Does an erupting volcano emit as much CO2 as “all of humanity”, as messages on social networks say?

While a volcano in Iceland threatens to erupt, posts on X are ironic about potential future CO2 emissions.

Do volcanoes pollute more than human activity? If we wonder, it’s because numerous messages on social networks have emerged since Monday, November 13, while a volcano in Iceland threatens to erupt. These posts are ironic about the lava and the immense smoke released by this type of volcanoes, which are much worse, according to them, than the pollution generated by cars or planes. VShe messages, seen several thousand times on X formerly Twitter, simply state that “Volcanoes release more CO2 into the atmosphere in a few hours than all of humanity.”

Human activity emits 100 times more

In reality, this statement is false. It’s the opposite, and even very far away since according to a recent American study, human activity emits approximately 100 times more CO2 each year than all the volcanoes on the planet. VSThis is what the National Academy of Sciences in Washington tells us, which estimates that volcanoes release around 280 to 360 million tons of CO2 each year. VSThese are important numbers but they are very far from emissions linked to human activity which are estimated, for the year 2022 alone, at more than 40 billion tonnes of CO2!

Do volcanoes still have an impact on global warming? OYes, volcanic activity or an eruption that lasts several days (as has already been the case in Iceland) can temporarily affect the climate but there is no significant long-term impact. VSunlike human activity which is indeed the main cause of climate change, according to the latest IPCC report.

Moreover, the IPCC estimates that natural causes, such as volcanic activity, have contributed very little to global warming: less than 0.1 degrees for more than a hundred years. while warming due to humans is occurring at a much higher rate: +0.2 degrees per decade, that is to say 20 times faster!