© NASA Mars's southern polar ice cap, seen here in true color, has shrunk in recent years due to planetary warming—similar to what's happening on Earth.
According to the latest science, the simultaneous rise in temperatures on Earth and Mars indicates a natural—and not a human—cause for global warming. But this doesn't stop the politicians maintaining that humans are responsible for Earth's climate changes and that the Mars phenomenon is mere coincidence.
According to the latest science, the simultaneous rise in temperatures on Earth and Mars indicates a natural—and not a human—cause for global warming. But this doesn't stop the politicians maintaining that humans are responsible for Earth's climate changes and that the Mars phenomenon is mere coincidence.
Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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 the 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.
