NASA reports that it has noticed changes to the Martian surface since it began monitoring in the 1970s.
"New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune.
"That's just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars. Boulders tumbling down a Martian slope left tracks that weren't there two years ago. New impact craters formed since the 1970s suggest changes to age-estimating models."
There was another, much more disturbing discovery, surely the product of Martian greed and industrialization.
"And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress."
Surely this calls for a Paul Krugman-like treatise on the long reach of Halliburton, the company that built the "carbon dioxide removal system" on Apollo 13. In news rooms across America, journalists must be speculating, "Since they did it to Earth, maybe Halliburton decided to rape Mars next."
