In a nationally televised address to the American public last month, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ridiculed a $140 million line item in the US economic stimulus package for “something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.,” said Jindal.

One could argue whether the expenditure belonged in the stimulus package or the annual budget,  but singling out  “something called ‘volcano monitoring’ ” as an example of frivilous spending was more than a curious statement for the governor of a state that, having suffered the devastation of hurricane Katrina, would presumably feel quite differently about something called “hurricane monitoring.”

By all accounts, Jindal is an intelligent, well-educated man. Based solely on his remarks, it wasn’t clear whether he truly did not appreciate the destructive power of volcanoes (the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens released 24 megatons of thermal energy) or was simply taking advantage of the public’s general lack of scientific knowledge. Whatever the case, it is yet another example of why citizens need to have a better understanding of and appreciation for science, whether it be to refute or to educate those who set policy.

Almost immediately, voices of dissent were heard coming from Hawaii, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Those living in the shadows of volcanoes take monitoring seriously, knowing that any advance warning monitoring might provide could mean the difference between life and death.

As if to illustrate the point, Alaska’s Mount Redoubt began erupting last Sunday. Through Friday, winds kept Redoubt’s ash and gases away from highly populated areas, but a shift in direction on Saturday brought both to Anchorage, 103 miles away.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Anchorage finally got a taste and smell of Redoubt volcano Saturday afternoon when the sky darkened and ash began to drift from a massive, menacing cloud that rose up from the south and slowly enveloped the city. It was only a light ash fall, posing little risk to healthy people or most machines.

But the sulfurous air unmistakably said volcano. So did the raspy feeling in throats and eyes all over town and from a wide swath of Southcentral Alaska from the Mat-Su Borough to Valdez. Nikiski, on the Kenai Peninsula, was also affected.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage warned that the eruptions had triggered a mudflow that could flood the Drift River, where an evacuated oil terminal is located. About 6 million gallons of crude oil from Cook Inlet wells is stored there in tanks behind a protective dike built in 1990 after Redoubt’s last eruption cycle.

Setting aside for the moment the wisdom of storing 6 million gallons of crude near an active volcano, Alaskan’s are fortunate that thus far this been a minor event posing little risk health risk and causing little damage. Most of the ash that fell on Saturday is too large to breathe and the most inconvenience has probably fallen upon airline travelers after the Anchorage airport canceled flights to prevent the corrosive ash from fouling jet engines. (During the 1989 eruption, the engines of a KLM flight stalled after flying into the ash cloud and fell 10,000 feet before pilots were able to restart the engines.)

Of course, every volcanic eruption is unique and predictions of future activity come with a high degree of uncertainty. While no one is comparing Mt. Redoubt to Mt. St. Helens, should conditions at Mount Redoubt change, Alaskan’s will want as much warning as possible. And the only way that will happen is if someone is doing ’something called volcano monitoring.’