“Guardian Continues To Spread Misinformation About Eyjafjallajokull“. Self-important non-volcanologist Steven Goddard tries to use an error in the reporting about the CO₂ released from the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano to repeat the disproved denialist meme that human CO₂ output is insignificant (“we know that plants, soil and the oceans generate 30 times as much CO2 as all fossil fuel burning combined“).

Let’s just stop here for a moment and remember that the “plants, soil and the oceans” are part of the active carbon cycle. Barring human intervention, they are effectively in balance. Fossil fuel CO₂ output is not counteracted. That, in a nutshell, is the bloody problem! Steven’s deliberately repeating a denialist deceit.

Some of the original reporting incorrectly listed the volcano’s CO₂ output as 15,000 tonnes/day, and compared it to the daily 206,465 tonnes of CO₂ that would normally be generated by the canceled transatlantic flights. It turns out that the correct estimate of the volcano’s CO2 output should have been 150,000 tonnes, possibly ranging up to 300,000.

So the media got this a bit wrong at first. Damn them! Of course this is just irrelevant whining as far as the climate change debate goes.

It’s interesting to note that the daily CO₂ emissions of transatlantic flights alone are equivalent to a continuous full-on volcanic eruption, isn’t it?