Nigel Calder

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Nigel David McKail Ritchie-Calder (born December 2, 1931 in London , † June 25, 2014 in Crawley ) was a British science journalist . He denied central findings in climate research on man-made global warming .

Life

Between 1956 and 1966 Calder wrote for New Scientist magazine , of which he was editor from 1962 to 1966. From then on, he worked as an independent publicist and screenwriter . He designed thirteen major documentaries and popular science series broadcast on the BBC and Channel 4 and books related to them. This made him known internationally. Almost all of his books have also been translated into German and often had multiple editions. Particularly well-known titles were Einstein's universe ( Einstein's Universe , 1979), Atomic battlefield Europe. Report on the Probability of Nuclear War in the 1980s ( Nuclear Nightmares , 1979) and The Secret of Comets. Delusion and Reality ( The Comet is Coming ! , 1980).

In 1972 he received the Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science for his television work . In 2004 his book Magic Universe was shortlisted by the Aventis Prizes for Science Books .

Nigel Calder was the son of Lord Peter Ritchie-Calder and a brother of the historian Angus Calder (1942-2008). He became the father of the travel writer Simon Calder (* 1955) and the other children Sarah and Penny, Jo and Kate. His wife Liz is a literary agent and was previously a language training advisor to the London Chamber of Commerce.

Position on global warming

Nigel Calder denied man-made global warming and advocated various alternative hypotheses on climate change very early on . The political scientist Heike Walk named him as an example of a “so-called climate skeptic” who confused the public on climate issues and referred to his book The Manic Sun , published in 1997 , in which he argued that the sun alone was responsible for global warming ; a thesis that is scientifically not tenable.

Already in 1974 Calder published The Weather Machine. Is a new ice age looming ? (The Weather Machine) , which was very popular and influential at the time. Then, when the political debate about global warming arose, which wrote the book The Manic Sun refuted climate theories (The Manic Sun - Weather Theories Confounded) , in which he claimed a stronger influence of solar and atmospheric cosmic rays on the climate. Together with the Danish physicist and climate researcher Henrik Svensmark , he also wrote the book Stars Control Our Climate. A New Theory on Global Warming ( The Chilling Stars , 2007).

In a study on the narratives of climate deniers , a number of statements by Calder were examined. Accordingly, Calder claimed z. For example, that a global cooling was predicted in the 1970s , that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant and that the “CO 2 theory” was absurd. Carbon dioxide is a symbol of industrialization, so many underdog groups support global warming. He also claimed that global warming was like a religion where anyone who disagreed would be labeled a heretic . Rather, global warming is a "crazy idea" driven by a strange alliance between Margaret Thatcher and the Left. He also argued that if a scientist wrote “global warming” on a research proposal, it would automatically be approved.

In an interview, Calder said, among other things:

“Governments try to achieve unanimity by keeping short any scientist who disagrees. Einstein would not have received any money under the current system. "

Nigel Calder also appeared in the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle . There he said, among other things, that Margaret Thatcher had given the Royal Society a drastic increase in its budget to popularize CO 2 -free nuclear power in order to scientifically substantiate the thesis of global warming due to CO 2 . He reported that, as a science journalist, the first Royal Society press conference, at which the thesis of global warming caused by greenhouse gases was announced, seemed very strange to him. Just a few days earlier, another conference would have taken place, which was still discussing the influence of the sun on the climate, while suddenly a completely different thesis was presented with great certainty. The type of presentation was also very authoritative and differed significantly from other Royal Society press conferences on scientific topics. For example, no questions were allowed.

Fonts

  • 1957 Electricity Grows Up - Author, for Phoenix
  • 1957 Robots - Author, for Phoenix (German robot , Bielefeld 1963)
  • 1958 Radio Astronomy writer, for Phoenix
  • 1965 The World in 1984 - publisher, for Penguin etc.
  • 1967 The Environment Game - author, for Secker, Holt etc. (German Paradise Before Us? Draft of a Promised Land , Munich, Vienna and Basel 1968)
  • 1968 Unless Peace Comes - editor, for Allen Lane, Viking etc. (German escalation of the new weapons. Peace or downfall?, Munich, Vienna and Basel 1969)
  • 1969 The Violent Universe - author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German: The stormy universe. The revolution in the astronomical worldview , Bern and Stuttgart 1970)
  • 1969 Technopolis - author, for McGibbon & Kee, Shuster etc. (German Technopolis. Control of science by society , Düsseldorf and Vienna 1971)
  • 1970 The Mind of Man - author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German: the phenomenon of the small gray cells. A report from the laboratory for brain research, hope and danger for humans , Vienna and Düsseldorf 1972)
  • 1970 Living Tomorrow - writer, for Penguin Education
  • 1972 The Restless Earth - Author, for BBC, Viking etc. (Eng. Earth, restless planet. The revolution of modern earth science , Bern and Stuttgart 1972)
  • 1973 Nature in the Round - Editor, for Weidenfeld
  • 1973 The Life Game - Author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German. Das Lebensspiel. Evolution in the light of modern biology , Bern and Stuttgart 1973; most recently Reinbek 1976, ISBN 3-499-16945-2 )
  • 1974 The Weather Machine - Author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German: The Weather Machine . Threatening a New Ice Age?, Bern and Stuttgart 1975; most recently Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-17057-4 )
  • 1976 The Human Conspiracy - Author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German Puzzle Mensch. What shapes our behavior , Bern and Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-444-10187-2 )
  • 1977 The Key to the Universe - author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German key to the universe. The world view of modern physics , Hamburg 1981)
  • 1978 Spaceships of the Mind - author, for BBC, Viking etc.
  • 1979 Einstein's Universe - author, for BBC, Viking etc. - reissued 2005 (German Einstein's Universe , Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-524-69017-3 )
  • 1979 Nuclear Nightmares - author, for BBC, Viking etc. (German Atomic Battlefield Europe. Report on the probability of a nuclear war in the 80s , Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-455-08830-9 )
  • 1980 The Comet is Coming! - Author, for BBC, Viking etc. - reissued in 1994 (German The Secret of Comets. Wahn und Reality , Frankfurt am Main 1981; last as corrected new edition, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-453-02266-1 )
  • 1983 Timescale: Atlas of the Fourth Dimension - author, for Viking etc. (German Chronicle of the Cosmos. Our world in the stream of time , Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-524-69049-1 )
  • 1983 1984 and Beyond - Author, for Century and Viking
  • 1986 The English Channel - Writer, for Viking and Chatto
  • 1986 The Green Machines - Author, for Putnam etc. (Ger. The future a chance. The biotechnical challenge , Frankfurt am Main 1986; most recently Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-548-34593-X )
  • 1988 Future Earth - co-author and editor, for Croome Helm etc.
  • 1990 Scientific Europe - Editor, for Foundation Scientific Europe
  • 1991 Spaceship Earth - author, for Viking UK etc. (German Spaceship Earth , Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-8025-1263-4 )
  • 1992 Giotto mission to the Comets - Author, for Presswork und Springer (German Beyond Halley. The exploration of tail stars by the space probes Giotto and Rosetta , Berlin, Heidelberg and New York 1994, ISBN 3-540-57585-5 )
  • 1993 Hubble Space Telescope: The Harvest So Far - Author, for European Space Agency
  • 1994 Comets: Speculations and Science - reissued by Dover as The Comet is Coming !
  • 1995 Beyond This World - Author, for European Space Agency
  • 1997 The Manic Sun - Weather Theories Confounded - Author, for Pilkington Press etc. (German: The moody sun refutes climate theories , Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-925725-31-8 )
  • 1999 Success Story: 30 Discoveries - Editor, for European Space Agency (Eng. A success story: 30 discoveries of the ESA research missions in space , Noordwijk 1999, ISBN 92-9092-610-4 )
  • 2003 Magic Universe: The Oxford Guide to Modern Science - Author, for Oxford UP etc.
  • 2005 Einstein 's Universe (updated for Einstein Year) - Author, for Penguin UK & USA etc.
  • 2005 Albert Einstein : Relativity - Introduction for a Penguin classic, Penguin USA
  • 2007 The Chilling Stars - together with Henrik Svensmark for Icon Books etc. (Ger. Stars control our climate. A new theory on global warming , Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-491-36012-9 or ISBN 3-491-36012-9 )

See also

Denial of man-made global warming

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nigel Calder: Prolific journalist and author who did much to educate the public in the understanding of science
  2. ^ Heike Walk : What's Holding up the Climate Movement? A look at Germany . In: The Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies . tape 9 , no. 1 , 2010.
  3. ↑ Mihai Sarbu: Narratives of denial: Examining how climate change deniers convince their audiences. , 2013. Academia.edu. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
  4. ↑ Scientists threatened for 'climate denial' , Sunday Telegraph , November 3, 2007
  5. ^ Martin Durkin: The Great Global Warming Swindle , WAG TV 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Calder, Nigel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritchie-Calder, Nigel David McKail (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British science journalist and climate skeptic
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2014
Place of death Crawley