Monday, April 30, 2007

Global Warming On Mars

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

Climate change hits Mars

Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.

Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.

Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.

The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.

Fenton’s team unearthed heat maps of the Martian surface from Nasa’s Viking mission in the 1970s and compared them with maps gathered more than two decades later by Mars Global

Surveyor. They found there had been widespread changes, with some areas becoming darker.

When a surface darkens it absorbs more heat, eventually radiating that heat back to warm the thin Martian atmosphere: lighter surfaces have the opposite effect. The temperature differences between the two are thought to be stirring up more winds, and dust, creating a cycle that is warming the planet.

from The Sunday Times 29 April 2007















And Tibor R. Machan writes in The Orange Grove, "Well, I don't know about you, but it is my very strong impression that Mars is not teeming with gasoline-powered traffic just now. Exactly what the folks up there are using for fuel I do not know but I have heard on good authority that none of what they use is causing the warming of the planet. Indeed, I have heard rumors that there is no one up there using any fuel combustion for anything, not a soul. The warming seems to be happening quite without the influence of Martians, let alone Earthlings."

"Bloomberg News reports, "At a time when people are concerned about warming of the Earth, the Mars report shows one way that planets can grow hotter."

John Johnson Jr. of Times writes,"It turns out you don't need belching smokestacks and city-choking traffic to heat up a planet. Changes in surface reflectivity may also do the trick, according to research published Thursday in the journal Nature.

The research team, composed of scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center in Northern California and the U.S. Geological Survey, compared images of Mars taken by the Viking missions in the 1970s to pictures taken a quarter century later by Mars Global Surveyor."

I say who does man think he is? Is man so vain that he thinks he controls the Universe? God controls it all. Man's ego has gotten vastly out of control. Human vanity is what pushes the advancement of "Global Warming Fear Induction" and it's laudable. We are not even specks in this universe yet so many think we have such control. Baffling!

6 comments:

Tibor said...

I don't know about "man" being vain--I do know wuite a few women who fit that description--but why is that relevant? Some of us do seem to believe that a great many human beings can influence climate change. I think they are wrong but must this come their vanity? I think that's a red herring.

Good Living Homes said...

I don't know if you listen to "After Dark" with Art Bell or George Norry, but I think the internal combustion engines the little grey's (yes, that's politically correct up there) rocket boosters spew quite a large amount of pollutants, adding to their global warming problem. I believe the martian government is currently looking at a series of tax-based solutions to help alleviate the intra-planetary strain. I also hear they are considering the purchase of some of the "polution points" that certain industrial areas are allotted from Pluto, since Pluto is no longer a planet and subjected to global warming.
Just a thought, but maybe Sheryl Crow could cruise her non-polluting, electric tour bus and tour trucks up there, and give a benefit concert. Maybe pass out to the little critters, er sorry, little greys a complimentary square or two of Charmin Ultra. Since they have fewer forested lands up there, they could use all the conservation tips they can get, so let's all pitch in and do the liberal thing.

The Gamin said...

I don't believe my hypothesis to be a red herring or irrelevant. A great many human beings can influence social change, motivations, and reasoning (ie. the acceptance of man's destruction of nature) but, for man to lay claim to changing the very core of nature is enormously conceited. It may not be the obvious conclusion but, it is the underlying issue when stripped and reduced to it's essential details.

Good Living Homes said...

That is very true. All joking aside, I have written a very extensive study on the effects of man on nature. According to the USGS, and EPA's Websites, one tiny belch from a volcano releases more pollutants by the tons in one hour than mankind has ever done since the beginning of time. Now if we figure that there are over a hundred active volcanoes on Earth at any given time, and that they are actively erupting for often times days, weeks, months, and in a few cases, years at a time; it is pretty arrogant of us, to believe that we can and do make a difference. God made this place to house us, and withstand us, and I for one, am not about to think that God did a sub-standard job.

The Gamin said...

AndersonNation you should post your report and I will link to it.

Good Living Homes said...

I will do that and keep you posted. It may take me a bit to get it all up there.