PLIMER JUMPS THE SHARK OVER THE VOLCANO UNDER THE GLACIER AGAIN

BETTER TOSS ANOTHER GEOLOGIST ON THE BARBIE, MATE, 

THE FIRST ONE DID A RAINBOW YAWN

Having  blown its frozen top in 1362,  and again in 1727, ice-covered Öræfajökull,  Iceland's largest active volcano, is rumbling once again. Media Watch notes that the last unpronounceable Icelandic volcano to spew ash and ground  planes all over northern Europe also turned the thoughts of  antipodean talk radio to the climate wars :

Talking to Australia's Coal Coast on 2BC Sydney, Jason Morrison said: ... this morning I'm driving to work and flicking around on the radio and I hear someone say, 'Isn't it amazing how much carbon pollution is going to be saved from getting into the atmosphere because all those planes won't be flying because the volcano's erupting... They're kidding aren't they? So I thought I'd try to get you some facts.— Radio 2GB, The Jason Morrison Drive Show, 19th April, 2010

Morrison, who's deeply sceptical about human-induced global warming, as for some facts from facts from Queensland mining geologist  Professor Ian Plimer, who's even more deeply sceptical.:

Prof. Ian Plimer: ... we humans only put out about three per cent of the annual emissions of carbon dioxide. The rest comes from all sorts of other things, including volcanoes.— Radio 2GB, The Jason Morrison Drive Show, 19th April, 2010

But volcanogist  expert Dr Fred Jourdan of Curtin University objected:

... it has been shown by the US Geological Survey that current emissions from volcanoes are being dwarfed by human emissions to a ratio of 1/130...— Response from Fred Jourdan (Prof. of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology), 28th April, 2010

The numbers talk- run them  and you'll find human greenhouse emissions run a hundred and thirty times greater in a given year than all the volcanoes on earth

But never  one to be upstaged  by a jumbo jet, Professor Plimer,  who is Australia's preeminent Creationist- basher,  went  on deliver a sermon of his own:

Prof. Ian Plimer: The very fact that we see this great plume of particles going into the atmosphere is telling us there's a huge amount of greenhouse gas being released from this volcano, unpronounceable volcano.— Radio 2GB, The Jason Morrison Drive Show, 19th April, 2010

At which Jason Morrison  harrumphed so much for all those warmists who think puny humans can have an effect on the world's climate:

Jason Morrison: ... and I just, I wonder what this does to all their theories?

Prof. Ian Plimer: It completely stuffs them, we know that.— Radio 2GB, The Jason Morrison Drive Show, 19th April, 2010

Which inspired another Australian talking head to  chat up Plimer and opine:

Keva Gocher: The volcanic eruption would eclipse any carbon emissions released by man. Now that was one of the intriguing statements I recall geologist Ian Plimer making at his Monaro climate change conference organised last year by the local group Monaro farming systems.— ABC Radio Rural Report, South East NSW, 21st April, 2010

Prof. Ian Plimer: ... the human emission is very, very small. One single big volcano can actually completely change the whole carbon dioxide budget. We have to look at this in perspective.— ABC Radio Rural Report, South East NSW, 21st April, 2010

Really?  Dr Jourdan proceeded to do some actual research, and concluded:

The eruption in Iceland emitted a fairly small amount of CO2. In fact most recent estimates show that the flights that were grounded by the eruption would have emitted about twice as much CO2 as the volcano itself.— Response from Fred Jourdan (Prof. of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology), 30th April, 2010

At the time of Dr. Jourdan's writing, April, 2010:

from: http://gizmodo.com/5519809/eyjafjallajokull-daily-co2-output-utterly-dwarfed-by-european-aviation-industry

"European aviation industry's daily CO2 output completely dominates poor Eyjafjallajökull with a daily tally of 344,109 tons of CO2 per day. Compared to the volcano's 15,000 tons."

It rurns out  in the end that  at the height of the   Eyjafjallajökull  eruption,  the volcano puffed out  a scant 150,000 tonnes a day of  CO2--  Less  than half the emission of the  air  transport it grounded .

It also led to some television fireworks: