Sky Matters: Just as people change and age, so too do planets

Climate change and its impacts are constant, and not just on Earth. We only have to look at our two nearest neighbour planets to see examples of how rampant climate change has transformed them into inhospitable wastelands

You might expect Venus to be hotter than Earth. But not as hot as it actually is – surface temperatures sit in and around 400C. Picture: iStock

Climate change is not a new phenomenon. It has happened before, it is happening now, and it will happen again. And not just on the Earth. We only have to look at our two nearest neighbour planets to see examples of how rampant climate change has transformed them into inhospitable wastelands.

Venus may well have started off on the same evolutionary path as the Earth, some 4.5 billion years ago. It’s a similar size, though being closer to the Sun it receives more sunlight. You might expect it therefore to be hotter than our home planet. But not as hot as it actually is – surface temperatures sit in and around 400 degrees centigrade. Somewhere in the past Venus’ atmosphere was injected with greenhouse gases on scales thankfully never seen on Earth, and the inevitable greenhouse catastrophe ensued.