Volcano Mayon To
Cool World
Temperatures - Again
By Regan Morris
dailynews.yahoo.com
3-6-00
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - While villagers living near Mayon volcano in the Philippines are feeling the force of brutal eruptions almost daily, the rest of the world could feel Mayon's impact through cooler global temperatures.
Mayon has been blasting out rock, dust and boulders as big as houses for over a week and climate experts say if the dust makes it into the upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, it would form a veil over the Earth, preventing some of the Sun's heat from reaching the Earth's surface and causing temperatures to drop.
``You would expect to see a reduction in temperatures in two, three months' time in global terms of a few tenths of a degree,' said Dr Jean Palutikof, Director of Internal Affairs of Britain's University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit.
``Of course, there will be regional differences with immediate effects under the dust cloud,' she told Reuters by telephone.
She said a small temperature change can have a big impact.
``It (a few tenths of a degree Celsius) sounds a small amount, but the global warming we all worry about is about 0.7 of a degree per year, because we're looking at global averages.'
While some regard man's hand in causing global warming as myth, most scientists agree that humans burning fossil fuels like coal and gas have contributed to the warming.
Nature's Revenge
Billowing, lava-spewing volcanoes, arguably nature at her most awesome, play a hand in slowing global warming.
``It is a paradox,' meteorologist Peter Scholefield of the U.N. World Climate Program told Reuters by telephone from Geneva. ``In 1991-92 the temperatures were not as high as the year before, there was a definite dip after Pinatubo.'
Powerful Philippine volcano Mt Pinatubo was the last volcano to have an impact on global weather patterns. It erupted with astonishing force in 1991 killing 800 people and forcing thousands to evacuate. (cont)
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