Hi.. a group of scientists at the American Geophysical Union, say that global warming can be used to melt polar ice caps of the Mars to create conditions for life there. They say, by injecting synthetic "super" greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet's temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life.

well the main problem is getting mars to have a atmosphere at all... its magnetic poles are dead, and solar wind just picks that bit of atmosphere right of. right now its like 1/8 of what we got, also no cover from meteors (with hit every so often)

and we first have to worry bout getting there at all, no man has yet stood on mars...

yes of course.. but i believe NASA might be working on a mission to send man to MARS..

Well, the so called terraforming was science fiction for a very long time but recently scientist started believing it's actually possible.

The Problem is you don't have just to warm it for a few degrees but for a quite a bit.

earth's medium temp is 288 K whereas the Martian is only 210 K

Also the differences in pressure are significant.

They think the terraforming will take several thousands of years, to create a similar base as on the earth of 3.5 billion years ago when cyanobacteria started producing oxygen.

oh.. is that so.. its interesting to hear that cyanobacteria produced oxygen first.. and when i see you saying about terraforming, and cyanobacteria, i hope it would be better to discuss on these things first.. i m starting a new thread on 'origin of life on earth'.. though we get some notes regarding these, but it will be good to hear from great minds..

So if we can't fix a problem on our own relatively healthy planet we can solve all the immense problems involved in reaching and taming Mars?! I refuse to believe that the money spent on such an errand couldn't do a lot more good here.

To put it another way, if we can't restore balance here how can we hope to create and maintain balance in an extremely hostile environment? There are various ideas for "terraforming" the Earth, e.g. by seeding algae. Not to mention the potential impact of many boring conservation options, like smaller engines, smaller vehicles, and a punitive gas tax (I'm sure this will be popular).

It would be quite easy to restore balance here. It basically all boils down to the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses we keep putting into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses are needed (without them, we wouldn't be here), but I like to think the earth can do a good job of keeping the levels where they need to be.

As long as stubborn politicians and rich corporations run the world, we won't have much luck with anything.