Summarised by Centrist
Move over cows and Taylor Swift’s private jet, the real cause of our recent global warming might just be an underwater volcano in Tonga.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Victor Joecks, while mainstream media blames fossil fuels and livestock, the true villain might be nature itself.
In 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption catapulted an amount of water vapour equivalent to 10% of the water already present in the Earth’s stratosphere.
Some scientists say this vapour traps heat – unlike the usual volcanic outputs that cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight back into space – and may be a significant driver of current warming.
The underwater volcano’s massive release of water vapour – predicted by NASA and other scientific bodies – is expected to remain in the atmosphere for up to a decade. This may be contributing to the higher temperatures we see today.
Despite these findings, the mainstream narrative continues to push fossil fuel reduction and livestock control as primary solutions to climate change.
Joecks argues that it oversimplifies a complex issue. He writes that climate-related deaths have decreased significantly over the past century, thanks in part to advancements powered by fossil fuels, which have raised living standards and made extreme temperatures more bearable.