While the environmentalists and climate change cultists were freezing their butts off worrying about saving the planet because of global warming and atmospheric pollution caused by carbon dioxide, the planet itself didn't seem to want to be saved. Or maybe the planet has to destroy itself to save itself. Or something.

Anyway, off in the Philippines, Mount Mayon volcano has

had a total of 248 volcanic quakes and tremors since Monday.

In a statement, Phivolcs director Renato Solidum explained that 50 of these events were explosion-type, wherein minor explosions produced volcanic earthquakes and tremors.

"However, only seven were observed during times of good visibility. These explosions produced dark gray to dark brown ash columns that reached a maximum height of up to 1,000 meters above the summit before drifting southwest," Solidum said.

And what is in that ash? According to Rio Rose Ribaya of the Manila Bulletin

Experts said volcanoes emit hazardous gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, radon, hydrogen chloride, hydrofluoric acid, and sulfuric acid. Inhaling these gases may lead to anoxia, a state where oxygen is low that can lead to mental confusion, hallucination and amnesia, among other conditions.

Volcanic air pollution can also cause acute bronchitis, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the US said.

The website of the Atlanta-based pool of experts said these dangerous gases cause acute bronchitis, the inflammation of the airways of the lungs.

And of course the hot lava flow burns everything in its path on the ground.

While some on the fringe will undoubtedly blame volcanic eruption on humans, volcanoes have been belching this unhealthy stuff into the atmosphere for millions of years.

As a result of these eruptions and ensuing global pollution will the world suffer another period of global cooling and darkness as happened nearly 200 years ago after Mount Tambora in Indonesia came alive in 1815, sending thousands of tons of gases and particles into the atmosphere, leaving a thick haze which caused misery around the world for several years. NPR did a story on it two years ago.

And something did go wrong in 1816, known as "the year without summer." Temperatures dropped, crops failed and people starved.

"Hundreds of thousands of people died. People were reduced to eating rats and fighting over roots," Webb says. "Most of these people were killed by epidemic disease, [such as] typhus and other things related to starvation. They simply couldn't find enough food."

In America, New Englanders saw snow well into the summer - the average temperature in July and August was 5 to 10 degrees below normal, according to Webb.

Hmmm, can Mother Nature be fined for violating cap 'n' trade and spewing dangerous carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or will someone, anyone in Hollywood please, please buy carbon offsets for the Philippine volcano?