regarding the distances between Mars and Earth - I believe the closest approach was in 2003 and it was around the closest in 60,000 years. About every 26 months the Earth and Mars are on the same side of the sun. The next time Mars is closer than 2003 is 2287 with an even closer approach in 2729.

I'm not sure how much affect Mars has on systems on earth. The tidal force of Mars is about 1 million times less than the tidal force of the moon (even with Mars at its closest).

I saw a recent paper that mentions that meteor dust may have a significant infulence of weather patterns. It seems a 33 foot wide meteor last year was charted as it burned up in the atmosphere. It left 2.2 million pounds of dust in the atmosphere.