

Beautiful doesn’t make it true - mseebach
http://ma.rtinseeba.ch/post/530394501/beautiful-doesnt-make-it-true

======
noibl
If ever there was a strawman. He says: "Planes emit CO2 - but they emit almost
completely clean CO2 (note that bar global warming, CO2 isn’t considered
harmful). Volcanoes blast tons and tons of all kinds of nasty and not so nasty
stuff into the air. Some of the ash contains nutrients that will fertilize
soil, other will, as mentioned, cause acid rain. It’s much more complex than
CO2."

Well... no, the question raised is clearly about CO2 and nothing but CO2. How
much do volcanic ash clouds affect the planet's albedo? How much precious
fossil fuel do the planes collectively consume? Not relevant.

------
neonfunk
I don't think the IIB post is partisan.

This author says, "they emit almost completely clean CO2 (note that bar global
warming, CO2 isn’t considered harmful)" ... To my ears, that's a major
understatement ("bar global warming"). I'm almost inclined to think it's more
partisan than the original post, to be so dismissive of climate change.

But beyond that, the point that seems most incongruous is the suggestion that
because volcanos emit a more explicitly toxic gas (S02) that we shouldn't have
an awareness of our own emissions and their effect on the environment. By
comparing it to a volcano's emissions, I am simply impressed by the scale.

I think you really have to read into this to derive a moral/political
statement. Nobody is trying to hide the effects of S02.

~~~
wdewind
I don't think it's intentionally partisan, I think it's simply under thought
(like, at this point, the vast majority of IIB's stuff). It's not that you
don't get a comparison, it's that the comparison doesn't really mean anything.
When you are comparing these numbers you want to understand the impact they
have, not just the numbers themselves. As the OP said, it's simply misleading
to portray this relationship as meaningful: it's not.

The only value of these numbers, as you have said, is to have an awareness of
their relative effect on the environment. That's not what's being presented
here.

------
scotty79
As far as I know high quantities of SO2 shield earth from sun rays causing
cooling on global scale. I've recently heard about volcano eruption about
hundred years ago (maybe two hundred I'm not sure) that caused ground-frost in
July next year severely harming crops and causing hunger that led to many
thousand deaths in US and all over the world.

So if you are afraid of global warming you should welcome every volcano
eruption with joy as its SO2 emission counter-effects influence of many
millions of tons of CO2.

~~~
noibl
1815: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_without_a_summer>

Not sure about the joy bit since large SO2 emissions have a catastrophic
effect on agriculture as you noted, but do not have effects lasting more than
a few years. CO2 lasts a good bit longer than that.

------
Anon84
“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are
permitted to remain children all our lives.” (Albert Einstein)

------
uriel
From what I have seen so far " _Information is Beautiful_ " would more
accurately be called " _How to lie with cute infographics_ ".

I don't think they intentionally lie, but their infographics are often
misleading at best, and give people a false sense of understanding and
knowledge.

