Global Warming on Mars?

[bejohnson]

Global Warming on Mars? (http://www.mos.org/cst/article/80/9.html)

A study of the ice caps on Mars may show that the red planet is experiencing a warming trend.

After decades of thinking that the ice caps on Mars were mostly carbon dioxide (dry ice), planetary geologists are starting to think that those caps may be mostly fresh water ice instead.

Caltech planetary scientists have been keeping a close eye on the dozens of deep, wide pits in the southern martian ice caps. These pits have been growing larger every year, but they never get any deeper.

The scientists believe this means that there is a layer of dry ice that is evaporating off of a thicker layer of water ice. The yearly increases in evaporation may be caused by a global warming trend happening on Mars.

If both Mars and Earth are experiencing global warming, then perhaps there is a larger phenomenon going on in the Solar System that is causing their global climates to change.

I've been saying for some time that there has been documented evidence that the sun's output is increasing. The last paragraph in the quote asks an excellent question. Could the global warming that is causing the "Chicken Little" syndrome here be mostly attributed to a phenomenon that is beyond our control? Maybe we should ban greenhouse gas emissions on Mars. Could it be the Mars rovers and their exhaust emissions? :Wink

[egarrard]

What goes up, must come down
What must rise, must fall
And what goes on in your life
Is writing on the wall
If all things must fall
Why build a miracle at all
If all things must pass
Even a miracle won’t last

What goes up, must come down
What must stand alone?
And what goes on, in your mind
Is turning into stone
If all things must fall
Why build a miracle at all
If all things must pass
Even a pyramid won’t last

How can you be so sure?
How do you know what the earth will endure?
How can you be so sure?
That the wonders you’ve made in you life
Will be seen
By the millions who’ll follow to visit the site
Of your dream?

What goes up, must come down
What goes round, must come round
What’s been lost, must be found

[Maro]

Mars is simply at a different time in it's Climatology than Earth.

[maud'ib]

I've been saying for some time that there has been documented evidence that the sun's output is increasing. The last paragraph in the quote asks an excellent question. Could the global warming that is causing the "Chicken Little" syndrome here be mostly attributed to a phenomenon that is beyond our control? Maybe we should ban greenhouse gas emissions on Mars. Could it be the Mars rovers and their exhaust emissions? :Wink

Are you saying here that you believe that all the polluting we are doing is having no effect on the climate? The whole "Chicken Little" comment there seems to suggest this.

Global warming itself be out of our control for the most part, but even you have to admit that we are exaggerating its effects with our own greenhouse emissions. The comments about greenhouse emissions on Mars, while funny only makes light of a very serious situation we have on the only planet we have to live on. We don't have to live on Mars (at least until we completely fubar Earth).

[bejohnson]

The effect of man on the climate may be measurable but in the grand scheme of things it is almost negligible. One volcanic eruption such as Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Pinatubo puts more greenhouse and other gasses and particulate matter into the atmosphere than man has since the beginning of time. There is on the average one major volcanic eruption every 18 months. Man's contribution to the pollution on this planet is pale in comparison to the natural process of things. The planet seems to be able to recover from these natural phenomena very well so there is no reason that the planet will not recover from man's small contribution.

The problem is man only thinks in the present. If we can't change or fix something in a few days we start yelling "the sky is falling". The climatic changes that the earth is exhibiting is part of a natural process that appears to have it's cause rooted in the gradual (for man) increase in the sun's energy output. The energy equilibrium for earth is very tenuous, all it takes is one half of one percent increase in the solar output to make huge changes here on earth. The earth has undergone many warming and cooling cycles in it's lifetime. Man has only been here for the last one. We have no firm understanding as to what is happening but we panic and blame our very existence on changing something that we have very little input into. Man is very arrogant to assume that it is his pitiful existence that is changing the planet just as it just as arrogant to believe that any action that we take can reverse the trend.

Mars is a good example to study because as far as we know there is no life to alter the natural progression of change. After reading this article several days ago I did a bit of research and found that the scientists at Cal Tech believe that the rate of change on Mars is very close to the rate of change in the sun's output. They also have correlated the amount of temperature increase on Mars with the amount of energy increase of the sun and it all is beginning to fit nicely. When that same information is factored out of the climate change for earth it becomes apparent that man has little to do with his environment's change on any kind of long term time scale. Why has this information not been made public in wider circles? Simply because it does not fit the politically correct paradigm of the Eco-doomsayers.

The bottom line is nothing that man does will have any major change in the warming or cooling trends of the planet. Does this mean that we are free to pollute as we have been doing? No, but we don't need to panic either. We need to change our way of life to be more environmentally friendly but not at the expense of our economy and quality of life.

[maud'ib]

The effect of man on the climate may be measurable but in the grand scheme of things it is almost negligible. One volcanic eruption such as Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Pinatubo puts more greenhouse and other gasses and particulate matter into the atmosphere than man has since the beginning of time. There is on the average one major volcanic eruption every 18 months. Man's contribution to the pollution on this planet is pale in comparison to the natural process of things. The planet seems to be able to recover from these natural phenomena very well so there is no reason that the planet will not recover from man's small contribution.

The problem is man only thinks in the present. If we can't change or fix something in a few days we start yelling "the sky is falling". The climatic changes that the earth is exhibiting is part of a natural process that appears to have it's cause rooted in the gradual (for man) increase in the sun's energy output. The energy equilibrium for earth is very tenuous, all it takes is one half of one percent increase in the solar output to make huge changes here on earth. The earth has undergone many warming and cooling cycles in it's lifetime. Man has only been here for the last one. We have no firm understanding as to what is happening but we panic and blame our very existence on changing something that we have very little input into. Man is very arrogant to assume that it is his pitiful existence that is changing the planet just as it just as arrogant to believe that any action that we take can reverse the trend.

Mars is a good example to study because as far as we know there is no life to alter the natural progression of change. After reading this article several days ago I did a bit of research and found that the scientists at Cal Tech believe that the rate of change on Mars is very close to the rate of change in the sun's output. They also have correlated the amount of temperature increase on Mars with the amount of energy increase of the sun and it all is beginning to fit nicely. When that same information is factored out of the climate change for earth it becomes apparent that man has little to do with his environment's change on any kind of long term time scale. Why has this information not been made public in wider circles? Simply because it does not fit the politically correct paradigm of the Eco-doomsayers.

The bottom line is nothing that man does will have any major change in the warming or cooling trends of the planet. Does this mean that we are free to pollute as we have been doing? No, but we don't need to panic either. We need to change our way of life to be more environmentally friendly but not at the expense of our economy and quality of life.

Agreed. But remember that generally speaking humans are notoriously lazy procrastinators. Getting the major polluters to spend money on things that affect or long-term future is like pulling teeth. They all have the attitude that it is not their problem.

We will not do anything about things that affect us now until it comes up and bites us all in our collective ass. Maybe the only way to get these people to listen is to pull a "Chicken Little" and scare them into doing something proactive before it gets too late to do anything about it. As it stands most of the foremost climatologists in the world are doing so right now, but damn few of us are listening.

[egarrard]

Actually, Venus is a better example of what the supposed global warming can do to a planet. Man has no effect on global climatology though, no matter what our egos might think.

[wazman]

Actually, Venus is a better example of what the supposed global warming can do to a planet. Man has no effect on global climatology though, no matter what our egos might think.

I think we may have some effect... That's what the Butterfly effect is all about - one little thing here or there affects everything.

[maud'ib]

Actually, Venus is a better example of what the supposed global warming can do to a planet. Man has no effect on global climatology though, no matter what our egos might think.

I think there are more than a few thousand accredited climatologists out there that would dispute that claim.

Don't make the mistake that we are having no impact on global climate - we most certainly are. Whether it is a lasting change is debatable - after all, after we're gone the planet will go back to it's normal patterns. Until then though you, me and everyone else had better clean up our acts if we want to live here long enough to kill ourselves off.

Just a minority of us doing our part doesn't cut it. This is everyone's problem and it is everyone's responsibility to care for our home.

[wazman]

Hey, I quit smoking. I'm doing what I can.

[bejohnson]

Hey, I quit smoking. I'm doing what I can.

OK, but are you still passing gas? http://www.absolutepunk.net/images/smilies/new/fart.gif :Wink

[wazman]

OK, but are you still passing gas? http://www.absolutepunk.net/images/smilies/new/fart.gif :Wink

No.....................................

[egarrard]

If the cow jumped over the Moon, why don't Moon Pies taste like cow pies? :What the