RECENT PET PEEVE OF THE ICELAND VOLCANO
Written by: Brian Neudorff
I have a question, If the Iceland Volcano, Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl), had not grounded air traffic across Europe would the eruption be a big story? In my personal opinion no it wouldn't be.
Let's rewind back to the spring of 2008 when the Chaiten Volcano in Chile erupted. It had some spectacular images and definitely had a local impact on towns and villages around the volcano but you weren't getting the magnitude of stories we have been with Eyjafjallajokull. That eruption was quite spectacular as seen in the image below.
So what's my Pet Peeve? On Facebook, a friend of mine posted a story just showing the lightning that was associated with the latest eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. I went to visit cause I love looking at these pictures. It shows how amazing science and nature truly are. Then I made the mistake of reading the comments left in the comment section. I find it amazing how little people know or want to know about the world around them, the planet they live on, and the ground they walk on. There were so many comments that were suggesting it was the end of the world. I know this is not new or uncommon but it surprised me more just how comfortable people are in accepting that as truth than just learning about volcanoes and how they behave on this planet. Makes me wonder what some of these people learned in the earth science classes in school.
I hope you know that my comments in this post do not reflect my thinking or opinion on comments that have been left here on our blog. I am always thrilled to see many of the well thought out opinions many of you have who comment regularly here and I just want to thank you for adding to the conversation.
I don't think it's as much about them not learning enough in earth sciences, as it is about the fact that once they leave that classroom, the overwhelming presence of media and doomsday scenerios takes over. Not enough people put things like these into perspective. And it truly is all about perspective.
ReplyDeleteBut back to earth science....unfortunately, most high school earth science classes take the title "earth" very literally. 85 percent of the course is spent learning the names and compositions of rocks. They aren't taught about volcanos with any sort of perspective. They arent taught about weather with any sort of perspective. Earth science is a great failure to our kids, unfortunately.