The Year Without a Summer and the Arrogance of Would-Be Gods

The Year Without a Summer

Just 200 years ago, on 10 April 1815, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history occurred. In what is now modern day Indonesia, Mount Tambora’s eruption was so enormous it impacted many countries in the northern hemisphere, affected millions of lives, lead to crop failures, disease, and famines and possibly resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. It's consequences still impact the world today.

The eruption itself destroyed all vegetation on the volcano’s island at the time, immediately killing many local people. The explosion was heard 2,600km away and ash fell at least 1,300km from the volcano.

The resulting tsunamis affected surrounding countries and islands, leading to more devastation and death totalling at least 71,000.

These were the first consequences as a direct result of the eruption.

Secondary Consequences

The eruption column from Mount Tambora rose 43km into the air and reached the stratosphere. Coarser and heavier ash particles from the eruption settled to earth within a couple of weeks, but the finer particles and gases remained in the atmosphere at altitudes of between 10,000 and 30,000km for several years afterwards.

The ash that initially settled to earth, covered crops in parts of the world, leading to a reduction or even failure in the production of food in some areas. The ash also would have impacted fresh water drinkability, and affected fish and other water-dwelling creatures in rivers and streams. This would have meant there was less safe water to drink, and with which to water crops, and additionally there was likely less fish etc for people to consume.

This was the second consequence as a direct result of the eruption, and people further away from the eruption began to see its impact, even though most had no idea what was going on.

Third Consequences

The finer ash, dust and gases in the atmosphere spread around the globe, and optical phenomena was soon seen in many countries, including spectacular sunsets and twilights. The daylight was darkened somewhat, and strange fogs were also experienced in some places, which could not be dissipated by wind. By this time, the particles in the atmosphere were reflecting sunlight away from our planet, and the atmosphere had begun to cool.

The early tragic deaths were minor in comparison to the global impacts over the ensuing 3 years, as ash, gases and other emissions from the eruption spread in the atmosphere around the world and lowered global temperatures. The eruption resulted in a volcanic winter and triggered extreme weather events, as well as horrendous harvest failures in many countries, particularly in the northern hemisphere.

Just 14 months later, the lack of a summer during 1816 resulted in that 12 month period becoming known as the ‘Year Without a Summer.’ As global temperatures began to drop, it seriously harmed crop production in vast areas. While these temperature drops were not extreme, from just 0.5°C to 3°C maximum, the dimmed sunlight and the lowered temperatures were too much for standard crops.

In 1816 Lord Byron, who was staying at Lake Geneva, Switzerland with Mary Shelley and her poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, noted the terrible conditions. Byron wrote that the bright sun:

• “was extinguish’d, and the stars did wander darkling in the eternal space.”

Mary Shelley's book 'Frankenstein' was possibly influenced by the dark and dreary weather and depressing atmosphere which she began to write that same year.

In the US and Canada, unusual frosts and snow were reported in the summer month of June and remained for more than 3 months. Most agricultural crops were ruined by the cold and dimmed light, and in some places, livestock began to die, likely perhaps as a result of natural fodder grasses dying off, but these were still just the early consequences.

Crops began to fail too in India and Asia, and were particularly bad in China and Japan, leading to terrible famine, starvation and more deaths.

In Britain the cooler temperatures and heavy rains, likely as a result of the eruption affecting normal weather patterns, also resulted in failed crops. Ireland was terribly affected by famine as their potato, wheat and oat harvests failed. Starving and desperate, people in Wales left their homes seeking refuge and food elsewhere.

As food shortages began to impact populations in many countries, there was looting and rioting in various European cities, particularly in places where food prices rose as a result of shortages.

In the winter of 1816-1817, many livestock died, such as in New England in the US. Just as there were food shortages for people, there was also food shortages for livestock, and as livestock died, there was even less food for people.

It's reported that people were so desperate for food in some places, they would try to eat anything, even grass.

Fourth Consequences

Food shortages were not the only concern. In India, the ash, dust and gases in the atmosphere affected their monsoons and a ghastly new strain of cholera arose as a result, that lead to further deaths.

Along the eastern Mediterranean Sea and in south-east east, there was a severe typhus epidemic in 1816 that continued until 1819, and resulted in more misery and death.

It is impossible to determine just how many people died as a direct result of disease alone, but combined with colder conditions, floods, droughts, and mass starvation, the eruption of Mount Tambora may have killed hundreds of thousands or more.

Finally

As the ash, dust and gases began to dissipate from the atmosphere, more sunlight began to filter back in, but it was at least three years after the volcano’s eruption before populations around the world were able to start reliably growing crops and repopulating their devastated livestock again.

Typhus remained until 1819 in the eastern Mediterranean, but between 1818 and 1820, the new form of cholera continued to spread and reached Thailand (then known as Siam), Burma and Bengal. It's spread continued and it reached western Europe by 1831 and made its way across to North America in 1832. Today cholera kills between 100,000 and 200,000 people every year. [1]

There were also other impacts, even as conditions and the availability of food improved, particularly in America. In the US in 1817, 300 banks failed because they'd speculated on being able to sell American crops to Europe, but as conditions and food-stocks improved in Europe, their gamble failed, and they were unable to sell the excess food-stocks. As a result, the USA was hit with an economic depression. [1]

Consider that just one volcano impacted millions of lives around this planet due to its eruption in 1816, so what could such an eruption do in the world today?

• "Eruptions of the Tambora scale in 1815 and larger (magnitudes 7 and 8+ on the volcanic explosivity index), occur around 1.6 times per 1000 years, equivalent to around a one in six chance per century." [2]

(An earlier, even larger volcanic eruption in 1258, likely had similar if not more terrible consequences.) [3]

The Impact of Tonga's 2022 Volcanic Eruption on Australia

While Mount Tambora's volcanic eruption may seem like it was a long time ago, consider that the lesser eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in Tonga in 2022, impacted Australia too, though on a smaller scale, and scientists say it may affect this country's weather for up to 8 years. [4]

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai spewed out at least 9.5 cubic kilometres of material which is 1.7 times the amount that came from the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines, almost 2.4 times that which spewed from Mt Vesuvius in 79AD, and over 7 times that of the ash that erupted from Mt St Helen’s in 1980.

The resulting ash, gases and steam from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai affected natural weather patterns, particularly around Australia and later resulted in terrible flooding in the country’s southern areas. Part of the reason it had such an effect on weather patterns was because it sent unprecedented volumes of water vapour into the stratosphere.

The subsequent weather events eventually impacted crop production in many areas and even the transport of food in this country. There were shortages of certain products and food items for many months afterwards.

Major volcanic eruptions can still devastate the world today and impact the world's food system.

• "...the global food system can be regarded as a fragile system that is susceptible to systemic disruptions... Volcanic eruptions are a threat to the global food system. History has shown that these sudden, unpredictable events can severely disrupt crop production across the globe." [5]

The Arrogance of Would-Be Gods

While some may consider Bill Gates’ ambitious plans to improve our world to be a wonderful idea, it’s important to consider the possible consequences in light of what we know from volcanic eruptions: we know that releasing particles into the atmosphere can have devastating and deadly impacts on the world, and particularly on mankind.

Bill Gates and his team are not gods. They cannot possibly know how their proposal to release particles into the atmosphere may impact the atmosphere and subsequently the world. We must consider what other possible consequences such as famine, disease, flooding or drought may occur as a direct result. We must also ask:

• What if the effects are permanent?

• What if it has dire and unforeseen consequences?

Bill Gates’ arrogance and his power, must be reigned in. People like Gates and those in positions of authority should never be allowed to have the kind of power which has the potential to devastate our world and our people in such a way.

Bible Prophecy

You may or may not know that I’m a Christian, and when I first heard of this proposal by Gates, I was reminded of a prophecy in Revelation chapter 8 verse 12 which reads:

• “…one-third of the sun, one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars were darkened. As a result, one-third of their light flickered and failed. For one-third of the day, the sun did not shine; and likewise for one-third of the night, the moon and stars did not give their light.” [Voice] (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+8%3A12&version=VOICE)

Doesn’t this remind you of the devastating effects from a major volcanic eruption OR the possible consequences of a reckless man-made attempt to reduce the sunlight we receive here on earth?

Whatever this prophecy means, Bill Gates’ or any similar proposal should NEVER be attempted. It is foolhardy and egotistical at best, and could be dire, devastating and deadly at worst.

[End]
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[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/200-years-after-tambora-volcano-eruption-unusual-effects-linger-180954918/;
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30729-2;
[3] https://science.time.com/2013/10/02/the-medieval-volcanic-eurption-that-triggered-a-year-without-summer/;
[4] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-16/tongan-volcano-impact-australian-weather/101978886;
[5] https://pastglobalchanges.org/publications/pages-magazines/pages-magazine/7173

Links:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73585/15-facts-about-year-without-summer;
https://historycollection.com/the-year-with-no-summer-was-a-brutal-shock-for-half-the-world-in-1816/;
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2017/05/31/year-without-summer-impact-changing-climate/;
https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/planet-earth/why-are-there-ocean-basins-continents-and-mountains/explosive-volcanism/volcanic-gases/the-year-without-a-summer;
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blast-from-the-past-65102374/;
https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-eruption-of-mount-tambora-1815-1818/;
https://branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=gillen-darcy-wood-1816-the-year-without-a-summer;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer#;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1815_eruption_of_Mount_Tambora;
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-21/sea-floor-map-reveals-huge-cavity-left-behind-by-tonga-volcano/101674708;
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-02949-2

Satellite imagery of Mt Tambora, Indonesia

A drawing of hunger in Switzerland 1817:
starving people grazing together with cattle

Arrival of the first harvest wagons after the great famine of 1816–1817 on 4 August 1817 on the square in Ravensburg, Gouache, 1817

"Two men by the Sea" was painted by Caspar David Friedric after the Mt Tambora eruption, showing the reduction in daylight and the dreary conditions they began experiencing during the day in Europe, Asia, the USA and other countries.

An image of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption in 2022

This image was sourced from a video of the eruption from the Japan Meteorological Agency (satellite), Digital Typhoon (website), dated 15 January 2022. The video was released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The image is a copy of a frame on the full video and has not been cropped. The image was sourced from: http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/volcano-eruption/2022-hunga-tonga/ (Link to licence)

Bill Gates and others have been pursuing ‘solar geoengineering’ in a misguided attempt to stop or lessen ‘global warming.’ While I could present an article here on the fact that they are completely ignoring the scientific evidence that our world's climate is cyclic and goes through periods of cooler and warmer temperatures, I'll leave that for someone with far more technical expertise and knowledge than me.

Gates' proposal is to spray particles into the atmosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight that can enter to ‘fix’ the so-called warming ‘problem.’

This has been done before, with catastrophic consequences, albeit via a natural phenomenon:

Major volcanic eruption!