Clouds or ash?

One among the experts who doubt that greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause for climate change is Henrik Svensmark from the Danish National Space Institute. He holds that solar activity and its effect on clouds is the reason for climate change. He and his team say they have established a perfect correlation between solar activity and earth surface temperature. Low-hanging clouds shade the earth and cool it. So it was before temperature began to rise.

But today there are less cosmic rays causing less aerosols and less clouds in lower altitudes consequently the earth is getting hotter. The ions that the aerosols form when entering the atmosphere cause clouds in high altitude that let through more sun rays and consequently heat the ground.

These research results are contested by scientists. I as a layman also find them little probable. I propose another theory that might also not stand critique, but consider it before you judge:

The year 1816 had no summer. In North America and Southern Europe no sun was to be seen even in broad daytime. No crops crew in the fields, no cereals, no potatoes, no fruit nothing could be harvested. It rained a lot and was cold. People first ate house animals, later wild animals both alive and dead, and eventually the fruit of forest trees and roots. Thousands died from starvation in Switzerland and southern Germany.

Today we know that the eruption of Volcano Tambora on the Indonesian Island of Sumbawa on April 10, 1815 was the reason for the worldwide disaster.

In the Old Testament we learn about the ten plagues of the Egyptians. The plague of hail and fire, the plague of the darkness, the plague upon the cattle, the locusts that ate up all plants causing famine were caused by the explosion of Santorini 300 kilometers off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ash fall from Taal Volcano is locally limited. But if the Yellowstone Super-volcano erupts, which is overdue according to volcanologists, the impact will be global.

I myself was witness of the aftermaths of a volcanic eruption. In the year 1993 in Berlin we observed unusual sunsets. Still long time after sundown high in the western sky was seen an orange ‘cloud’. We were told by the experts of the sky observatory that the sunken sun irradiated the dust propelled into the stratosphere by Mount Pinatubo. Of course that ash was present all day long absorbing and reflecting a part of the sunrays.

My theory is that, since for some time no super-volcano has erupted, all volcanic ash has dissipated into further space or fallen to earth. Therefore, sunrays reach the earth unimpeded causing global warming. But as I hinted before, it is just a wild theory without scientific base.

If the cause for global warming is questionable I can easily ascertain the reason for urban warming. Measure the temperature in a Cebu street with high-rise buildings on each side and a bumper-to-bumper traffic. And then compare it with the temperature on my farm on Olango, you will be surprised by the difference.

Erich Wannemacher

Lapu-Lapu City