Caldara repeated distortion that Mars ice cap melting belies human-caused global warming on Earth

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Discussing global warming on his June 11 Newsradio 850 KOA broadcast, Jon Caldara misleadingly implied that humans could not be a primary cause of climate change, because “the ice caps on Mars seem to be melting as well.” In fact, numerous scientists have dismissed the claim that warming on uninhabited planets suggests that global warming on the Earth is not likely caused by human activities.

During the June 11 broadcast of his Newsradio 850 KOA show, host and Independence Institute president Jon Caldara misleadingly implied that the melting of polar ice caps on Mars is somehow analogous to the effect of rising temperatures on Earth -- suggesting that therefore humans could not be a primary cause of climate change.

During the broadcast, Caldara said that “people just want to believe that global warming is in fact a man-made ... phenomenon.” He then asserted, “They don't really care that the ice caps on Mars seem to be melting as well.”

From the June 11 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALDARA: You know what I love the most about the global warming debate? Is, is not the religious aspect of this -- that, that people just want to believe that global warming is in fact a man-made or largely man-made phenomenon. They don't really care that the ice caps on Mars seem to be melting as well. Which apparently is from that little Voyager thing that we put down there -- you know, the little four-wheel-drive thing. One SUV on the planet melts the polar ice caps, no matter what planet.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, a theory advanced by climate-change skeptics was described in a February 28 National Geographic News online article that reported, “Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at 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.” Yet, the article also stated, “The conventional theory is that climate changes on Mars can be explained primarily by small alterations in the planet's orbit and tilt, not by changes in the sun.” As Media Matters for America noted, the article also pointed out that Abdussamatov's suggestion is “one scientist's controversial theory” and that “Abdussamatov's work ... has not been well received by other climate scientists.” The article further noted that “the vast majority of climate scientists” attribute the Earth's “rapid warming ... to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

Contrary to Caldara's suggestion that melting of the ice caps on Earth is not a “largely man-made phenomenon” in light of the fact that Mars' polar ice caps also are melting, numerous scientists have dismissed the claim that warming on uninhabited planets suggests that global warming on the Earth is not likely caused by human activities, as Colorado Media Matters has noted.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report included a section titled “Human and Natural Drivers of Climate Change,” which described the increase in Earth's greenhouse gases:

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years (see Figure SPM-1). The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture."

The report further stated, “Changes in the atmospheric abundance of greenhouse gases and aerosols, in solar radiation and in land surface properties alter the energy balance of the climate system.”