Venus-vs-Mercury heat explainer becomes a viral climate-change argument on Bluesky
A physics fact about Venus's CO2 atmosphere gets recast as a rebuttal to climate skeptics, drawing heavy pushback and debate online.
What to know
- A Live Science explainer confirms Venus (900°F) is hotter than Mercury (800°F peak) despite being ~31 million miles farther from the sun, due to its dense CO2 atmosphere trapping heat while Mercury's lack of atmosphere lets heat escape.
- A Bluesky post making this same comparison to argue about man-made CO2 emissions drew over 3,000 likes and 90+ comments, becoming a proxy debate about climate change acceptance.
- The comment thread split between people reinforcing the greenhouse-effect science, people blaming political/economic incentives for climate denial, and side arguments over what solutions (reforestation, tech, degrowth) are appropriate.
The dispute Whether climate change denial stems from ignorance/education gaps or from deliberate, profit-driven propaganda, and correspondingly whether the fix is tech-driven adaptation or systemic/economic change. · positions read across 99 posts and comments
Climate-science denial is willful, driven by financial or political incentive rather than genuine confusion.
-
“everyone understands except for those who are incentivized not to.”
austinmusicscene.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The greenhouse mechanism itself needs defending point-by-point against objections like rotation or 'planets are too different to compare'.
-
“Rotation affects day/night cycles, not the greenhouse mechanism. Venus is hot because its dense CO2 atmosphere traps infrared heat.”
altnoaa.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The debate should move to solutions — reforestation, renewables, or tech/fusion — rather than reproving the science.
-
“So we have controlled the ozone challenge, now we need to reverse the CO2 issue. The greatest natural recyclers of this problem is trees and plants.”
realitycheck01.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
altnoaa.bsky.social Bluesky posterStephen Kane Astrophysicist, UC Riverside
How it unfolded 4 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
-
4
Live Science publishes expert explainer on Venus's extreme heat
Live Science's article quotes planetary scientist Stephen Kane explaining that Venus's dense, nearly pure-CO2 atmosphere traps heat uniformly, while Mercury's lack of atmosphere lets it swing from extreme daytime heat to extreme nighttime cold.
“Distance tells us how much sunlight arrives at a planet, but it does not tell us how much is reflected … absorbed, how efficiently heat escapes, or how effectively the atmosphere transports heat around the planet.”
— Stephen Kane -
S
If Mercury is closer to the sun than Venus, shouldn’t it be the hotter of the two? Not according to Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside. "Distance tells us how much sunlight arrives at a planet, but it does not tell us how much is reflected … absorbed, how efficiently heat escapes, or how effectively the…
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
-
U
https://www. europesays.com/us/1059329/ Why is Venus hotter than Mercury, when Mercury is closer to the sun? # Science # UnitedStates # UnitedStates # US
-
-
3
Commenters shift to arguing over climate solutions and blame
Parts of the thread move from the science to proposed remedies (reforestation, renewables, carbon capture, fusion) and disputes over whether capitalism or policy failure is the root cause.
“Let's listen to science and trust science when it's convenient (rockets, cell phones, internet, vehicles, medicine) but just not when it will interrupt the use of our rockets, cell phones, internet, vehicles, medicine. Capitalism truly is the root of the problem.”
— dadbeastlarge.bsky.social -
A
Rotation affects day/night cycles, not the greenhouse mechanism. Venus is hot because its dense CO2 atmosphere traps infrared heat. Rotation is a factor, but it doesn’t override thermodynamics. Saying 'it’s rotation' ignores basic physics. You learned from a meteorologist today. You're welcome.
2 more of the top 3 · 92 posts in this stretch
-
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair
-
So we have controlled the ozone challenge, now we need to reverse the CO2 issue. The greatest natural recyclers of this problem is trees and plants. Deforestation needs to be converted to reforestation …
-
-
2
Bluesky users debate the analogy, greenhouse mechanism and climate denial
The post draws over 90 comments, with many defending and elaborating the greenhouse-effect explanation against objections (e.g., rotation, atmospheric density) and others turning the discussion toward why people reject climate science.
“Rotation affects day/night cycles, not the greenhouse mechanism. Venus is hot because its dense CO2 atmosphere traps infrared heat.”
— altnoaa.bsky.social -
Congrats, you listed variables that don’t contradict the point. Venus is hot because its dense CO2 atmosphere traps infrared heat. Pressure and sunlight matter, but without the greenhouse effect Venus wouldn’t be the hottest planet. Adding CO2 increases heat retention — that's the ENTIRE mechanism!
2 more of the top 3 · 4 posts in this stretch
-
there are a lot of places that used to be considered temperate but are becoming too hot for human habitation. people of modest income need to have a way to migrate north. it shouldnt be too hard to understand.
-
It's not that simple, but you get points for trying - it is the atmosphere, 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, plus the atmospheric pressure at the surface, plus the sun science.
-
-
1
Bluesky post ties Venus-Mercury heat gap to CO2 and climate change
@altnoaa.bsky.social posts that Venus is 2.8 times hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the sun because its CO2 atmosphere traps heat, drawing a direct parallel to adding CO2 to Earth's atmosphere.
“Venus is 2.8 times hotter than Mercury, despite Mercury being closer to the Sun. Why? Venus' atmosphere is primarily CO2, which traps heat. So what happens when we add CO2 to our atmosphere? It traps heat. This shouldn't be that difficult to understand.”
— altnoaa.bsky.social -
first by UA.NEWS, 12d ago · also Live Science
1 more headline
- Why is Venus hotter than Mercury, when Mercury is closer to the sun? Live Science · 12d ago
-
Venus is 2.8 times hotter than Mercury, despite Mercury being closer to the Sun. Why? Venus' atmosphere is primarily CO2, which traps heat. So what happens when we add CO2 to our atmosphere? It traps heat. This shouldn't be that difficult to understand.
-
What people are saying 16 voices from 1 site · best of 99 · verbatim
- Why do people who accept science in every other domain reject it specifically on climate change?
- Sep 11
-
It wasn’t even green, that was just marketing bullshit to tempt potential colonists, which is perhaps why Trump fixed on this…
- Sep 10
-
Mercury does not really have an "air temperature" because it has essentially no atmosphere to hold and distribute heat. What we measure is surface temperature. Its average surface temperature is about 165ºC, as opposed to Venus' average surface temp of about 465ºC.
-
Setting refineries and tankers on fire sure is helping us out!!
-
But for some stupid reason, republicans JUST DON'T GET IT!!!
-
That's extreme. We can solve this without destroying the global economy and causing millions of deaths. We can build out more wind/solar infrastructure. And even use natural gas turbines as a transitional fuel. But we MUST invest into frontier science/tech and solve problems like fusion energy.
-
everyone understands except for those who are incentivized not to.
-
What?!?! Are you spewing that science and fact stuff again?!?! Stop it. Making stuff up and posting it on Facebook or TikTok is where I get my info. :-)
-
All the data we need is right in front of them. Our solar system is the lab.
-
Problem is, we're currently being "governed" by these. 👇🏼🤦🏼♀️
-
No argument there. But tech that created this problem and tech will be needed to solve it. Forests take decades to centuries to mature, while we have much less time. This is a frontier in technology, engineering, and science-where innovation must meet the scale of the problem.
-
Spread your facts far and wide. Say it often enough, they will see.
-
Sequestering CO2 that has been emitted should have been happening since 1961, but the evangelists who profited from removal of Cannabis via that Scheduling 30th of March 1961 put a stop to that option for bio plastics, and fibre and serious CO2 sequestering that locks up Carbon into useful products.
-
Especially since it's simple physics that has been known for more than 150 years. But we shouldn't waste our time trying to convince people. Our time must be focused on reducing the rate of CO2 increase. Reducing atmospheric CO2 itself is a far off dream.
-
"The planets are too different to compare" is a cop-out, not an argument. Physics is physics. Different conditions are why we compare them. Mercury's rotation explains extremes; Venus' dense CO2 atmosphere explains its higher average temperature. Variables differ, but heat-transfer laws do not.
-
M
It’s perfectly understandable if you accept the reality of the greenhouse effect. But some prominent science deniers don’t accept it.
-
People addicted to capitalism: Let's listen to science and trust science when it's convenient (rockets, cell phones, internet, vehicles, medicine) but just not when it will interrupt the use of our rockets, cell phones, internet, vehicles, medicine. Capitalism truly is the root of the problem.