"Waterloo and the Volcano" Topic

"Scientists, as we all know, are there to discover and invent things. But occasionally, you think: "what have they gone and invented now?" If one were to believe the newspapers, it would appear that a researcher has "proved" that the reason Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo was because of a storm, and that this very storm was caused by a volcano 13,000 kilometres away in Indonesia. As simple as that.

Now, I'm no vulcanologist, but everyone accepts that volcanos affect the climate. El Niňo proves this, as do the occasional mega-eruptions that have occurred in history. But if you believe the remarkable number of journalists who called us between 25 August and 10 September (traditionally the newspapers' "Silly Season"), Napoleon himself was the victim of just such a phenomenon, precisely on 18 June 1815, on the fateful "mournful plain". We are told that a senior lecturer in Earth and Planetary Science, Matthew J. Genge from Imperial College, London, in the journal Geology*, has "demonstrated" that the notorious storm which took place on the night of 17/18 June (and which forced the Emperor to begin the battle later than he would have liked) was caused by a volcanic eruption that had taken place in April on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia…."
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