Fox Business reporter: 'Mars wobbles' could be causing climate change

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sanday, a Fox Business stocks editor is pushing back on the notion that the super storm could have been caused by man-made climate change and suggests that it could have been related to "solar flares" or "Mars wobbles."

Fox Business host Stuart Varney, who is known for featuring segments to deny the existence of global warming, on Wednesday lashed out at Democrats like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Henry Waxman for "already blaming it on climate change."

"Oxford University, places like the St. Petersburg Atmospheric Observatory, they all say there's climate change," stocks editor Elizabeth MacDonald told Varney. "But the problem is, is that there's no consensus on what's causing it."

"Is it solar flares? Is it the Mars wobbles? Is it the Earth's axis tilting in a different way?" she suggested, ignoring that most climate scientists point to man-made causes like fossil fuels.

Varney, however, doubted there was even a pattern of "more extreme weather events," pointing out that there were also powerful hurricanes in the 1950s.

"There's no doubt that we go through these cycles," Fox Business contributor Charles Payne agreed.

University of Hawaii astronomer Norbert Schörghofer in 2007 theorized that "wobbles" in the tilt of Mars resulted in ice ages that were far more drastic than those seen on Earth.

But Oxford University planetary physicist Colin Wilson explained to National Geographic that it was not reasonable to apply this theory to Earth's climate change.

"Wobbles in the orbit of Mars are the main cause of its climate change in the current era," Wilson said. "Mars has no [large] moon, which makes its wobbles much larger, and hence the swings in climate are greater too."

The theory also ignores the massive amount of scientific data that links carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere by humans as the most likely cause of climate change.

During the past few days, two Fox News hosts and one regular guest have all repeatedly said that Hurricane Sandy "has nothing to do with global warming."

Watch this video from FBN's Varney & Co. via Media Matters, broadcast Oct. 31, 2012.