Dr. Baliunas’ work with fellow Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Willie Soon suggests global warming is more directly related to solar variability than to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, an alternative view to what’s been widely publicized in the mainstream media.

“Some people argue solar influence is large; some argue it is small. I’m somewhere in the middle,” she said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Her research goes back to time periods when the amount of carbon emission was small enough that it wasn’t a major player.

Baliunas asserts that increases and decreases in solar output led to historically warmer and cooler periods.

Baliunas said concerns for world energy poverty should be more significant than worrying about something 100 years from now.