Global warming on other planets?

Question

If other planets are warming, as is ours, can we still assume that we are responsible for the warming taking place here? Honest question.

Answer 1

There's no scientific evidence that human beings' output of co2 is responsible for "global warming". As you correctly pointed out, other planets, such as Mars, are also warming slightly. This has more to do with the activity of the Sun -- solar flares, and the solar wind -- than any of the activities of man. FYI, the biggest output of co2 comes from the oceans, and second, from volcanoes.



The weather and seasons are determined by very large astronomical cycles. The weather is a dynamic system, and there have been dramatic changes going on for eons.



And, by the way, trees and other plants LOVE co2, and in turn, release oxygen into the atmosphere!

Answer 2

The planets and moons that are warming (or are claimed by some to be warrming) are Earth, Mars, Encaladus, Triton, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto.



Mars: Many times I'm sure you've read about warming on Mars but there are a lot of sources that only relate part of the story. NASA has observed some melting of the southern polar ice cap but what's frequently not mentioned (although it's in the same NASA reports) is that the northern polar ice cap is expanding. These same reports point out that events on Mars are localised as opposed to global, not caused by the sun and not related to warming on Earth. Mars has seasonal fluctuations and it's thought that any warming is the consequence of massive dust storms that sweep across the planet.



Encaladus: Should by all accounts be cooling but it appears to be warming and no-one knows why.



Triton: Might be warming but there's no explanation.



Saturn: The only warming that's been noticed is at the southern extremity of the planet, Saturn has very long seasons and this is the part of the planet currently inclined towards the sun.



Neptune: Sometimes claimed to be warming but thought to be cooling due to a change in it's reflectivity.



Pluto: Probably the only 'planet' which we can safely say is experiencing global warming other than our own. This has ben caused by a dramatic increase in atmospheric pressure (temp goes up with pressure), in the last 14 years pressure has tripled.



Other planets: Claims are sometimes made about warming on other planets but these are attributable to nothing more than their elliptical orbit around the sun - sometimes they're nearer the sun, sometimes further away.



Only two bodies in the solar system are experiencing global warming - Earth and Pluto, some are experiencing localsied warming. The majority of planets and moons (there's 172 of them in total) have no observed temperature changes.



What warming is occuring is unique to each planet, the sun is not a factor - if it were there would be an even warming occurring on all planets and moons.



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Re the above answer...



If CO2 (and the other greenhouse gases) weren't responsible for globbal warming the planet would be 33 degrees C colder than it is and life would never have elvolved. It's a simple physical property of the greenhouse gases that causes them to trap heat from the sun.



The biggest output of CO2 is indeed from the oceans, volcanoes are way, way down the list. The second biggest contributor is biomass. Oceans, plants, soil etc form part of the natural carbon cycle - they release CO2 and they absorb CO2 and this is in balance. There is no mechanism for the processing of manmade CO2 and other greenhouse gases and it's thrown the natural cycle out of balance.



Trees and plants do love CO2, they need it to photosynthesize - it's their 'food'. But as with humans, there's a limit to how much they can consume. There's already a surplus of CO2 which they're unable to consume.



The Great Global Warming Swindle (Wag TV, producer Martin Durkin) is most definitely not a good source of information. To see why do a Google search.

Answer 3

Unfortunately you can not really compare our planet to the others in our system. If you could we might have other planets with life on them. The main difference between our planet and other planets that would be similar is our core. We have a molten Iron core that generates the largest Magnetosphere of all the rocky planets. This magnetoshpere is the reason that we have an atomsphere that is at thick as it is. Mars' magnetosphere failed and has lost most of it's atomsphere because of it. The same goes for venus. No atmosphere means no "global warming" in the sense that people here suggest. Also Distance from the sun still plays a large role in how it affects a planet. Temperature of the moon would be a better measurement for reference, but since there is no atmosphere there it makes little difference. If we were to build a greenhouse on the moon it would be a better reference.



The temperature on earth is not within our control. We may do things that can speed it up or slow it down but we can not regulate it. The earth's temperature will continue to rise and fall long after people can no long inhabit it. We can conserve fuels and not send more carbons to the atmosphere but the in the grand scheme of our planet it will do little more than give people piece of mind. Until we know more about how the earth's core works we won't know for sure how the magnetosphere and our resulting atmosphere truly function.



Did you know that the magnetic poles are not stationary?



here is a link for you kiddies out there.



http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Magnetosphere/overview.html&edu=high



http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Magnetosphere/earth_magnetic_reversals.html&edu=high

Answer 4

We have numerous satellites that monitor the Sun's activity very accurately. We don't need to look to other planets to figure out what the Sun is doing. And the satellites are not showing any changes in the sun that could account for Earthly global warming.

Pluto is cooling. But we know the reason. It is entering a part of its highly eccentric orbit that is farther from the Sun.

I will speak now only about Mars, but comparable things could be said about any planet.

There are many forces on Mars that do not exist on Earth. For example, Mars' dry ice polar caps are actually atmospheric CO2 frozen out on the ground. Atmospheric pressure on Mars varies greatly with the seasons as the very air freezes out on the ground and then sublimates (not melts) into the atmosphere again every year. Earth has nothing like this. Mars has no global magnetic field while Earth does. Mars atmosphere is almost 100% CO2, but is 100 times thinner than Earth's atmosphere. There is almost no water vapor in the air on Mars. There are no oceans or glaciers or active volcanoes on Mars. Mars has no large Moon to stabilize long term variations in its axial tilt, while Earth does. Mars' orbit is much more eccentric than Earth's. Mars often experiences global dust storms that have significant warming effects, Earth never does. And on and on. There are many differences between what drives climate on Earth and Mars. It is just a simple minded cop out to say that since Mars is warming, it must be for the same reason that Earth is warming and that the reason must come from the Sun.

Answer 5

We do contribute to Global Warming through our production of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane. However we do not contribute as much to Global Warming as many of the radical environmental extremists would have you believe.



Yes there are other factors that contribute to Global Warming and also surprisingly enough Global Cooling!



You are quite correct to point out that variations in the activity of the sun can cause our planet to warm. The activity of the sun was once thought to be constant. It is now known that the output of the sun is not constant, it actually varies. With an increase in the output of the sun, the temperature of our planet will increase and with a decrease in the output of the sun, the temperature of our planet will decrease.



You might also be interested to know that in recent surveys, approximately 40% of the population believe that Global Warming will eventually kill everyone on our planet! This illustrates the level of the hysteria created by the radical extreme environmentalists and the lack of scientific knowledge of the general population.



Thank you for asking a very good question!

Answer 6

Most of the other planets are not warming.



People here bring up Mars a lot. The scientists who actually measured Mars temperature say that the causes of its' warming are different than those on Earth. Dust storms is their current theory.



Anyway, global warming is only about 10% caused by increases in solar radiation. The sun is very well measured and that number is pretty solid. More details:



http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png



http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/FAQ2.html



http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf



I amazed that skeptics (not you, your question was obviously sincere) can assert that thousands scientists are somehow stupid about this, and ignore simple things like solar radiation.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change



http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686



Bottom line (note the source):



"While evidence suggests fluctuations in solar activity can affect climate on Earth, and that it has done so in the past, the majority of climate scientists and astrophysicists agree that the sun is not to blame for the current and historically sudden uptick in global temperatures on Earth, which seems to be mostly a mess created by our own species."



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258342,00.html



I really can't believe anyone still recommends the British TV show. It's been shown to be bogus. Many sites, here's just two:



"A Channel 4 documentary claimed that climate change was a conspiratorial lie. But an analysis of the evidence it used shows the film was riddled with distortions and errors."



http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2355956.ece



"The science might be bunkum, the research discredited. But all that counts for Channel 4 is generating controversy."



http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2032572,00.html



The assertion that volcanoes emit more than man comes from that movie. It's ridiculous.



http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/climate_effects.html

Answer 7

The notion that we have a complete picture of the sun's radiation and its effects is just not the case.