who is burning fossil fuels on mars ?

Question

or could it be that increases in the sun's output is causing th e tempetures on all the planets to rise.time to stop the alarm on fossil fuel burning mania

Answer 1

Like Earth, Mars has seasons that cause its polar caps to wax and wane. "It's late spring at the south pole of Mars," says planetary scientist Dave Smith of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "The polar cap is receding because the springtime sun is shining on it."

"Remember, though," adds Smith, "there are two polar caps on Mars--north and south. While the south polar cap is vaporizing the north polar cap is growing. It's a balancing act.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/07aug_southpole.htm

Additionally, Mars is warming overall because of the darkening of its surface due to increased dust storms:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070404-mars-warming.html?source=rss

If the warming were due to the sun (link below proves that it's not), then every planet would be warming. That is simply not the case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm

"It shows that for the last 20 years, the Sun's output has declined, yet temperatures on Earth have risen."

Answer 2

There is NO Global Warming taking place on Mars. NASA reported that an analysis of old data showed the size of the South Polar cap had decreased since Viking. That instantly turned into :global warming on Mars" on the Internet. In fact Mars is cooling, in keeping with its normal seasons.


It might help to know a ltlle bit about Mars. Let me see if I can help.

Mars has two kinds of seasons. It has the kind we have caused by the tilt of it's polar axis. The tilt is about the same as ours. When the North pole points toward the sun the Northern hemisphere is warmer, while the Southern Hemisphere points away and is colder. When the North pole points away from the sun the Northern hemisphere is cooler, while the Southern hemisphere is warmer. This gives Mars seasons similar to our summer and winter.

Mars also has another feature Earth doesn't have. Earth's orbit is almost a perfect circle. All the planet's orbits are elliptical, but Mars is much more so than Earth's. So it actually is much closer to the sun at some times and farther away at others. This gives it another kind of season we don't have. Scientists usually call the first one the "little summer" and the "little winter". and the second one the "big summer" and "big winter".

Mars then has a third type of season. Like the earth, the polar axis of Mars wanders around a bit, over a course shaped like a figure 8. For both planets, the poles require tens of thousands of years to make their circuit. In the case of Mars, it takes about 170,000 years. At one point the poles are nearly straight up and down, so there are almost no seasons. When they are at their extreme tilt the seasonal difference becomes enormous. This cycle is called the "great winter" and the "great summer". These are really the "little winter" and "little summer" varying in intensity over a very long timescale.

Now you can see that when the "little winter" lines up with the "big winter" the winter will be a bit colder that normal. If it lines up with the "big summer" it will be milder, and so forth. Mars' year is about twice the earth year, and you could have either of these two alignments or anything in between during an average year. The DIFFERENCE between the two types of season changes with the 170,000 year "great winter"/"great summer" cycle, so another tier of combinations occurs there.

One characteristic of the "summers" is planet wide sandstorms, as were going on in the 1970's when the Viking's landed. In 2001 NASA released a report of data since then that showed decreases in the size of the Southern polar cap (the largest polar cap) since Viking. The report was based on 3 years data (out of 170,000). They did not report planet wide warming or cooling over that time span, because that hasn't occurred.

On the internet, that small shrinkage of the South polar cap became "Global Warming" on Mars. NASA of course immediately pointed out the mistake, but for some folks the internet is a "monkey see-monkey do" enterprise, and it's been out there ever since.

Answer 3

We don't have enough information to say for certain what is happening on Mars. It seems likely that some parts are warming (the southern hemisphere) and other parts are cooling (the northern hemisphere). The two effectively cancelling each other out. We do know that at times the southern polar ice cap has expanded whilst at the same time the northern polar ice cap contracts.

The atmosphere of Mars isn't remotely like that of Earth. For a start there's almost no atmosphere at all and what little there is is almost entirely carbon dioxide. As such the atmospherics of Mars and Earth are entirely different, as they are for each of the planets.

Such warming as there may be on Mars is probably linked to the global dust storms that sweep across the planet for several days or weeks at a time. These whip up immense clouds of dust which, similar to clouds on Earth, trap heat.

One thing we know for certain is that it's not the sun. Output from the sun has decreased very slightly in recent decades so if anything there should be a very slight cooling. We are able to measure the energy received from the sun with a very high degree of accuracy and can confidently say that the sun is not the cause.

There are other planets and moons in the solar system that are warming - Triton, Jupiter and Pluto to name but three. In each case the causes are unrelated. Whilst some planets are warming there are a greater number that are cooling.

Answer 4

our ancestors did before they became refugees because of a cosmic collision ,that knocked Mars out of Orbit ,
and of course Wars ,

why do you think for all of eternity with all cultures Mars has been known as the God of War ,
because the Martians were very warlike people ,
and they created us as slaves to mine their gold .
Apart from that mars is not round it has a very big slow wobble in its orbit,which at times brings the surface closer to the sun
they have several seasons a big winter and a big summer ,also a little winter and a little summer ,
they now got the big summer ,that is what people mistake for global warming
it is not
there are thousands of years between them.

Ooops John Walkup has already said it all.

Answer 5

a few old Nasa photos of distant martian ice caps is obviously proof that anthropogenic climate change is a myth -

Decades of peer reviewed and repeated close-up analysis of Eath's climate, atmosphere, oceans, etc and most people won't trust it - http://www.ipcc.ch

Addicts (to cheap fuel) see/hear what they want to see/hear
- it is not worth discussing FACTs- don't try acounting for differnet orbits, climate composition etc

Answer 6

Mars actually has a fairly dense atmosphere, Charlie.

Actually, the output of the sun is not increasing, but the planet is in an ever-changing dynamic cycle of ice age - thaw, ice age - thaw.

Who ever said the temperatures are supposed remain constant? Why does increasing temperatures mean it is anyone's fault?

Furthermore, we are fooling ourselves to think we can actually have any affect in reversing global warming (if indeed this is what is happenming)

Chances are the so-called warming trend (i'm still not convinced) will wind up causing a new ice age as warmer temperatures induce massive amounts of snowfall at the poles and the ice sheet creeps south.

It has happened before.

The only difference back then was, ice-age man never thought to make it political..

Answer 7

Could it be that humans are making the natural temperature increase more extreme?

If you hold you hand out int he sun it will get warm naturally, but if I hold a lighter under your hand it will get even hotter won't it?

Your logic sucks.

Answer 8

I've read that dust storms are responsible for the Mars heating you're talking about.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1890339.htm

I don't know how true that is though.

Edit:
I'm confused as to why I would get a thumbs down for simply stating what I've read and then providing a source for it. What a weird online community.....

Answer 9

No, Private airplanes are much closer to Mars than our SUV's are, so that's proof that planes are causing global warming on Mars.

There will be people who deny that this is true, but those are just religious wack-o's who still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Answer 10

The martians at a barbecue.