Global Warming

[Edan]

...on Mars?

Sere and silent Mars is no dead planet, but in many ways its surface is dynamic and ever-changing, with gullies actively forming, rocks tumbling and asteroids blasting fresh craters in the sand, new images released Tuesday show.

Even the planet's climate appears to be changing -- perhaps indicating that Mars, like Earth, is undergoing a period of global warming, said scientists interpreting the images.

The pictures, taken by high-resolution cameras aboard the 8-year-old orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, "reveal a planet that can change not only in the mind-boggling millions or billions of years, but on the order of merely years or decades," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist of NASA's Mars Exploration Program in a teleconference Tuesday from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

[BlackCat]

human activity even changes the climate on Mars ?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by BlackCat
human activity even changes the climate on Mars ?

A more optimistic and humanist reading of this data might suggest that it points to climate change occuring naturally, and not by those eeeevil humans.

So I'll crack open another beer and drink to the fact that we don't have to close our civilisation down and return to some mud-hut paradise.

[BlackCat]

@Cort Haus :

[Winston]

Mars should be universally condemned for not ratifying Kyoto.

[MrFun]

I contacted the Martian embassy, Winston and gave them a way to contact you so that you can condemn them yourself.

[Dinner]

This seems very dubious to me. They compared photographs of the surface of Mars and announced Mars is experiencing global warming? All they can say with certainty is that the process of erosion is occuring on Mars which is a "duh" statement. We knew damn little about erosion rates or geologic processes on Mars to begin with so simply seeing that such processes exist is not sufficient to say Mars is warming.

That's just a stretch to far.

[Capt Dizle]

If we could just shut up wind bags like Al Gore we would solve any global warming problems we might have.

[chequita guevara]

You have to wonder about people who shut their eyes and put their hands over their ears and start going "LALALALALALALALA" when you're trying to tell them that you're about to drive off a cliff. It wouldn't be so bad except we're in the car too. It's the same mindset that says, "Oh, we survived Camile, we can survive anything."

[Capt Dizle]

Facts are facts, as long as they don't conflict with the interests of American capitalists. Personally, I think the odds are about 50-50 on global warming being real vs a misinterpretation of normal climate variations. But I am speaking as a layman, and admit to possibly being influenced by the standard mantra of the Rush Limbaughs of the world.

Given the system of government and economy we have in America I think its a safe bet that even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence of looming disaster due to global warming, nothing would be done in time.

So, basically, we best hope the scientists are wrong.

[chequita guevara]

Well, I got nothin' to add to that.

[Dinner]

Dizle: You know Rush Pillpoper has been caught lying so many times that even reputable conservatives (there aren't many but a few exist) won't touch him, right?

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Dizle: You know Rush Pillpoper has been caught lying so many times that even reputable conservatives (there aren't many but a few exist) won't touch him, right?

Yeah, but the point is, the mantra is powerful. The earth has been around a long time and has gone through climate changes many times .... long before man came on the scene...so how do we really know that the limited data we have means anything..

Thats a valid argument. Isn't it?

Well, anyone, even Rush can sell that to enough people to prevent any serious effort for reform. I mean, we can't even get a rational energy policy DISCUSSION even when we have gas prices through the roof. It costs me as much to fill up my can for the mower as it used to cost me to fill up my work van!

[chequita guevara]

That's why I intend to use native plants for landscaping my yard . . . once I get a yard. No mowing or watering for me.

[Solly]

"I mean, we can't even get a rational energy policy DISCUSSION even when we have gas prices through the roof."

If energy prices were always cheap, there'd be no incentive for efficiency.