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Global Warming Mostly Confirmed - On Mars
dinotrac writes "A just-completed 23 month study, carried out over the course of a Martian year, found that the Martian polar ice caps are rapidly eroding, sending large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the Martian atmosphere. If this pattern continues over time, Mars could go from a planet whose winters are cold enough for dry-ice snow to having a shirt sleeve atmosphere. Humans would still have to provide for oxygen, but plants could go naked.
I wonder if this means tougher emission controls on the next Martian rover?"
Given the "what if we..." comments following up here, I strongly recommend reading Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars", "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars". The books start with a near-future colonization of Mars and go through one very well developed "what if" path, covering not just the technology but also the social and political engineering that follows. The idea of deliberate greenhouse warming shows up, among others.
Oh, yeah: they're also good reading, with an interesting set of characters.
Which impact will this discovery have on the recently overhyped global warming debate ?
It will give ammunition to people who, having an interest in not cutting back in CO2 emissions, want to argue that the global warming we've observed recently on earth is a "natural" phenomenon.
Firstly, this isn't an observation of increased temperature on mars. This is an observation of polar CO2 erosion. No temperature increase (which has been observed on earth) has been observed on Mars.
Secondly, we allready knew that climate change occurs periodically and naturally. The fact that Mars may be in the process of exiting a "dry ice age" at the moment indicates nothing about the earth.
Furthermore, I'm going to take common-sense issue with the scientists announcement that this (which they have observed over only 1 yr. martian) is "definitely not a seasonal trend." They can't know that. As an example, the ice sheets could melt in summers and reform every third or fourth winter which hapened to be extra cold. Point is there would be no long term change. I don't see any data on the actual rate at which these ice sheets are eroding, either.
The Earth, on the other hand, is allready warm by recent-meteorological standards (personally, I'm a great fan of the theory that the himalayas caused the ice ages by stripping CO2 out of the atmosphere - Nova did an episode about it.) The rate at which CO2 is going back into the earth's atmosphere is highly unusual given our knowledge of the climatic history of the earth so I don't see how our much-more-limited knowledge of the climate on Mars reveals much.
Speaking of flame wars, I have to resist the impulse to insult the previous poster. This has nothing to do with the ozone layer!
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
At such low pressure, some of the water in the soft tissues will vaporize and cause swelling of the human body (note that the blood will not vaporize, because it is always under sufficient pressure in the blood vessels). This can be prevented by "a properly fitted elastic garment", but such garments are only know to work at pressures of more than 20 millibars.
Which means that a lot of carbon dioxide would be needed until you could walk around without a space suit.
>Yes it can. It can remove cheap energy and transportation sources for billions of people, maintaining or increasing rates of poverty and starvation around the globe.
I am always amazed at the short-sightedness of ppl. These ppl are already starving and inputing more energy will NOT imporve the situatation. Energy will NEVER be cheap again except for short durations. It will be in russia's interest to raise the price again and they will do so. OTH,had we passed Kyoto, then ppl (ecpecially USA) would have started working on increasing our efficiencient useage of energy as well as a conversion to something else. Segway is certainly interesting as would be the Highspeedmonorail.com. Personally, I think that as a society, that we are very short sighted. Oil has better uses than as energy. Think about all the plastics and pharmaceuticals that we use.
>Yes, there will. The "undo" button will be to reduce CO2 emissions after...
This is also an unknown. Somebody mentioned useing iron in the oceans. This may have the side affect of introducing red-bloom killing all life. Any number of actions that we take may actually introduce a number of side-effects that cuase more problems than they solve. Saying that we can do something on a QUICK global scale is truley the unknown and the ultimate in hubris.
Back on Topic, is Mars undergoing global warming? almost certainly it is. Just as earth is. The difference is that earth is suppose to be heading for ice age, if billions of years can be beleived. Mars will almost certainly head back as well unless we step in and perhaps cuase more sublimation of co2. Once we get there (most certainly not with the idiot that is in office) and look over the planet, I hope that we use some mirrors over the poles to keep the process going.