Mars and Pluto are undergoing their own periods of global warming, according to multiple scientific studies.  This has important implications for our own planet, and for Al Gore and liberal environmentalists as well. 

On Mars, NASA and the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory report a prolonged period of surface warming, and the Martian icecap is steadily receding.  According to scientists, "the fact that it is changing suggests that Mars may have major, global climate changes that are occurring on the same time scales as Earth's most recent climate shifts, including the last Ice Age."  (emphasis added) 

Pluto is undergoing a similar period of global warming, scientists report.  According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology release, "Pluto is undergoing global warming, as evidenced by a three-fold increase in the planet's atmospheric pressure during the past 14 years, a team of astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Williams College, the University of Hawaii, Lowell Observatory and Cornell University announced." 

Of course, this is devastating news for global-warming hysterics here on Planet Earth.  After all, efforts to locate Martian or Plutonian SUVs, oil conglomerates, neoconservatives, cattle or internal-combustion engines in order to attribute blame have failed so far. 

Not to be deterred, however, Al Gore has reportedly occupied the Lowell Observatory, pacing the floors and bellowing in his trademark manner, "keep searching – if Mars is warming, it must have SUVs!" 

Levity aside, why do Mars and Pluto matter to us?  Because their global warming tells us a lot about our own planet.  Namely, that climate changes occur regardless of human activity, and that planet temperatures are always cooling or warming. 

After all, how do radical environmentalists explain the end of the Ice Age?  Prehistoric SUVs?  Neanderthals operating coal-fired power plants and using aerosol hair spray?  "Flintstone"-era Exxon predecessors?  Obviously not. 

Rather, the fact is that Earth's climate is constantly cooling or warming, and icecaps constantly growing or receding.  Indeed, the May 2006 U.S. Climate Change Science Program report again confirms this cycle, concluding that natural climate factors are dominant. 

Despite these obvious truths, liberals desperately press their environmentalist agenda, simply because they're running out of other vehicles to advance their larger underlying goals. 

A cursory review of recent decades reveals a veritable ash heap littered with the left's discarded causes.  From welfare reform opposition, to weakness against Soviet aggression, to socialist economics and anti-tax cut hysterics, to softness on crime, to missile defense, liberals are nearly exhausted of ideas to control our everyday lives.  Recall President Reagan's quip that his economic policies were derisively labeled "Reaganomics" until they actually worked. 

Enter environmentalism. 

As the saying goes, "scratch a Green, and you'll find a Red."  This truism illustrates the fact that environmentalism is merely a convenient proxy for liberals' larger goal of increasing government control over our lives.  The fact that years must pass before environmental assertions can be disproved makes it an especially convenient vehicle for their larger agenda. 

Unfortunately, their tactics are gaining momentum, and global warming looms as one of the pivotal long-term battlefields in coming years. 

To illustrate its momentum, consider that as recently as 1998, the Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol on a bipartisan 95-0 vote.  Since that time, however, figures from Senator John McCain to Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have applauded the global warming tenets.  Just this week, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a frightening comprehensive climate-change law that imposes the nation's first emissions-cap regulations. 

Unfortunately, California often sets trends that spread throughout the country, and momentum is building for similar regulations at the federal level. 

As we speak, liberals and the mainstream media increasingly excoriate President Bush for refusing to implement the Kyoto Protocol, which would do little to affect the Earth's naturally-changing climate, but would greatly harm our economy and job market.  A cap-and-trade system will cost Americans an estimated $300 billion to $400 billion, hitting coal facilities (which account for over 50% of U.S. electricity generation), small businesses, low-income families and seniors particularly hard as utility bills skyrocket. 

Also keep in mind that the Protocol exempts rapidly-growing competitors China and India from its limitations.  Some deal. 

In Europe, governments have led the march in implementing the Kyoto Protocol's mandates.  The results?  Stagnant economies, high unemployment, and failure to actually meet its environmental requirements.  The British research group Open Europe labels it "an environmental and economic failure" and "an administrative nightmare." 

In coming months and years, pressure will only increase against President Bush, future Presidents, the federal government, private companies and other states across America to accept and implement the radical environmentalist agenda.  It is therefore imperative that we emphasize sound science and objectivity in order to fight draconian energy regulations that will disrupt our livelihoods and undercut our free market economy.