Volcanoes and Climate Change

A colleague shared some claims made by Ian Rutherford Plimer. Claims made in big, bold red fonts make me suspicious, as does the absence of research offered up to support the claims.

NASA offers this, “Large-scale volcanic activity may last only a few days, but the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years.”

NASA also interpreted SAGE II satellite measurements to account for a decline in the globally averaged surface temperature in mid-1992 of about 1° degree F as a result of aerosols released during the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. It seems reasonable to me, based only on what I recall from climate projections, that 1°F (0.55 C) is significant.

But it's not clear how to compare that to the progress in CO2 cuts over the past 5 years. The accounting for the effects of carbon cuts in atmospheric cooling seems as perilous as accounting for the effects of savings schemes in financial records