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The global warming deniers are still saying (and posting on their web sites) that “Science Has Spoken: Global Warming Is a Myth” We can thank Sallie Baliunas for popularizing this bit of nonsense. That is the title of a Wall Street Journal article (12/4/1997) based on one paragraph and one graph in a paper she published. There is no reputable science behind this claim. There is a good scientific case (though it is not yet proven) that the sun has played a role in some historical climate changes--that is nearly inevitable. But the warming of the last 30 years shows little if any indication of a solar imprint.
So where is Baliunas coming from? Consider her stand on ozone.
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Baliunas Said Ozone Fix Would Cost $2 Trillion
"The burden of regulations is about to ratchet up. One expensive increase will result from removing chlorine containing refrigerants, such as Freon and other CFCs, from society. CFCs are thought to gradually erode the ozone layer of the stratosphere. The bare cost of replacing or retrofitting equipment is roughly $100 billion, because chemicals do not exist that can be simply dropped in to existing equipment. A short term cost of $2 trillion will rip through the U.S. economy according to a 1993 estimate contained in House Resolution 291." — from Sallie Baliunas's senate testimony.
Sallie Baliunas, an astronomer turned science policy guru, argued that there was no ozone problem for the same reasons she now argues there is no global warming problem. In both cases she argues the cost of addressing the problem are stupendus. The actual costs proved to be between 100 and 1000 times less than her estimate, something on the order of a few weeks of the Iraq war, and the ozone progam worked. The damage to the ozone layer was reversed and with it the increasing risk of skin cancer.
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Example of Ozone Misinformation from Baliunas
Byte Magazine, Dec. 1994
Can You Say Network? by Jerry Pournelle
I don't think the policymakers know what they're doing. Worse, I think it's the astounding success of our little machines that has the public ready to believe they do. Those interested in the subject should write to the George C. Marshall Institute (1730 M Street NW, Suite 502, Washington, DC 20036) and get a copy of "The Ozone Crisis," a short--20 pages--paper by a friend of mine, Sallie Baliunas. Sallie has studied the ozone-depletion theory and concludes that "there is no scientific reason for our current policy, and there is no economic reason to have a policy that is inflexible and irreversible." Her reasons are given in this paper.
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http://zfacts.com/p/230.html | 01/18/12 07:23 GMT
Modified: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:58:25 GMT
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