Volcano might affect more than airlines

The cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that disrupted air travel all over Europe got a lot of attention from the news media, which interviewed folks stranded at airports in Britain and Europe. The ash was so thick that it threatened aircraft. Ash particles, it was feared, could be sucked into the intake of jet engines and cause the engines to stall or rip apart.

The angle on this story that got almost no attention was the possible impact on global weather. Today's News & Observer carried a column about the catastrophic impact a sixth century volcanic eruption had all over Europe and the Middle East. Enough volcanic dust blown into the upper atmosphere can shade sunlight, leaving a pale, moon-like sun at mid-day, according to historical documents. The sixth century was not the last time a volcano caused weather changes in faraway places. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the western Pacific resulted in a much colder winter and much shorter summer in North America.

I haven't read any comparisons to the Icelandic volcano (whose name no one outside of Iceland can spell or pronounce) to Krakatoa, but surely there must be some analogy. Maybe we won't have a dimmed sun or a ice on rivers that had never frozen before, but the massive dust cloud that grounded airlines for about a week would seem likely to have some impact on temperatures. The scattering of light-reflecting particles in the atmosphere has even been suggested as a solution to global warming. The trick would be getting just the right amount of atmospheric dust — enough to slow global warming but not enough to initiate global freezing.

While travelers are celebrating being able at last to get out of or to Europe, some folks should be thinking about the long-term impact of this volcano, which is reportedly still spewing its innards into the atmosphere. The lack of attention to this important angle baffles me.