Maybe What We Need Is A Few Good Volcanic Eruptions

In 1783 the earth experienced rapid cooling due to a massive cloud of sulfur that belched out of a volcano in Iceland starting on June 8, the Christian festival of the Pentecost.

The Economist, which uses diary entries written by people around the world to detail the eruption and subsequent global cooling that resulted, calls it "an extraordinary case of sudden climate change driven by atmospheric gases."

Sulfur isn't something we necessarily want in the atmosphere, unfortunately. Together with nitrogen oxices, sulfur dioxide is the main cause of acid rain. The drive to protect mountain streams may perversely have contributed to global warming, as the levels of these gases decreased in the atmosphere. They counteract the warming effect of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane.

While no one would wish for a volcanic eruption, and the sulfuric cloud of gases that would have to envelope the world would have some serious drawbacks, the massive dose of cooling gases might be the only thing that saves us from ourselves, if we're unable to curb emissions of greenhouse gases in time to avoid another "extraordinary case of sudden climate change driven by atmospheric gases."

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