Timothy Ball

Timothy Francis Ball (born November 5, 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer , known for his newspaper commentaries and appearances in which he denies man-made global warming . Between 1988 and 1996 he held a chair at the Department of Geography at Winnipeg University .

Education and career

Ball earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Manitoba in 1970 , followed by a master's the following year. In 1983 he received his doctorate from Queen Mary University, London on the subject of Climatic Change in Central Canada: A Preliminary Analysis of Weather Information from Hudson's Bay Company Forts at York Factory and Churchill Factory, 1714–1850 . After a few years as a lecturer and assistant professor, he became a full professor in 1988 until he left the university in 1996. Since then, Ball has appeared for various climate denial organizations as an author, consultant, speaker and commentator on the topics of global warming and climate change .

Scientific activity

In 1984, Ball established Rupert's Land Research Center, a history society in a part of Canada known as Rupert's Land . Until 1996 he was also its chairman. Ball stated in his résumé in 2006 that he had published 51 scientific articles in his career, 32 of which were directly related to climate and atmosphere. According to Hoggan and Littlemore, a search at that time of the Web of Science , the most comprehensive database of peer-reviewed studies, found that Ball had in fact only written four peer-reviewed papers in his entire career, none of which were even loosely related to the Atmospheric research would stand. Ball's only scientific publications related to climate change are two articles published in the 1980s on geese migration amid climate change and forest tundra relocation in central Canada. Because of this little research activity and Ball's ubiquitous media presence, Hoggan and Littlemore argue that "there are few 'skeptical scientists' who have so little actual expertise and so much ambition" as Ball.

Position on climate change

Ball denies human-made global warming and takes this opinion offensively in a large number of speeches and press articles. According to the American geologist Powell (2012), he gave over 600 speeches on the subject of “science and the environment” from 2000–2011 and wrote numerous opinion articles and letters to the editor in various Canadian newspapers between 2002 and 2007. He is also a member of various climate denial organizations such as the Friends of Science front group, which is financed by the oil and gas industry, or the Natural Resources Stewardship Project . In his role as an “expert” on the organized climate denial scene , he was involved in legal disputes as a consultant and “expert” on the subject of climate change , which received some attention.

In June 2018 he wrote a guest post for the blog Watts Up With That , in which he questioned not only human-made global warming but also evolution . Among other things, he claimed that the theory of evolution had never been scientifically tested and that there was no evidence that new species were increasingly emerging. He also stated that in Charles Darwin's time the theory of evolution was used by the "scientific establishment" to fight religion because anyone who challenged Darwin was "automatically branded a creationist ". In fact, the idea of ​​creationism as a pseudoscientific theory didn't emerge until around a century later, in the 1960s.

Litigation

Timothy Ball joined in the 1990s a. a. at events of the Heartland Institute repeatedly as Professor of Climatology . In an April 19, 2006 opinion article in the Calgary Herald , Ball is named in the foreword as Canada's first graduate climatologist and claims that he has been a professor of climatology for 28 years. In that article, Ball denounced two other Canadian scientists, including Dan Johnson, professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge . In a letter to the editor, Johnson contradicted these statements and stated, among other things, that Ball could not have been a professor that long because he did not receive his Ph.D. have received. Johnson also argued that there was no evidence that Ball was doing climate or atmospheric research.

Ball then sued the newspaper's editors, the publisher, and Johnson and his university. He argued that Johnson's replica damaged his reputation as an environmental consultant and author, as well as his income opportunities as a "high-demand speaker on global warming". The newspaper stuck to its stance in the process and denied the "credibility and references as an expert on global warming" claimed by Ball. Instead, she added, Ball would be seen as "a paid advertiser on the oil and gas industry agenda rather than a practicing scientist." He then withdrew the lawsuit in June 2007. He had previously admitted in the process that he had only been a professor for eight years and that his doctorate was in geography instead of climatology. On the website of the Heartland Institute he is still listed as a climatologist with a doctorate (as of October 2019).

Ball published articles on climate change for the right-wing online tabloid magazine Canada Free Press , in which he denied the competence of climate scientist Andrew J. Weaver and attacked him as part of an alleged politically corrupted campaign that exaggerated the dangers of climate change. The Canada Free Press withdrew the article. Weaver sued Ball in 2011 for defamation. The Supreme Court of the Canadian province of British Columbia finally ruled against Weaver in 2018: He saw Ball's article as full of errors and inaccuracies, poorly written and derogatory but not defamatory. The criticized words are not seriously likely to damage the reputation of Weaver with reasonably thoughtful and informed readers. The British Columbia Court of Appeal, where Weaver appealed the judgment, upheld the appeal in 2020 and referred the case back to the court for failing to adequately assess certain aspects.

Ball was sued by climate scientist Michael E. Mann in February 2011 for defamation. The process was discontinued in August 2019 due to the long duration of the proceedings and Ball's advanced age.

Web links

• Profile at the Heartland Institute
• Dossier at the Desmogblog database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Curriculum Vitae: Dr Timothy F Ball
2. ↑ James Hoggan, Richard Littlemore: Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming . Greystone Books 2009, p. 144.
3. ↑ Timothy Ball: The migration of geese as an indicator of climate change in the southern Hudson Bay region between 1715 and 1851 . In: Climate Change . 5, No. 1, 1983, pp. 85-93. doi : 10.1007 / BF02423429 .
4. ↑ Timothy Ball: Historical evidence and climatic implications of a shift in the boreal forest tundra transition in central Canada . In: Climate Change . 8, No. 2, 1986, pp. 121-134. doi : 10.1007 / BF00139750 .
5. ↑ James Hoggan, Richard Littlemore: Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming . Greystone Books 2009, p. 49.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} James Lawrence Powell: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, p. 71 f.
7. ↑ Climate Change and Fear of Change are Natural Conditions Easily Exploited Because People Don't Understand Amount and Extent of Change . In: Watts Up With That , June 25, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
8. ^ Climate Intersectionality from Another Angle: Cornwall and Far-Right Christian Denial . In: Daily Kos , June 29, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
9. ^ Merrill Singer: Climate Change and Social Inequality . The Health and Social Costs of Global Warming. Routledge, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-351-59481-3 (English, Google Books: E-Book Preview [accessed June 4, 2019]).
10. ↑ Petroleum and Propaganda: The Anatomy of the Global Warming Denial Industry [1]
11. ↑ Timothy Ball. The Heartland Institute, accessed June 4, 2019 . 
12. ^ Bernhard Isopp: The Perils, Politics, and Promises of Activist Science . In: Larry Bencze and Steve Alsop (Eds.): Activist Science and Technology Education (=  Cultural Studies of Science Education . Volume 9 ). Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-94-007-4360-1 , pp. 311 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-94-007-4360-1_17 .
13. ↑ Keith Fraser: BC Green party leader Andrew Weaver has defamation lawsuit against retired prof thrown out. In: Vancouver Sun. February 14, 2018, accessed February 16, 2018 . 
14. ↑ In the Supreme Court of British Columbia Weaver v. Ball, 2018 BCSC 205. February 13, 2018, accessed February 16, 2018 (text of the judgment). 
15. ↑ Weaver v. Ball, 2020 BCCA 119th Court of Appeal for British Columbia, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020 . 
16. ↑ Michael Mann shaped the hockey stick curve: Climate research star experiences shitstorm according to fake news , blick.ch , September 19, 2019
17. ↑ Trial in Canada: Global Warming Unmasked as a Fraud? Why the climate deniers are unjustly cheering , stern.de , September 19, 2019
18. ↑ No, there is no court ruling that "exposes the research of climatologist Michael Mann as a lie" , correctiv.org , September 20, 2019