When Eyjafjallajökull began erupting and dumping thousands of tons of volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere, many began to question what effect this would have on the Earth’s climate. There have been instances in recorded history where large volcanic eruptions have had dramatic effects on climate while the dust swirls around in the atmosphere and blocks the Sun’s energy from reaching the ground. This could possible lead to global cooling. Scientists now tell us that there should be no lasting effects as a result of the eruption, but scientific evidence and theory often has little to do with the global warming debate.
The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull brought global warming supporters the perfect ammunition to continue their argument that man made global warming exists and continues to occur due to the actions of industrialized nations. After several years of increasing temperatures, the trend of global warming has begun to slow in the last several years, and there may even be evidence of global cooling. This would lead to the possibility that climate change is not an event that is dictated by the actions of man, but rather a naturally occurring, cyclical event. When the amount of money that surrounds global warming is involved, there is a great push to show that climate change is not naturally occurring. If global warming is proved to be an event which man has no control over, there is no longer the need to spend billions of dollars trying to prevent it. Because of this, global warming supporters need some reason to account for cooler temperatures.
When Eyjafjallajökull erupted, they got their reason. It does not matter if evidence exists that the eruption will have no lasting effect on global temperatures. What matters is that supporters of global warming can create a public perception that the lack of continued rising temperatures is caused by the recent volcanic activity. They will try to create the perception that had Eyjafjallajökull not erupted we could have possibly been facing record temperatures, but due to the eruption temperatures failed to rise as expected. When these type of global arguments take place, reality is not nearly as important as perception because the average person has neither the time or the knowledge to research something as complex as global climate to find the real facts.
Due to the lack of straightforward knowledge about the complex subject of global warming, many will continue to only partially understand what is going on. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull possibly gives global warming supporters additional ammunition to use to continue to mislead the public about global warming. Only once global warming is no longer a money press for liberal causes will these types of misrepresentations of data no longer occur.
