EPA TRIBAL SCIENCE BULLETIN SCIENCE UPDATE Solar Geoengineering: Going Volcanic on Climate Change Reducing the amount of carbon altering step exists, however: 1.5 years and included global dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere volcanoes. Volcanoes have temperature decreases of 1° to has proven elusive, and cutting ejected particulates into the 1.5°C. Unseasonably cold CO2 emissions now does not affect atmosphere on numerous conditions were accompanied by what already exists in the occasions in recorded history. A drought and floods, particularly in atmosphere. One course of action 2015 study found that 15 of the the Northern Hemisphere.3 garnering serious consideration is 16 coldest summers In retrospect, the solar geoengineering. The recorded between 500 B.C. SOLAR Tambora premise is simple: If you can’t and A.D. 1,000 followed GEOENGINEERING eruption control the amount of insulation large volcanic eruptions.1 highlighted the in the blanket, turn down the WOULD...REFLECT OR One event that resembles tight connections heat. a global‐scale REFRACT THE SUN’S RAYS, between human Solar geoengineering would manipulation was the REDUCING THE and natural spread particles into the Tambora eruption of GREENHOUSE GAS systems by atmosphere to reflect or refract 1815. On April 5, 1815, the showing how one EFFECT. the sun’s rays, reducing the Indonesian volcano event could greenhouse gas effect and cooling exploded in one of the most create a global cascade of the planet. Governments, significant volcanic events in localized events that changed how ethicists, scientists and citizens recorded history, with the humans interact with their are somewhat resistant to this, highest explosive index in 500 environment and each other. however. The scale of the years.2 The resulting spread of Events in the northeastern United manipulation lends itself to sulfate aerosols around the world States and Canada highlight the nonlinearities and serendipitous contributed to extreme weather, upheaval connected to Tambora. discoveries, some of which could ecological disruption and The spring and summer of 1816, be damaging to ecology and geopolitical upheaval. The effects “the year without a summer,” was society. A precedent to this globe‐ of the eruption lasted for punctuated by monthly killing frosts during the growing season and poor snow and rainfall from the Hudson Bay to Virginia. Migratory fish that were staples for European Americans and Native Americans in the northeast found conditions too cold to support successful spawning and likely decimated future fish populations.2 The fish that did return were overfished to supply needed protein to the surviving populace. In northeastern cities, the death rate tripled.2 The year of 1816 also was called the “mackerel year,” as mackerel was one of the few available protein Illustration of the influence of sulfur dioxide emitted by volcanic activity, which sources. Mass emigration from exerts a cooling effect by reflecting solar radiation. ValetinaKru | Shutterstock.com the northeast, particularly in 1817 as the spring shaped up to VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 ●●●

NATIONAL EPA-TRIBAL SCIENCE COUNCIL SCIENCE UPDATE Solar Geoengineering (continued) 1allnewspipeline.com/ Volcanoes_Poverty_And_Global_Famin e.php. Accessed 4‐7‐2017.

2Alexander KE, Leavenworth WB, Willis TV, Hall C, Mattocks S, Bittner SM, Klein E, Staudinger M, Bryan A, Rosset J, Carr BH, and Jordaan A. 2017. Tambora and the mackerel year: Phenology and fisheries during an Aerial view of the crater of Mount Tambora, formed during the 1815 eruption. extreme climate event. Science learnodo‐newtonic.com/mount‐tambora‐facts Advances 3:1 doi:10.1126/ sciadv.1601635. be like the previous devastating salt.6 Also in 1817, the Ottawa, 3 year, resulted in a shift of Chippewa, Shawnee, Wyandot www.scientificamerican.com/ population to industrial cities and and Potawatomi ceded large article/1816‐the‐year‐without‐summer the Midwest where conditions areas of tribal land to the federal ‐excerpt.Accessed 4‐7‐2017. were better.4 government, continuing a process 4regencyredingote.wordpress.com/201 of clearing the Ohio Valley for Native Americans found 5/04/10/regency‐bicentennial‐mount‐ settlement by New themselves with tambora‐erupts. Accessed 4‐7‐2017. Englanders moving west.7 low food stores THE TAMBORA The lens of history is 5 and less freedom cprr.org/Museum/BMLRR/ never so clear as to draw Penobscot.html. Accessed 4‐7‐2017. to fan out across ERUPTION HIGHLIGHTED a straight line between their lands to THE TIGHT 6 events, but the location www.dyarrow.org/indigenous/ weather the CONNECTIONS and size of the treaty landclaim.htm. Accessed 4‐7‐2017. calamity. A exchanges and conflicts number of tribes BETWEEN HUMAN AND 7nativeamericannetroots.net/ certainly bear an air of in the northeast NATURAL SYSTEMS. diary/2263. Accessed 4‐7‐2017.  desperation easily signed treaties associated with the food between 1816 and 1818 shortages of 1816 and 1817. that traded vast tracts of land for payment and supplies. The The Obama administration did Penobscot Nation agreed to a not seriously consider solar treaty with Massachusetts in 1818 geoengineering. The Trump that surrendered most of the administration is revisiting this tribe’s land on either side of the policy. Solar geoengineering may Penobscot River, excepting about be a temporary and short‐term fix 25 square miles of parcels and the for climate change, but the effects islands above Old Town Falls. In on the environment, human exchange, the Penobscot received systems and their interconnection large quantities of corn, flour, should be seriously considered. pork, molasses, cloth, blankets, The Tambora eruption arguably gunpowder, shot, tobacco, impoverished thousands of Native chocolate and $50 in silver Americans for centuries to come annually.5 The Onondaga Nation for want of necessities to survive traded 4,320 acres in 1817 for following the dramatic cooling $430 a year and large quantities of that followed the eruption.

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