The best way to make Mars habitable would be to inject synthetic greenhouse gases into its atmosphere, researchers said Thursday. The stuff could be shipped to Mars or manufactured there. Scientists and science-fiction authors have long pondered terraforming Mars, melting the vast stores of ice in its polar caps to create an environment suitable for humans. The topic is highly controversial.
October 29th, 2004
Methane: A Scientific Journey from Obscurity to Climate Super-Stardom
The first survey in 1971 on the possibility of inadvertent human modification of climate stated that “Methane has no direct effects on the climate or the biosphere [and] it is considered to be of no importance”. The gas did not even appear in the index of the major climatology book of the time (Lamb’s Climate Past, Present and Future). Yet in the 2001 IPCC report, large parts of multiple chapters are dedicated to examining the sources, sinks, chemistry, history and potential future of this humble molecule. New papers are published every month relating paleo-climate changes to methane variability and discussing the possibility of significantly reducing future anthropogenic climate change by aggressively managing methane emissions. New hypotheses such as the “clathrate gun hypothesis” place methane variability at the centre of the debate on rapid climate change. What has fueled the rapid rise of methane from an obscure trace gas to a major factor in past, present and future climate change? As is usual in science, it is the conflation of multiple lines of evidence, that only when taken together do the connections and possible feedbacks seem obvious.
October 24th, 2004
Terraforming creating custom archipelagos Gizmo
Artificial reality has taken on a whole new slant with developments in habitat and ecosystem creation by the Dubai-based Nakheel, which is creating its own customised islands for sale. Once the stuff of science fiction, terraforming is now an affordable reality as real estate can be designed and shaped to the most outrageous whim. Nakheel has gone so far as creating an artificial archipelago that replicates a scale model of the world with all major land masses, as well as replicas of lost cities from different parts of the ancient world that have to be seen to be believed. Surrounded by the Arabian Gulf and year round sunshine, the climate of Dubai is drawing in a record number of visitors and residents and the real estate market is booming.
September 2nd, 2004
Purdue study finds antioxidant protects metal-eating plants Purdue University
An antioxidant, a type of compound that prevents certain types of damage to living cells, appears to allow some kinds of plants to thrive on metal-enriched soils that typically kill other plants, says a Purdue University scientist. This finding, published in the current issue of The Plant Cell, provides an important new insight for the development of plants that could be used to help clean polluted sites. The work also answers a fundamental question for researchers studying how certain types of plants tolerate levels of metals in their tissues that are toxic to most other plants.
August 4th, 2004
Climate Change Could Doom Alaska’s Tundra
In the next 100 years, Alaska will experience a massive loss of its historic tundra, as global warming allows these vast regions of cold, dry, lands to support forests and other vegetation that will dramatically alter native ecosystems, an Oregon State University researcher said Tuesday.
July 12th, 2004
Terraforming Mars, the Noble Experiment? Astrobiology Magazine
Mars Society founder, Robert Zubrin, talks about how to terraform the red planet. His engineer’s eye reveals his robust plans for not just getting to a new home, but also how to build one from scratch.
July 10th, 2004
Humans May Surpass Other Natural Forces As Earth Movers
Think of large earth moving projects: highway interchanges, coal mines or Boston’s Big Dig. According to Roger LeBaron Hooke, a University of Maine scientist, such activities have propelled humans into becoming arguably the most potent force in shaping the planet, surpassing rivers, wind and other natural phenomena.
July 6th, 2004
Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high
A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star’s activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth’s climate became steadily warmer. This latest analysis shows that the Sun has had a considerable influence on the global climate in the past, causing the Earth to warm or chill, and that mankind is amplifying the Sun’s latest attempt to warm the Earth.
June 17th, 2004
Walking Naked on the Red Planet Astrobiology Magazine
At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 4 of this 7-part series, Greg Bear ponders the evolution of humans into Martians.
May 24th, 2004
Only nuclear power can stop global warming, says British environmentalist
Only nuclear energy can slow down the rapid and potentially devastating warming of the earth, a veteran British scientist and environmental campaigner argued on Monday. “Only one immediately available source does not cause global warming and that is nuclear energy,” James Lovelock wrote in an opinion piece published in the Independent newspaper.