His detailed notes of changing polar caps and colorization, should give data on global weather patterns of mars. I would assume that those observations would still be useful today to help establish Mars weather patterns.

Oh, if only it could have been true. Another intelligent species so close would have implied a cosmos absolutely teeming with intelligent life. Whereever the frontier of real science, begins the frontier of speculation and fantasy.

I refer to religions as sciences of ignorance as they tend to give dogma that describes what we really don't know. Notice how religions usually retreat under the onslaught of hard scientific knowledge. Although some will defiantly (earth is 5000 years old) deny the hard scientific evidence, most will adapt to keep their sphere of dogma in the realm of the unknown. Of course dogma in the face of the unknown is not restricted to religion, as there are plenty of people who try to take advantage of ignorance to create complex fantasy worlds for fame or fortune (e.g. psychics, ufo cults).

It is always a disservice to science to raise speculation to the level of fact as Lowell attempted to do. If and when we do that, we join the legions that cannot distinguish the scientific process from wild guesswork.