In a condemnatory speech last week against the Obama administration’s new Environmental Protection Agency carbon emission regulations, Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith (R) claimed that man-made climate change is scientifically implausible because Mars and Earth share “exactly” the same temperature.

Smith, the owner of a mining company called Mohawk Energy, argued that despite the fact that the red planet doesn’t have any coal mines, Mars and Earth share a temperature. Therefore, Smith reasoned, coal companies on Earth should be exempt from emission regulations.

During a Natural Resources and Environment Committee meeting Thursday, Smith, the Senate majority whip, said:

As you [Energy & Environment Cabinet official] sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us. I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of.

According to NASA, the average temperature on Earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit -- 138 degrees above Mars' average of -81 degrees.

Although the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has stated that the new EPA rules will not cause Kentucky to shut down any additional coal-fired power plants, state lawmakers Thursday blamed federal environmental regulations for shuttering the state’s coal mines.

Thursday’s committee meeting was dominated by a slew of outlandish scientific claims from both Republican and Democratic climate change deniers.

State Rep. Kevin Sinnette (D) dismissed the threat of man-made global warming by pointing out that dinosaurs survived climate change.

“The dinosaurs died, and we don’t know why, but the world adjusted,” Sinnette said. “And to say that this is what’s going to cause detriment to people, I just don’t think it’s out there.”

State Rep. Stan Lee (R) claimed that climate-warming trends caused by human activities -- a phenomenon backed by 97 percent of climate scientists -- are nothing more than calculated scare tactics.

“All this stems, this carbon capture, all this other stuff, it stems back to a scare, generated years ago about global warming,” the Fayette County lawmaker said on Thursday. “Finally it turned out there hasn’t been global warming in 15 or 20 years, then they changed the name to climate change.”

Even the committee's chairman, state Rep. Jim Gooch Jr. (D), is one of the state’s leading opponents of federal environmental regulations, going as far as to suggest in 2011 that Kentucky would secede from the union to avoid the EPA’s crackdown on mining pollution.

 Peregrine wrote:
Now the only question here is whether he's genuinely stupid enough to believe what he's saying, or if he knows that plenty of voters are that stupid and needs to protect the profits of his mining company.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
the liberal Fox News

 Ahtman wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
the liberal Fox News

I thought that was DailyKos.

Surface temperatures may reach a high of about 20 °C (293 K; 68 °F) at noon, at the equator...

 Breotan wrote:
I'm not taking his side but his statement isn't quite as stupid as HuffPo makes it out to be.

Surface temperatures may reach a high of about 20 °C (293 K; 68 °F) at noon, at the equator...

 TheCustomLime wrote:
But Mars is a much more distant planet with a thin atmosphere. How are our two worlds comparable when it comes to arguing about the effects of global warming?

Mars has the highest orbital eccentricity of any planet in our solar system other than Pluto -- its distance from the Sun varies between 1.36 and 1.64 AU over the Martian year. This large variation, combined with an axial tilt greater than Earth's, causes seasonal changes that are far greater than we experience here on Earth. One of the strangest effects of seasons on Mars is the change in atmospheric pressure. During winter the global atmospheric pressure on Mars is 25% lower than during summer. This happens because of the eccentricity of Mars's orbit and a complex exchange of carbon dioxide between the Martian dry-ice polar caps and its CO2 atmosphere. Around the winter solstice when the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun, the northern polar cap expands as carbon dioxide in the polar atmosphere freezes.

At the other end of the planet the southern polar cap melts, giving CO2 back to the atmosphere. This process reverses half a year later at the summer solstice. But Mars is 10% closer to the Sun in winter than it is in summer. At the time of the winter solstice the northern polar cap absorbs more CO2 than the southern polar cap absorbs half a year later. The difference is so great that the Martian atmosphere is noticeably thinner during winter. Its orbital motion is slowest when it is at aphelion (the farthest point from the Sun) and fastest at perihelion (the closest point to the Sun). This makes Martian seasons vary in duration more than those on Earth. Seasons change roughly every seven months, with spring beginning around the end of May, summer beginning around the middle of December, fall beginning in June, and winter beginning in November

Scientific understanding is often a matter of making the right comparisons. In terms of studying the Earth, one of the best comparative laboratories exists one planet over -- on Mars. In many ways, the study of Mars provides Earth-bound scientists with a control set as they look at the processes of climate change, geophysics, and the potential for life beyond our own planet.

In January of 2004 NASA landed two extraordinary research probes on Mars as part of an international armada of exploratory vehicles sent to Earth's dusty neighbor. Much of the technology and scientific methodology built into those missions directly relate to the sophisticated research efforts currently being used to study our own planet.

The Big Picture: Different but Not Dissimilar

The similarities are striking. Each planet has roughly the same amount of land surface area. Atmospheric chemistry is relatively similar, at least as Earth is compared to the other planets in the solar system. Both planets have large, sustained polar caps and the current thinking is that they're both largely made of water ice. The sibling planets also show a similar tilt in their rotational axises, affording each of them strong seasonal variability. The neighbors also present strong historic evidence of changes in climate. In these images, we see both planets in true color first, then draped in false color, showing relative altitudes of surface features. Blues indicates low features; reds and whites indicate high features. (Click image above for animation)

Olympus Mons: A Martian Peak with a View

Earth is a planet constantly re-making itself. A vibrant climate, an active water cycle, and a dynamic interior reshape and redefine our home everyday, sometimes dramatically. In terms of topography, some of Earth's biggest changes come from moving tectonic plates floating on the planet's mantle, and volcanoes -- huge outflows of heat and matter from deep inside the Earth's crust

But while Earth's features eternally change, they do not persist with the same permanence as features elsewhere in the solar system. For a particularly interesting comparison, we look to Mars.

In the entire solar system, Mars boasts general features that are some of the biggest, widest, and deepest. One of its standouts is the immense Olympus Mons, a volcano of such size and scale that it’s own peak reaches above most of the Martian atmosphere. Olympus Mons could not even exist on Earth; with Earth's stronger gravity field, the massive volcano would collapse under its own weight if it were here.

The Martian giant rises about 23 kilometers from the surrounding plains. On Earth, the closest thing resembling this volcanic giant is the Mauna Loa peak on Hawaii, which rises about 10 kilometers from its base on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Both of these mountains are dramatically taller than the Himalayan Mt. Everest. But Mt. Everest is not a volcano; both Mauna Loa and Olympus Mons are. Their histories are described by dramatic deliveries of molten material to the surface of each planet from their respective interiors. In this sequence we see the two planets in several color schemes. We begin by flying into the Earth in true color. Then we remove the water and look at the topographic features of the planet from the ocean floor in false color, where blues indicate low points and reds are high. Next we overlay a true color, semi-transparent Olympus Mons on top of the Hawaiian Islands to provide a true-to-scale comparison of their relative sizes. Finally we pull back to see the whole of the Martian globe in true color.

Magnetic Signatures

sun

Solar storms impact the Earth and Mars differently. Mars does not have the same kind of magnetic field as Earth. But evidence collected by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) indicates that the planet may have once had a global magnetic field, generated by an internal dynamo. Evidence suggests that the planet’s magnetic field reversed direction, or flipped, several times in its early days as conditions in the mantle and core of the planet changed. But that dynamo faded, leaving only faint traces of its magnetic past locked in the Martian crust.

Scientists continue to explore these processes on Mars and how they relate to magnetic processes on Earth. And speaking of home, Earth's magnetic field is powerful: powerful and profoundly important to everyone who lives here. It not only shows evidence of pronounced poles, but also clearly identifiable field lines -- magnetic lines of force that define an intangible bubble of electromagnetic energy around the planet. The magnetic signature that defines the field around Earth acts like a protective shield from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. In many ways, the magnetic field is as much a defining characteristic of our planet as any of its other significant attributes. Not only does it protect the Earth from extraterrestrial radiation, but it also may have helped the Earth both hold on to its atmosphere and water.

Water Warehouses - Polar Caps May Reveal Planetary Histories

Polar caps on Mars and Earth

Polar caps on Mars and Earth are very similar. Both the northern and southern Martian ice caps vary in size as its seasons change. Scientists believe that the permanent northern ice cap is mostly frozen water while the southern cap is frozen water and carbon dioxide. Shown here the northern ice cap extends over a sizeable portion of the planet's pole, rippling and folding as ice and snow merge together. Its non-seasonally affected size is several times greater than its southern counterpart.

On Earth much of the planet's fresh water is locked up in ice covering the two poles. This helps preserve a delicate balance in oceanic chemistry as well as relative temperature stasis for the planet. In the opposite corner of the screen we're looking at Antarctica, surrounding Earth's South Pole. And while polar ice, plus the vast ice sheet covering Greenland in the north may only represent roughly three percent of the overall water contained on Earth, it represents two thirds of all the available fresh water -- water that's vital to many of the myriad lifeforms found here. (Click image above for animation)

Data now indicate that Mars' northern polar region may contain as much water as all that's contained on Greenland's ice sheet -- a vast tract of frozen water that's up to three kilometers thick in some places.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
the liberal Fox News

I thought that was DailyKos.

I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of.

 Seaward wrote:

I don't think there is a conservative equivalent for the sheer radical insanity that is DailyKos.

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, allowing for-profit corporations to exclude birth control coverage in their employees’ insurance plans:

“Today, the Supreme Court took an outrageous step against the rights of America’s women, setting a dangerous precedent that could permit for-profit corporations to pick and choose which laws to obey. This deeply misguided and destructive decision is a serious blow to Americans’ ability to make their own health decisions.

“Health care decisions should be made by a woman in consultation with her family, her faith and her doctor – not by her boss, not by insurers, and not by Washington politicians. One of the primary goals of the Affordable Care Act is ending the decades of inequality endured by America’s women forced to settle for less health care at a higher price. Addressing this gender disparity means comprehensive coverage of the full array of women's health services, period.

“Although the Court restricted their ruling to ‘closely-held’ companies, this ruling will immediately affect the lives of millions of women across the country. Over 90 percent of America’s businesses are ‘closely-held,’ including such large employers as Koch Industries and Bechtel. Women should not be forced to jump through extra hoops to secure the fundamental health care they need. Allowing employers and CEOs to limit the health care available to employees is a gross violation of their workers’ religious rights. It’s just not her boss’s business. No employer should have the right to limit the health choices of its employees, male or female.

It was bad enough when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “five white men” on the Supreme Court made the decision to protect Hobby Lobby form having to pay for drugs that cause abortions for their employees.

Now, Nancy Pelosi seems to think that the ruling somehow banned contraception or prevents women from using diaphragms. If only top Democrats bothered to read the ruling and learn what was at stake in the decision and what the Supreme Court decided.

Actually, Hobby Lobby already covered diaphragms before the ruling and will continue to cover them. The ruling was about drugs that can cause abortions.

No one has ever claimed pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was too intelligent or too observant to be the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. Reid proved that to be true the other day when he claimed that “five white men” on the Supreme Court decided to protect Hobby Lobby from President Obama’s abortion mandate.

“The one thing we are going to do during this work period, sooner rather than later, is to ensure that women’s lives are not determine by virtue of five white men,” Reid said. “This Hobby Lobby decision is outrageous and we are going to do something about it. People are going to have to walk down here and vote/”

Five white men? Surely Reid is forgetting someone….

 Ouze wrote:
"Hey guys, lets talk about something else now"