Kyoto protocol sounds warning against uninhibited temptations of Adam’s progeny to nibble at the green blanket that defines earth. Thinning of life sustaining ozone layer and polar ice caps has rung alarm bell: Citizens of Bandra Santacruz and Khar in Mumbai has woken up to ‘No Car Day’ on February 24 – to register their support to eco-conservationists. If our already scarce natural resources keep on exhausting at the present rate than the posterity would have left with no choice but to look at other planets that promises life – and a better life for sure. A satire on such possibility:  

 

Just imagine how any one of us may react to the news: ‘Red Planet Mars witnesses first human habitation’.Our reaction will naturally be a combo of paranoia and elation – weighing its various possibilities.

 

Contrarily the Gen-X brigade will take it with a pinch of salt: Wow! Hurry up. Get ready to avoid missing first Mars-bound space shuttle. Or will this ground you with a latent fear of dreadful aliens, similar to that what you watch in Hollywood sci-fi movies.

 

Irrespective of any thought that lights up your mind, the scientists have scooped out solution to Mars’ habitation from the same dreary pollutant that is a constant source of concern to humanity at large. Green house effect! The very name that make you perspire profusely with fear of global warming.

 

The earthly refuse – CO, CO2, et al, playing havoc here may be either be ‘dumped’ into Mars or produced there to make the planet friendly for humans, believes scientists.

 

Green house gases mostly contain carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and few other gases. These gases form a blanket that shrouds the earth’s environs. This invisible blanket traps the heat radiation released from the surface of the earth. The earth absorbs solar radiation and then releases it back in the atmosphere. The green house gases, like a mirror, reflect it back on this planet’s surface. This increases the atmospheric temperature, which in turn melts polar ice caps flooding coastal areas and producing unbearable heat strokes that sweep across continents and oceans alike. Life and vegetation succumb to it – turning our planet more grey and bald.

 

The cold Mars needs warmth to sprout life. The best way to make Mars habitable would be to inject synthetic greenhouse gases into its atmosphere, which would melt the vast stores of ice in its polar caps to create an environment conducive for humans. The theme is extremely contentious. Some feel earthlings enjoy no right to mess with the climate of another planet. Others perceive Mars as a safe haven for people who might need to flee this world as conditions worsen. Another argument holds that Mars was likely hotter and wetter in its distant past, and it might have harbored life, so bringing it back to a previous state to recapitulate life makes sense. Among the ideas for how to warm Mars: sprinkling stuff near the poles that would absorb more sunlight, or placing large mirrors in orbit around the planet to reflect more sunlight onto it.

 

The new exploration advocates that forcing global warming by introducing greenhouse gases may be the best way to transform the red planet’s landscape. The factors responsible for warming Earth may be exploited to transform Mars into a green planet, the scientists believe.