The Histrionic Follies of Volcano Deniers

What Hunga Tonga teaches about climate ‘science.’

Many Americans who are receptive to the possibility that human activities are warming the globe may invoke the motto of the Show Me State when asking alarmists to share what is never shown – evidence. Greta Thunberg (self-appointed Lorax of the carbon molecule), AOC (grand inquisitor of cow burps), and John Kerry (Joe Biden-appointed climate envoy and nouveau regulator of American farms) are not scientists but politicians who employ histrionics in lieu of data. The recent eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH), a volcano in the South Pacific, exposes the endless stream of lies from these and other climate charlatans.

Underwater Volcanoes = Vaporized Ocean

Hunga Tonga exploded deep on the ocean floor in 2022, a once-in-a-lifetime massive geological event that spewed incomprehensible volumes of water high into the Earth’s atmosphere. Never have satellites observed such; never have layers of the atmosphere been studied for chemical and other impacts caused by the volume of atmospheric water and aerosols. Climate scientists warn that this volcano will warm the planet and disrupt rainfall patterns. Amid record temperatures and flooding in 2023, climate politicos howl about human-caused calamity while avoiding the impacts of Hunga Tonga.

This volcano is such an elephant-in-the-climate-change room that NASA seeks to ignore inconvenient truths. Of course, science instructs that volcanic sulfur, water, carbon dioxide, and organic matter can all impact climate dramatically (even unto the extinction of dinosaurs). A political ideology blindly focused on greenhouse gases has no time to set aside dogmatic blinders for critical scientific assessment. That assessment is extremely revealing.

The impacts of HTHH were so substantial that scientists were required to develop a new technique simply to measure its height. It caused “puzzling ripples” through the atmosphere that have never before been observed, “leaving experts stumped,” according to Nature. The volcano’s water plume increased stratospheric water mass by 13% and stratospheric aerosol loads five-fold.

According to Space: “[T]he Hunga Tonga cloud burst not only through the troposphere but also ascended through the entire stratosphere, only plateauing at the altitude of 35 miles (57 km), way into the freezing and dry layer known as the mesosphere. This makes the Hunga Tonga volcanic cloud the highest ever observed.”

Volcanoes, Climate Science, and NASA

Volcano and weather scientists are unsure how this blast will impact the planet, but climate ideologues have looked right past it, like snarling dogs after a rabbit. However, numerous scientific journals have hinted at Hunga Toga’s potential to warm the Earth’s surface:

•  “Tonga Eruption May Temporarily Push Earth Closer to 1.5°C of Warming” (Eos)

• “Water vapor from Tonga’s volcanic eruption could warm Earth for years” (Space)

• “The 2022 Tonga Eruption May Have Caused Temporary Global Warming” (SYFY WIRE)

• “Tonga eruption increases chances of temporary surface temperature anomaly above 1.5°C” (Nature Climate Change)

• “Highest ever volcanic plume might have warmed Earth’s climate” (Space)

These are scientific publications, yet these sensible inquiries are shunted aside in favor of the end-of-the-world cult narrative. People might be happy to know that current climate disruptions may be temporary and volcano-caused. Yet NASA is completely mum about even the possibility. These people are volcano deniers!

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Islands (Photo by Maxar via Getty Images)

Yet NASA reported last year that Hunga Tonga could cause global warming based on assessments that underestimated its size. Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, speculated that “the water vapor could start having a warming effect on the planet’s surface temperature once the accompanying cooling particles dissipate in about three years … It’s not going to exacerbate climate change.”

Science magazine reported in September 2022: “Atmospheric water vapor absorbs solar radiation and re-emits it as heat; with tens of millions of tons of Tonga’s moisture now adrift in the stratosphere, Earth’s surface will be heating up — though it’s unclear by how much … But because the vapor is lighter than other volcanic aerosols and is less affected by gravity’s pull, it will take longer for this warming effect to dissipate, and surface warming could continue ‘over the months to come,’ the scientists said.”

Nature Climate Change noted in January 2023: “This large water vapour perturbation means that HTHH will probably increase the net radiative forcing, unusual for a large volcanic eruption, increasing the chance of the global surface temperature anomaly temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C over the coming decade.”

Heatwaves, Floods, and Climate ‘Science’

(Photo by Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Scientists who don’t know how much Hunga Tonga has impacted current conditions are trying to learn by observation; most climate alarmists register warming by human hand through their fear prism, and so turn away from this volcano like a (real, not anthropomorphic, gain-of-function) plague. NASA connects current warming to human activity with no scientific links whatsoever. The agency should stick to polluting space recklessly with techno-detritus rather than gaslighting an epic volcano. Hunga Tonga does provide a scientific connection to support a causative explanation for both current warming and flooding trends: extraordinary amounts of water in the atmosphere, like a giant terrarium, together with a five-fold amplification of stratospheric aerosol loads.

Net-zero emission “standards” are applied to cows, cars, and gas stoves but not to jet travel, ski chalets, and golf courses. Elites dictate the activities to be targeted in the nebulous name of climate change and indicate the cause for which these stoic measures are irrationally rationalized: human and no other.

Americans are told current warming and flooding are caused by working-class commuters, not a (net-zero?) war in Ukraine, (net-zero?) missions to land BIPOC people on the moon, or a never-before-seen volcanic eruption that scientists are still trying to fully fathom. Thus climate “warriors” scuttle with ragged claws to re-bury Hunga Tonga on the ocean floor of the establishment media.

(Previously published at Liberty Nation).