Sun's Influence

Scientists feud while governments seek climate action
Reuters, November 2, 1998

Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said IPCC data was unreliable and exaggerated the possible overheating. Astrophysicist Baliunas also sees merit in the notion that climate change is a natural phenomenon. “(IPCC) temperature measurements contradict predictions and show little of the expected warming to date,'' she said in an e-mail exchange from her office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The temperature rise made by (IPCC) computer scenarios must be lowered to about 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.'' In 1990, the IPCC said temperatures would rise an average 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2100. It cut this to 2.5 degrees in 1992 and to 2 degrees in 1995.

“I am one of those scientists who study the possible impact of changes of the sun on climate. A changing sun is one of a suite of possible causes of natural climate change, which makes the backdrop against which any human impact impact will be seen. Those natural changes must be understood in order that the projections of human-caused global climate change be accurate,'' Baliunas said. Experts on the other side of the argument do not claim irrefutable proof of human-induced global warming but they say mounting evidence makes it clearer that this is happening. Ben Santer, lead writer of the IPCC report that first pointed to the “discernible'' influence of humans on the climate, is more convinced than ever that this is right.