Interesting...
I'm willing to donate all of my carbon credits to Hawking anyway.

The obvious difference between human energy consumption and a volcanic eruption is that an eruption is a calamitous event whereas human consumption is continuous. Another difference is that humans are actually generating power, whereas lava was already hot from the creation of the Earth. But it's worth looking at.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 21:35, 1 reply)

I mentioned not eruption level spills
I'm thinking of more miniature flood basalt type affairs where there's been continuous outpouring of lava, and therefore heat, over a long period of time.
(Dildo Bugger destroyed a ring on, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 21:42, closed)

If it's been continuous for millions of years it won't be a worry,
it might make the Earth warmer than it would otherwise have been but it would be in thermal equilibrium by now.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 21:47, closed)

The trick would be to find a geological event like that
that wasn't a full-on flood basalt, because they tend to induce mass extinctions due to pollution and blocking out the sun, that sort of thing.

We'd need to look at the geological record for such an event that had life existing throughout it to measure it's effect on climate and possible extinction rates.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to break off from this discussion now as it's nearly ten and I still haven't had dinner this evening. But feel free to reply and I'll get back to it when I can.
(Dildo Bugger destroyed a ring on, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 21:54, closed)