Harvard Physicist Sides With Bush on 'Global Warming'
J. Zane Walley
Tuesday, July 3, 2001
Sallie Baliunas, Ph.D., senior staff physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and contributing editor to the World Climate Report, has praised President Bush for continuing to reject rash measures such as the Kyoto Protocol ostensibly to combat global warming.
"The president is absolutely correct in his assessment that what we need to do on the issue of climate change is find answers based on science, rather than to found policy based on untested or failed assumptions," Baliunas stated in a Tech Central Station guest editorial June 11. "That is how – and the only way how - to treat the issue 'seriously.'"
She further said, "Proceeding in scientific ignorance, as many in Europe and some environmental organizations demand, to mitigation measures that would force a drastic cutback by advanced nations in their fossil fuel use will harm more than help the environment.
"Measures such as those required by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol would cause American economic havoc. As the president correctly noted, the technology is not in place either to cut dramatically or capture CO2 emissions without severely curtailing economic activity. Too, the cuts could reverse a greening effect observed in higher crop yields as a result of higher concentrations of CO2 in the air – which is beneficial to plant growth and human life."
In 1991, Discover magazine profiled Baliunas as one of America’s outstanding female scientists. Her acclaimed research includes solar variability and other factors in climate change.
Article made possible by the Paragon Foundation. Reprinted with permission.
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