Vocal Voices

The earthquakes and eruptions of Cumbre Vieja have largely gone under the radar. However, yesterday the lava flow crashed into the sea causing a "Laze" - lava + haze - and this is a mix of steam, hydrochloric acid and ash, and there could be explosions. It could be a killer if breathed in. This could go on for months.

The whole island has been declared a disaster zone by Spain.

What are EXtint Rebellion doing about it?

What concerns me about the La Palma eruption is that it's of the Strombolian or explosive type. It could escalate into something very nasty indeed; you only have to look at the topography of the island to see what has happened in the past.

There is a reccognised "Doomsday Event" scenario of one of these Canary Island volcanoes blowing up and creating a huge landslip into the Atlantic Ocean which could spark tsunamis. Of course. the chances of this current event actually playing out like that are very, very, very remote ... but who knows?

If it happens, Cruiser, Extinction Rebellion will be the least of our problems.

It would be interesting to know how much carbon emissions and assorted other nasties that the volcano is chucking out though.
I think that Cruiser is right. XR should go and lie down on the slopes of the volcano and protest!

Usually explosive events happen when closed. Once they have broken open the lava release removes the pressure under the rock dome.

It's unlikely to go explosive now. Not impossible, just unlikely.

As always immediate disasters take over from slow burn, but much larger, disasters. So ER would get short shrift.

Meanwhile, today, there was an article about how they reviewed Hansen's predictions from 1988. Of the three scenario's, only the middle was likely as the 60's and 70's CO2 growth pace was unlikely to be continued. The biggest miss was the recovery of the Ozone layer.

Once adjusted for the recovery of the Ozone layer Hansen and his team's predictions are correct within a few % between 1988 and 2019.

Whilst volcano's and tsunami's are catastrophic events, they are also local events. Global warming will get almost everyone, everywhere. It is a matter of understanding scale. Humans suck at it.

cromwell wrote:I think that Cruiser is right. XR should go and lie down on the slopes of the volcano and protest!

Agree. They are politically aligned, not environmentally.