Humanity exists on an active volcanic planet. There are currently 1350 active volcanoes, 44 of which are currently erupting.
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1980 released a larger volume of ‘greenhouse gasses’ in one fell swoop than the total sum of gasses generated by the industrial revolution to that point in time. It dropped global temps by about 1% and ash remained in the upper atmosphere for years. Back to normal, though, after that.
And then we have that sun thing in the sky. And it varies the output of energy, with direct effect on global weather systems and long term climate. [See mini-ice age of 1300’s-1800’s, dropping global temps by 2 degrees Celsius]..
But my Honda.......
Mt. Pinatubo was certainly an historic recent eruption, as it happened in my lifetime, some 40 years ago. Pinatubo dwarfs the famous USA eruption of Mt. St Helens two years earlier, in 1980.
A much larger event, from the early 1800s, was Mt. Tambora, the most recently known VEI-7 event and the most recent confirmed VEI-7 eruption. Mount Tambora is on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia, then part of the Dutch East Indies.
Tambora, causing roughly 5 times the impact of Pinatubo, caused the famous “Year Without a Summer” in 1816.
A large event from only a year ago, the Hunga Tonga undersea volcano, erupted in the South Pacific and is currently cooling the Southern Hemishpere.