Via the London Times: 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.
I usually stay out of the global warming discussion because I am not an environmental scientist. Still, if Mars is experiencing similar warming to the Earth during the same period of time, it does at least raise the question of whether some solar systemic issues might be at work rather than terrestrial ones.
Of course, it could be coincidence. Still it is interesting.
Technorati Tags: Mars, global warming
April 30th, 2024 at 3:57 pm
Perhaps you should discuss global warming. You are a political scientist and the debate is more about politics and economics than science.
As with any debate, once people discount other arguments by saying the debate is over you can be assured it is far from over. Rather than counter those arguments it’s easier to avoid them completely.
Science takes discipline. Global warming hysteria has no discipline that I can see.
April 30th, 2024 at 6:58 pm
There is little doubt that the issue is rife with politics.
April 30th, 2024 at 10:21 pm
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