CNN’s Calm, Rational Reaction To Eyjafjallajokull: ‘Is The Earth Striking Back?’

by Frances Martel | 12:22 pm, April 23rd, 2010

» 10 comments

It sounds like the title of an obscure Huffington Post column, but it’s today’s top story on CNN.com: “Is the Earth Striking Back?” Author Alan Weisman warns that the side effects of democracy in America are causing the earth to “strike back” at humanity with earthquakes and volcanos. Suddenly, global warming is the least of our problems.

Most of the column is a long-winded, nostalgic look at a drive Weisman once took on the road that passes by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. If you enjoy Tolkien-inspired, overly-detailed setting descriptions, you’ll be glad to know “the sun lolled at the horizon but never set, turning to crimson the basalt cliffs that face the Atlantic” and other aesthetic trivia. For the rest of you: Iceland is pretty– now skip that half of the article.

Then, after a rather simplistic description of the development of democracy both in Scandinavia and America comes this apocalyptic vision:

Both Iceland and the United States exalt democracy as a social achievement worthy of lasting an eternity. Yet the latter’s unprecedented strength has derived not just from enlightened government, but from the release of its own hot clouds: exhaust from its vast industries, fleets and mechanized agriculture. As we have learned, these gases form an invisible barrier that, like a greenhouse’s glass ceiling, keeps reflected heat of the sun from escaping our atmosphere. The denser that gaseous barrier grows, the hotter things get and the faster glaciers melt.

As they flow off the land, we are warned, seas rise. Yet something else is lately worrying geologists: the likelihood that the Earth’s crust, relieved of so much formidable weight of ice borne for many thousands of years, has begun to stretch and rebound.

As it does, a volcano awakens in Iceland (with another, larger and adjacent to still-erupting Eyjafjallajokull, threatening to detonate next). The Earth shudders in Haiti. Then Chile. Then western China. Mexicali-Calexico. The Solomon Islands. Spain. New Guinea. And those are just the big ones, 6+ on the Richter scale, and just in 2010. And it’s only April.

In other words, American democracy=pollution=more water=earthquakes/volcanoes? Never mind that it’s China, and not the United States, that is the world’s largest emitter of pollution, and China is far from being a democracy. Never mind, with Haiti being the largest exception, that those major earthquakes mostly occurred near fault lines that were known to cause them. And let’s especially ignore the fact that when ice melts into water, the water doesn’t suddenly stop weighing on the earth such that the planet is “relieved” of any pressure. The pressure may be redistributed across the planet, but then it would follow that some areas would receive more, not less, pressure, thus balancing the weight out.

If CNN was trying to grab people’s attention by warning that the recent global earthquake trend is a sure indication that the plot of The Day After Tomorrow is true, they probably succeeded, but making a top story out of shameless environmental sensationalism may not be the best way to celebrate a belated Earth Day.

Alan Weisman, Chile, China, Earthquakes, Eyjafjallajokull, Global Warming, haiti earthquake, Iceland

silkworm

Just when you thought the tea partiers were crazy, up pops CNN with Weisman. One does not have to wonder why CNN is so pathetic in the ratings.
If this was an tongue-in-cheeck piece it would be hillarious.
Grammie

Meet the new religion AGW and an acolyte, Alan Weisman, same as the old religions and their acolytes!
TKowalski

How can CNN publish that kind of crap?

They seriously need to be put out of business!
Capt Kirk

Only the Empire can strike back.
shootfromthehip

Fox writes headlines just as bad on their website. CNN is dumbing it down to get more clicks and to appeal to more people.

I don’t mind the bad headlines, but I do mind the bad reporting. CNN’s is getting worse. And Fox’s website has very little if any good international reportage.

Sad times for Americans not smart enough to read BBC.
xaviermore

I don’t think so. Volcanic eruption is a normal phenomenon on Earth. It has happened a number of times in the history of Earth. There is nothing to worry in it.
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http://none pyrope

Is the Earth is striking back? What a foolish theory! Only a liberal dweeb could possibly think of such an outlandish question. I can, however, say this: IF the Earth were striking back, it would be to let people know that the global warming kooks are ALL idiots and Al Gore is their puppetmaster.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Luis-Soto/579139203 Luis Soto

Those earthquakes might be man-made not woman-made (-;.
Our scientists playing god )-;…
The present surge in earthquake activity might be anthropic. 2010 is statistically the highest year on record on earthquakes for all categories, except for the man-made surge during II world war carpet bombing in 1943. If we consider only the statistics for April it is an all time record. But what has humanity done this April 2010, to create fluctuations in the gravitational and magnetic fields of the earth responsible for magma motions that cause earthquakes? Very simple: we have switched on what is today the strongest gravitomagnetic field on this planet, the Large Hadron Collider. This machine that could latter in the decade at higher energy/mass produce strangelets (Pb-pb collisions) and black holes (over 10 Tev collisions), is today the strongest gravitomagnetic field on Earth.
There are 3 possible ways in which the LHC can cause earthquakes:
A)If it made black holes or strangelets that are now in the center of the Earth, slowly eating the planet.
B) If the magnetic field interacts with other magnetic fields in the magma.
C) If it produces gravitational waves. This might be the most likely cause:
According to Einstein any accelerated mass-energy field at relativistic light speed, should produce gravitational waves that could provoke mass displacements in the magma, causing Earthquakes. 2 types of gravitational waves are possible: perpendicular affecting the antipodes (Australia and similar islands) and parallel, affecting the borders of the Eurasian plate (Iceland volcano, etc.) It just happens that most 2010 earthquakes happened in those 2 regions.
A cautionary stop of that machine and serious studies on its effects, which so far have been carried only by employees of the company, are long overdue.
http://www.cerntruth.com
http://none pyrope

@ Luis: Interesting hypothesis–just a bug or two: Since the magma is a viscous liquid and liquids are very efficient at absorbing shock waves, does it not follow that any impact at the surface is minimized once it breaks through the mantle? With respect to one (reasonably and comparatively weak) magnetic field reacting with the magnetic field of the magma, one might perhaps think of the effects of an magnetic field applied to an ignitron; the Hg is a dense liquid and the magnetic field dissipates throughout as opposed to remaining localized. I am not certain how extreme temperatures effect magnetism but suspect the molecular structure of a ferrous metal tends to fluctuate prior to the metal reaching its melting point.

As a sidebar, the potential of developing anti-gravitational devices in a spinoff manner is intriguing.
kieronnpollard

The push may be redistributed across the planet, but then it would follow that some areas would receive more, not less, pressure, thus balancing the weight out.
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