New findings on human role in global warming
A climate research team used computer simulations as evidence that humans are catalysts for global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases.
The research team, led by Tim Barnett, a professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, presented its findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Washington, DC.
"If you take these results and combine them ... with earlier results, the debate of whether there is a global warming signal here, now, is over," Barnett said.
Barnett and his team used computer simulations to show how the oceans have responded to greenhouse emissions - carbon dioxide and other gases - into the atmosphere since the 1960s. They then compared the simulations to actual measurements in today's world. The two data matched very closely.
"Could the climate just do this on its own? The answer is clearly no," Barnett said in an interview after the report.
Other scientists seemed skepical about the report, noting that the only way to definitively show change in climate is to actually measure ocean temperature over the last 45 years, not merely using a computer simulation.
"A skeptical person would say this is another piece of modeling," said Hans von Storch, a professor of meteorology at the University of Hamburg in Germany.
Report reveals efficiency in "sensitive" topics clearance
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Friday which said that the average wait for security clearances for scholars studying sensitive topics dropped to 15 days from as high as 67 last year.
Under the Visa Mantis program, all scholars studying any of the 200 science-related topics that could pose a threat to national security - such as nuclear engineering or computer science - must obtain a government-authorized clearance. The GAO reported that the Visa Mantis program has been one of the primary causes of long visa delays for foreign students.
But now Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chairman of the House Sciences Committee, said that the visa program had been fixed "to the best of our ability."
According to the GAO, this jump in efficiency comes from added staff members to the Visa Mantis program and the development of an electronic tracking system for Mantis cases.
The Visa Mantis program began in 1998 by officals concerned about the transfer of biomedical and chemical technology. Since Sept. 11, the State Department has enforced the program much more strongly than in previous years.
-- Compiled by Brian McPartland from the Chronicle of Higher Education
