Your fact checkers are fulla shit, my extensive research has proven one volcano can produce in one hour more CO² than man can in a year!
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Executive summary
The claim that “one volcano can produce in one hour more CO₂ than man can in a year” is misleading: while brief, powerful eruptions can release CO₂ at rates comparable to human emissions for hours, the integrated annual CO₂ from all volcanoes is a tiny fraction of annual anthropogenic emissions (typically tens to hundreds of times smaller) [1] [2] [3]. Multiple independent measurements and syntheses — NASA, USGS, NOAA, Deep Carbon Observatory and peer‑reviewed studies — converge on volcanic annual CO₂ in the range ~0.13–0.44 gigatonnes while human emissions exceed ~30–36 gigatonnes per year, meaning humans currently emit roughly 40–150 times more CO₂ annually than volcanoes [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. The kernel of truth — very large eruptions can briefly match human rates
Volcanic eruptions such as Mount St. Helens or Pinatubo have vented millions to tens of millions of tonnes of CO₂ in hours to days, and some analyses note that for a few hours a major explosive event can approach or exceed the global human emission rate over that same short interval [5] [3] [8]. Reporting from NOAA and the USGS explicitly acknowledges that instantaneous eruption rates can be comparable to human rates for short periods, which is the factual hook that fuels the viral claim [1] [3].
2. The arithmetic that kills the viral claim — integrated annual budgets
Experts and syntheses place global volcanic CO₂ emissions at roughly 0.13–0.44 gigatonnes (130–440 million tonnes) per year when submarine and diffuse degassing are included [4] [6]. By contrast, modern anthropogenic emissions from fossil fuels, cement and land‑use change are in the 30–36 gigatonne range per year, a difference of roughly one to two orders of magnitude; put simply, human emissions are tens to over a hundred times larger annually than volcanic emissions [5] [6] [9].
3. Why the viral phrasing is misleading, not scientific
Stating that “one volcano in one hour produces more CO₂ than humans in a year” mixes an extraordinary short‑term spike with a long‑term cumulative quantity; it treats a temporary, localized rate as equivalent to an integrated global annual flux, which is apples to oranges [1] [3]. Fact‑check outlets (AP, Reuters) and science communicators repeatedly flag this rhetorical sleight‑of‑hand: isolated eruption pulses do not change the fact that human emissions are continuous and cumulative and have driven the long‑term rise in atmospheric CO₂ [10] [9] [7].
4. Scientific consensus and remaining uncertainties
The consensus across NOAA, USGS, NASA, Deep Carbon Observatory and peer‑reviewed literature is that volcanic CO₂ is a small fraction of anthropogenic CO₂; estimates vary with methods and improved measurements continue to narrow uncertainty — some papers give volcanic totals near ~0.28–0.36 Gt/year or lower, and recent syntheses say human emissions over the past century have been 40–100 times greater than geologic outgassing [6] [11] [7]. Scientists note remaining uncertainty in diffuse submarine and soil degassing and continue field campaigns, but current ranges are robust enough to reject the viral one‑hour vs. one‑year formulation [4] [6].
5. Broader context: cooling aerosols, rare geologic events, and communication risks
Volcanoes also inject sulfur aerosols that temporarily cool climate for 1–3 years after major eruptions (Pinatubo’s cooling is well documented), underscoring that volcanic climate effects are complex and not analogous to steady greenhouse forcing by anthropogenic CO₂ [1] [7]. The social danger lies in cherry‑picking dramatic hourly rates to obfuscate the continuous, cumulative human signal; credible agencies and fact‑checks repeatedly call out memes that conflate rare spikes with annual global budgets [1] [10] [3].
6. Bottom line with sources and limits
The core factual correction: isolated eruptions can briefly match human CO₂ emission rates (true) but the total annual CO₂ from all volcanoes is a small fraction — typically 0.13–0.44 Gt/year — versus ~30–36 Gt/year from humans, so humanity emits roughly 40–150 times more CO₂ per year than volcanoes [4] [6] [5] [9]. Reporting and agency statements cited here reflect current scientific consensus; if new peer‑reviewed measurements substantially revise global volcanic budgets that is a research question, not a meme’s claim [6] [4].