Mars currently experiencing Global Warming

[cyberdude557]

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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720024.ece

[ufojoe]

I would point to this and say, "See, it's happening on Mars and there's no people there."

But, the (alleged) reason behind the Martian people's warming is different than why our
warming is supposedly happening.

Or is it?

Everything is just a theory right now. All we know for sure is global warming is occurring
on both planets. And other planets are also becoming active for no apparent reason.

[ANGRY PIRATE]

sun spot activity. It was almost nill duing the Little Ice Age 1550-1800s and is at a 1000 yr high right now. I'm sure we're magnifying it but not the sole cause of it.

[ufojoe]

Sun spot activity may be responsible for some of what we see, but not all of this...

http://www.enterprisemission.com/_articles/05-14-2004_Interplanetary_Part_1/Interplanetary_1.htm

From a 2004 report on an "alternative" website...

Sun: More activity since 1940 than in previous 1150 years, combined

Mercury: Unexpected polar ice discovered, along with a surprisingly strong intrinsic magnetic field … for a supposedly “dead� planet

Venus: 2500% increase in auroral brightness, and substantive global atmospheric changes in less than 30 years

Earth: Substantial and obvious world-wide weather and geophysical changes

Mars: “Global Warming,� huge storms, disappearance of polar icecaps

Jupiter: Over 200% increase in brightness of surrounding plasma clouds

Saturn: Major decrease in equatorial jet stream velocities in only ~20 years, accompanied by surprising surge of X-rays from equator

Uranus: “Really big, big changes� in brightness, increased global cloud activity

Neptune: 40% increase in atmospheric brightness

Pluto: 300% increase in atmospheric pressure, even as Pluto recedes farther from the Sun

None of these statistics are from “fringe� scientists; they are all very, very real, and what you have just read is only the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.�

This Report’s scientific data, from a variety of highly credible institutions (including NASA itself), reveals that startling “climate change� phenomena are occurring, not just here on Earth, but, in fact -- throughout the entire solar system. This material has been publicly available for nearly a decade in some cases, but it was simply never assembled into a coherent picture of “a System in significant transition� … until this writing.

[oregonbucfan]

Are you sure they arent experiencing Global whining?

[ufojoe]

Putting GW aside, are there still people alive on this planet that don't think we have
polluted the hell out of our planet? Go look at the umbilical cord story. Or how about
mercury in our fish? Yummy!

[oregonbucfan]

Of course we pollute are planet... we gotta pollute to live. Ill worry about GW when Al Gore goes to china and gives them a lecture first

[ufojoe]

We have to pollute to live? Did you just say that? I may have to make that a part of my first
sig. We do not have to pollute to live. We could change our ways if we really wanted to. It's
happening. But very slowly. probably too slowly.

There's already enough mercury in the environment from natural sources. Our share of mercury
(from coal plants) is making (or has already made) it dangerous for preggos and children to eat
more than a certain amount of specific types of fish from certain waterways. Do you bury your
head in the sand and just ignore that?

http://news.com.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=Green+Plastic+Oil+Khosla

Organic-plastic company gets $15 million
Posted by Michael Kanellos | Post a comment

Why make a shampoo bottle out of petroleum products when it can be formed out of agricultural-waste products? That's the premise behind Segetis, which today said it has raised $15 million.

The Minneapolis-based Segeits is one of a number of outfits trying to displace petroleum in household products like countertops, bottles and other items. Using organic matter cuts down on pollutants in the manufacturing process and makes recycling far more feasible.

Organic plastics have historically cost more than their petroleum counterparts, but the rising price of oil, coupled with other factors, is making organics more palatable.

Other companies in the field include Cereplast (plastic forks and paper cup liners) and Archer Daniels Midland.

Segetis says its basic chemical blocks could also be used in the production of biodiesel and other products.

The company was founded by Sergey Selifonov, who has worked for start-ups in Silicon Valley and has also conducted research at the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, a division of the Russian Academy of Science.

Investors in the company include Khosla Ventures, which has been putting money into a wide range of green start-ups. Recently, for instance, the firm has placed a number of investments in companies specializing in developing microorganisms for converting vegetable matter into biodiesel and other products.

You can imagine all of these companies cooperating to some degree someday.

[dalbuc]

OBF is right to an extent. In order to make things you change potential energy into energy. The result of that process leaves some form of waste behind (ashes from a fire at the least for example) so there is an element where we have to pollute. That assumption is a bit glib about the levels that we do pollute at.

[ufojoe]

Yeah, I don't expect us to be 100% green from the beginning of life. But there were
plenty of chances for us to change our ways and we stuck with methods that pollute.
It's not that we didn't know. We've known for a while but haven't done enough to
make a difference. I am just as guilty as anybody else.