Global Warming

Global Warming: Earth Must Take Some Lessons from Venus

Venus offers scientists the chance to see how the same basic physics used to study Earth’s climate operates under a very different set of circumstances. In one sense, Venus is rather similar to Earth: it has nearly the same mass as Earth, and while its orbit is somewhat closer to the Sun, that effect is [...]

Venus offers scientists the chance to see how the same basic physics used to study Earth’s climate operates under a very different set of circumstances. In one sense, Venus is rather similar to Earth: it has nearly the same mass as Earth, and while its orbit is somewhat closer to the Sun, that effect is more than made up for by the sunlight reflected from Venus’ thick cloud cover.

The planet, Venus, which has many similarities with the earth, is increasingly replacing Mars as the focus of scientific enquiry.

Scientists believe that a study of this brightest of planets would lead to a better understanding of greenhouse gases and their impact on the earth’s climate.

Scientists participating in an international workshop on ‘Advances in Planetary Atmospheres and Exploration’ organised by the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, emphasised the importance of Venus for a better understanding of climate change on earth.

Around 50 senior scientists from 14 countries participated on Monday, the first day of the two-day workshop.

Sanjay S Limaye, senior scientist at University of Wisconsin, US, said at the workshop that the landmass and atmosphere of Venus were similar in size to that of the earth.

“That’s why a study of this planet could help us understand our own planet better,” he said. “The atmosphere of Venus is very hot and conditions prevailing there could be compared with global warming on earth. Study of Venus could help us understand how global warming works.”

Limaye further explained that the study of Venus had already revealed that, besides carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour also contribute to global warming as they have the property of retaining heat.

The Earth may well succumb to a runaway greenhouse as the Sun continues to brighten over the next billion years or so, but the amount of CO2 we could add to the atmosphere by burning all available fossil fuel reserves would not move us significantly closer to the runaway greenhouse threshold. There are plenty of nightmares lurking in anthropogenic global warming, but the runaway greenhouse is not among them.

The applicability to Venus of concepts originating in the study of Earth climate is a testament to the beauty and generality of the physical underpinnings of climate science. In turn, testing the resilience of these ideas against radically different climate encountered on other planets and in the distant past of Earth serves a valuable role in helping to shake loose new ideas.