I think the group of artists proposing that Letterkenny, County Donegal, should be twinned with Mars, may have got their Climate Change facts a little twisted :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/8473116.stm

“Irish island twinned with Mars in climate change stunt : An island in County Donegal is to be twinned with Mars in order to raise awareness of climate change. A community near Letterkenny will be linked with an island outcrop on the Red planet. The unusual move was suggested by a group of artists asked by Donegal County Council to explore art’s role in addressing issues of global warming. The Council’s Public Arts Manager, Terri Duffy, said it would act as an “attention-grabbing wake-up call”. “I know it’s a bit ‘out there’ but it is taking a very serious look at the relationship of art and climate change. Some people feel the earth is becoming more Mars like due to the effects of global warming…”

Mars is rather cold, owing to the fact that it doesn’t really have much of an atmosphere and so doesn’t have the benefit of much in terms of the Greenhouse Effect :-

Yes, 95% of the atmosphere that does exist is Carbon Dioxide, but this is not increasing, so there is no Energy imbalance (due to Carbon Dioxide), so there is no, I repeat NO Martian Global Warming (due to Carbon Dioxide) :-

However, Mars is getting a little warmer, it seems :-

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming_2.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720024.ece

Talk of Mars brings me out in a rash. It’s known as the “Mars Effect”. Any time Mars is mentioned in the Media, it’s in the service of propaganda. Usually it’s all about supporting massive amounts of money spent on Defence, ahem, Space. With this “twinning” story it appears to be about undermining the Science of Global Warming.

With the possibility of Runaway Global Warming hinted at by Science, it’s not Mars that should be the subject of the twinning with County Donegal : it’s Venus :-

We really don’t want to go there.