Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

National Geographic ^ | February 28, 2007 | Kate Ravilious

[moneyrunner]

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

Solar Cycles

Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun's heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.

Mars and Earth, for instance, have experienced periodic ice ages throughout their histories.

[cake_crumb]

Intellectually dishonest. Changing brightness ain't the only thing the sun is doing. Solar activity has been high since the last solar max in 2001. The sun has entered a period of increased solar activity including more sunsports and more powerful solar storms. It's a fusion engine, not a candle.

[Shady]

How many carbon credits does AlGore have to sell to himself to make up the CO2 released by his mouth?

[knarf]

... only because he's trying to cover up TVA's part.

I wonder .... will we all have to pony up for the carbon credits to offset the cost of cooling the universe down?

Nazi Pelosi is working on her opening remarks as we type.

[mc5cents]

Too weak? It's all explained here: The Great Global Warming Swindle

[cake_crumb]

"I don't believe tht there are any Freepers who actually believe Mr. Gore's Global Warming Fantasy."

There are FReepers who claim not to subscribe to Al's sci-fi disaster movie scenario but still claim mankind is the cause of global warming and we're all gonna die when the seas rise, when the seas fall, whatever.

[randog]

Heretic

Yeah, so much for his grant. Oh, wait, he's from Russia...

[Nathan Zachary]

"warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun."

The earth is warmed by the sun... Who knew? /s

[Overtaxed]

We should send AlGore to Mars to do further research.

[Prodigal Son]

The last paragraph of your article is most interesting:

Apart from solar brightness, more subtle influences on climate from cosmic rays or the Sun's ultraviolet radiation cannot be excluded, say the authors. However, these influences cannot be confirmed, they add, because physical models for such effects are still too poorly developed.

I doubt they will ever create a model that is complex enough to model the climate accurately. Simply too many factors. The climate itself is the only model that is currently running that shows the correct output data. We need only discover the question.

[Enduring Freedom]

from junkscience.com...

This is a temperature chart for Central Park, NY. It gets a lot of play in the press as a "common sense" proof of global warming, and comes right off the NASA climate site:

Now, lets ignore the fact that urbanization could be causing a local temperature increase that does not reflect a general climate trend. Lets, however, select our time frame a little differently. Lets take the whole data set, which goes back further, rather than this set chosen by activists to make their point. The same data over a longer trend looks like this:

OOPS! Gee, I am not sure Central Park looks much warmer. In fact, you could argue it is cooler. Hmmmm. Ask yourself if you really think it was an accident that the year with the single lowest temperature in the middle of the second graph was used as the starting point for the first.

[randog]

“Our results imply that, over the past century, climate change due to human influences must far outweigh the effects of changes in the Sun's brightness,” says Wigley.

Which explains the drop in temperatures between 1945 and 1975, right? No human industrial activity then. Oh, wait--there were no SUV's back then...yeah, that's it...

[RhoTheta]

...and this is precisely why I have lapsed my subscription to National Geographic magazine after receiving it since 1967: Instead of articles about geography, they have abandoned that field for evangelism for environmental religion and social causes.

I guess I should be glad that they covered this news at all, even though they quickly moved in with links to articles and opinions marginalizing this honest scientist.

[palmer]

Mars warming is not very well measured yet and can be explained the same way earth's warming can be explained: factors unique to the planet.

[palmer]

The galactic (not solar) cosmic rays that hit the earth may cause warming. The sun's role is that its weakining magnetic field may let more cosmic rays in. The same effect would not occur on Mars because there are no clouds to be enhanced by the cosmic rays.

[Nathan Zachary]

"It must be because of all those SUV's that are up there.

Lets use global warming alarmist/ evolutionist thinking to solve this dilema which threatens the "science" of global warming.

It's simply because the man made Co2 produced by SUV's and oil refineries, etc. escaping into space from earth that is causing mars, the moon, and all the other planets in our solar system to heat up.

So, unless we buy carbon credits from polluting countries who somehow have carbon credits to sell, which must be brokered through Al Gore's carbon credit trading co., we are all going to die.

See? that wasn't hard! /s

[palmer]

The title may be misleading but the changes in sunspots don't produce a very strong climate change. If they did, we would have cold and warm cycles every 22 years.

[palmer]

I agree.

[hellinahandcart]

review

[U S Army EOD]

Could "Moonbats" have an effect on our and the Martian climate? I have seen a few of them and they appear to be not of this Earth.

[palmer]

I agree with you that authors are too focused on manmade global warming, but I don't think that affects their conclusion that the sun isn't the explanation. Did Mars experience the same drop in temperatures between 1945 and 1975? Somehow I doubt it.