
Fact check: The little burp from Etna and the CO2
Are any human efforts to contain CO2 unnecessary since volcanoes destroy everything with just one “poof!”?

At least that's what is currently being spread more often on social media. Even worse: such a small “burp,” as it is called, would supposedly release more CO₂ than all of humanity ever did. This claim is spread in the form of a meme, illustrated with a volcano and with the following text ( compare ):
Dear environmental activists, this little burp from Etna has released more CO₂ into the air than all of humanity has emitted during its existence on earth.
But don't worry, that's Italy - so far away... There will probably be a volcano tax soon, so for us Germans, the rest of the world isn't keen on that
From the text you can see a sarcastic tone and a lack of evidence. These are exactly the ideal starting points for a fact check!
Fact check!
At this point the search doesn't take long, the relevant fact check already exists. The German press agency dpa has carried out extensive research here ( compare ) and has come to a clear conclusion: the statement is a complete fake!
Based on the underlying sources, the dpa came to the conclusion that in 2017 alone, the CO₂ levels generated by industry and fossil fuels were over 1,000 times more than the emissions from Mount Etna.
The entire dpa fact check can be found here:
The dpa sources used:
- Study on Etna emissions from 2008
- Study on Etna emissions from 1991
- Study on Etna emissions from 2006
- Calculation of man-made CO2 emissions by the Global Carbon Project
- Calculation of man-made CO2 emissions by UNEP
- British Geological Survey on the climate influence of volcanoes
- USGS on the climate impact of volcanoes
- Study comparing volcano/human CO2
- Information about Etna, volcanic emissions in general
Article image: Shutterstock / By Kevin Standage
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
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The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual articles (not fact checks) were created using machine help and
were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )
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