[extropy-chat] Using global warming to create conditions for life on Mars

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

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. In fact, a team of researchers suggests that
introducing global warming on the Red Planet may be the best approach
for warming the planet's frozen landscape and turning it into a
habitable world in the future.
Margarita Marinova, then at the NASA Ames Research Center, and
colleagues propose that the same types of atmospheric interactions
that have led to recent surface temperature warming trends on Earth
could be harnessed on Mars to create another biologically hospitable
environment in the solar system. In the February issue of Journal of
Geophysical Research-Planets, published by the American Geophysical
Union, the researchers report on the thermal energy absorption and the
potential surface temperature effects from introducing man-made
greenhouse gases strong enough to melt the carbon dioxide and ice on
Mars.
"Bringing life to Mars and studying its growth would contribute to our
understanding of evolution, and the ability of life to adapt and
proliferate on other worlds," Marinova said. "Since warming Mars
effectively reverts it to its past, more habitable state, this would
give any possibly dormant life on Mars the chance to be revived and
develop further."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/agu-ugw020305.php