years."

Under the Gaia Hypothesis, one could make the argument that these volcanic eruptions are an effort by the Gaia Super organism to maintain a habitable environment by hurling enough material into the stratosphere to shade and cool the Earth, thereby counteracting the effects of the warming caused by human activity.

I sincerely hope (and believe) that this is not true. Because the Gaia Hypothesis can be extrapolated to include the concept that when the Earth becomes too crowded to be sustainable, Gaia would produce sufficient quantities of disasters and disease to cull the population to a more sustainable level.

Thank goodness we haven't seen any new, weird diseases cropping up.

Right?