ABSTRACT
The Ames report discusses the greenhouse effect and points out that water vapour is much more effective than carbon dioxide in bringing it about. The Ames report dates from 1977 and it is no exaggeration to say that there have been enormous leaps in genetic engineering since then. As is only to be expected from a scientist of Professor Lovelock's international stature, the science is impeccable, but the technology which is described in the book is seriously flawed. The authors visualize a Mars rapidly becoming green as settlers plant shrubs such as horse-tails over huge areas of the planet to continue the task of ameliorating the climate. The formation of a humus from the dead remains of the early plants will be an essential feature of the first decades of the transformation of the planet. The variation in the obliquity leads to a doubling or halving of solar insolation in climatically sensitive polar regions over timescale of 100 000 years.
