Time to fire up those Hummers on Mars!

Clearly demonstrating that grasping at straws is what they do best, Powerline--yes, the eternal fountain of satire--picks up a sentence fragment and decides they have the definitive answer on global warming, not just here, but on all planets everywhere!

"While it is theoretically possible for human and animal activities to affect the climate on Earth"

"Theoretically possible" translated from Powerline to English means "I'm not a scientist, but I play one on my blog." Meanwhile, how about a cap-and-trade cow farts!

"the main factor causing fluctuations in temperatures on this planet, as on Mars, is variability in energy output from the Sun"

or simply "the thermal structure of the atmosphere is observed to warm and cool according to season and distance from the Sun" (result #19), because Mars has an eliptical orbit around the sun.

"Why not place thermometers in a few locations on Mars, equipped with radio transmitters that would send temperature data to Earth or to a spacecraft?"

Or you could simply compare it to the temperature data already being collected from the Mars Global Surveyor itself.

"In time--it would take more than a few years' observations, obviously--such an experiment would settle once and for all the question whether human activities are making a significant contribution to climate variations on Earth."

Once And For All! So, go out there and measure temperatures on Mars for the next 1000 years or so and if you don't come back with an answer I like, I'll send you right back out...to Jupiter! I heard there's some nasty hurricanes up there too!

"The main catch I can see is that figuring out how to account for the planets' different atmospheres might recreate the debates that are now going on about how to properly model the Earth's weather system."

Minor problem, that. I've got another minor one: how to account for the fact that the Earth actually has a carbon cycle while CO2 on Mars like, freezes for one out of every two Earth-years. So, to answer his question ("Readers, what do you think?"), I think the dust storm that began in 1997 and lasted through 2001 is gradually becoming less severe and unfortunately the jet propulsion laboratory used the phrase "suggesting a climate change in progress" in describing what's going on. It is, however, theoretically possible that I am wrong.