Tiempo Climate Newswatch

A group of American scientists claims to have found the "smoking gun" that proves that human activity is responsible for global warming. The study estimates the imbalance between the amount of energy received from the sun at height in the atmosphere and the amount lost to space from the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere. The results show that the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting to space, consistent with an enhanced greenhouse effect. "There can no longer be genuine doubt that human-made gases are the dominant cause of observed warming," concluded Jim Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

The analysis was based on data from the oceans and computer modelling. "Measuring the imbalance directly is extremely difficult," reported GISS scientist Gavin Schmidt. "But we know how much energy is going into the oceans - that has been measured and over the last ten years confirmed by satellites and in-situ measurements - and, from our understanding of atmospheric physics, that has to be equal to the imbalance at the top of the atmosphere." Others disagree with this approach. "I do not believe this research team has made a compelling case to suggest that their computer models are sufficiently realistic to justify the implications of anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming that they make," commented Bill Kininmonth, former head of Australia's National Climate Centre.

More information

• BBC
• Newsday
• Science Daily

• Press release, GISS
• Abstract and paper download (1 Mb), GISS
• Data, GISS

The Starbucks Coffee Company has committed to purchasing renewable energy to match five per cent of the power needed to operate its North American retail stores. This will place it amongst the top 25 purchasers of renewable energy in the United States. "Because the energy used at our retail stores makes up nearly 50 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions, this is a natural starting point for us," said Sandra Taylor, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility. Starbucks will set an emissions reduction target this year.

Interviewed by the British newspaper, the Guardian, Jerry Greenfield, founder of the Ben and Jerry ice cream company, spoke recently about the new Climate Change College that the company has founded. The College, dedicated to raising awareness of the climate issue, is part of the Lick Global Warming Campaign. It offers young people in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands the opportunity to learn about climate change through workshops, internships and visits to the polar region. "Remember these words from two old ice cream guys," he joked, "if it's melted, it's ruined."

More information

• Starbucks, Greenbiz

• Interview with Jerry Greenfield, Guardian Unlimited
• Climate Change College, Scotsman

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has criticized the Bush administration for not providing adequate and timely information on climate change to the United States Congress. The Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) failed to meet a 2004 deadline for updating a review of federal research completed in the year 2000. Instead, the Program will release a series of shorter reports, claiming that the deadline was over-ambitious given the complexity of the issue. "By the time the last of these reports is published, about seven years will have elapsed since the publication of the 2000 report - nearly twice the interval specified," said John Stephenson, GAO director of natural resources and the environment.

The Climate Change Science Program was also criticized for its handling of climate impacts, which "contrasts with its more structured approach for addressing scientific uncertainties and trends." According to Philip Clapp, of the National Environmental Trust, "this White House bases its policies on selective science, not the 'sound science' President Bush so often postures about. The Bush administration's climate science program is so distorted that it belongs in the same file drawer as the tobacco industry's studies denying the link between smoking and cancer."

More information

• Science Daily

• Abstract and report download (0.3 Mb), GAO