Posted on 08/16/2006 10:53:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Thanks for the ping. Many of my friends are still at JPL.
Mars is being intensively studied closeup for the first time. We're bound to learn much more, but that doesn't mean that conditions have recently changed, just that we're aware of it. Remember in the late 1990s, there was that scam story about how the ice at the North Pole had melted, and that it was the first time in 30 million years? That falsehood (which had a source of "anonymous scientists") was printed something like eight times in the NY Slimes, including at least once AFTER the retraction was printed. Entertainer David Letterman was so disturbed by the initial story that he talked about it in his monologue a few times. When the retraction appeared, he remarked that the original story was not true, and that the melting happens all the time.
I'm perfectly happy to accept that Mars is warming -- but we'll need a long baseline to figure it out, and obviously it isn't warming now because of the presence of the Viking landers from 30 years ago. If Mars warms up, it'll be great to have that data to refute the false notion that human activity is changing Earth's climate. Instead, we see in this story that CO2 is pukin' out all over and will soon see how that causes Mars to warm. Ridiculous, and it's being orchestrated.
Maybe that's why the Deep Space two probes and the Mars Polar Lander were lost - sunk into a honeycombed subsurface.
there was that scam story about how the ice at the North Pole had melted, and that it was the first time in 30 million years?
LOL, as I understand it these poles usually don't melt they vaporize every year or two... hhmmm
The North Pole of the Earth, though, not Mars. :') Ditto on the solar cycle, there's a long, irregular period when the number of sunspots (and solar radiance) decreases -- called Maunder Minimums -- and then turns around and increases. (*:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.