According to
Alan Sullivan ("Seablogger,") the activity at Chaiten has quieted down and there is suddenly reason to believe the most recent episode was its finale. Time will tell. Sullivan also points out that potentially climate-altering volcanic activity is threatening to go off in the Alutian islands of Alaska. From what the bloggers have said, the 1900s were volcanically quiet around the world, compared to previous modern centuries, but the earth's surface plates seem to be breaking the built-up tension more recently.
SAMIAM, may I assume you meant "SO2" instead of "CO2?" Volcanoes are known for sulfur emissions - like the dirty coal people used to burn in the 1800s. Sulfur causes acid rain (in the case of a volcano it is naturally occurring acid rain) but if it gets into the upper atmosphere in large quantities it reacts with tiny suspended water droplets to form acid droplets which sort of act as a reflector, bouncing solar rays back into space. It would take a few years to get all the acid droplets to finally mix down and rain out of the air, and the earth would be cooler in the meantime. Since NH normally gets a cold winter everyone is already concerned about what would happen if we had a harsh winter with fuel prices high, that is why I posted this information on the Winnipesaukee Forum. Of course if Chaiten or any other volcano suddenly blasts a load of sulfur into the stratosphere we can also look at the positive angle: We probably wouldn't be needing to talk about whether or not the Ice Fishing Derby had thick enough ice, and we probably wouldn't be worrying about Gunstock's slopes melting in mid-winter. I say burn wood to keep warm and let's go volcano!
