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Winnipeg bred global warming denier Tim Ball avoids embarrassment at Peoples Court |
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Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
Tim Ball, of University of Winnipeg fame, dropped his libel lawsuit against Professor Dan Johnson and the Calgary Herald this summer. The statements of defense spooked him, apparently. Covering the defense material in court no doubt would have been very embarrassing for the well-known climate change skeptic.
Ball was claiming damages over a letter to the editor Professor Johnson had printed in the Calgary Herald. The letter pointed out that Tim Ball’s credentials attached to a Calgary Herald op-ed piece were false and that his past work showed no “evidence of research regarding climate and atmosphere”. Ball was not a professor of Climatology at all. Paragraph 12 of Johnson’s statement of defense details many examples of false credentials attached to Ball’s name, and it's hard to believe Ball wasn't aware of it. The examples of false credentials include articles he wrote, websites he's associated with, and even a letter Ball sent to Prime Minister Paul Martin. Contained within the same paragraph 12 is this nugget:
Tim Ball’s “public statements reveal that he does not understand the basic physics of atmosphere and climate”.
Zing.
Ball’s statement of claim and the statements of defense from Johnson and the Calgary Herald are a fascinating read. You can check them out here:
Statements of claim and defense in Tim Balls dropped suit
Tim Ball’s concern, as stated in his claim, was that his earning potential on the speakers tour would be impacted. He’s given over 600 public presentations in the last 10 years. It seems like all Ball does is write articles (still printed by our media, for some reason) and travel around telling people C02 isn’t causing global warming. He’s also the chairman of the cynically named National Resources Stewardship Project, which has an almost singular goal: deny that human activity is causing global warming.
Unfortunately, Ball and others in the denial community have had some success confusing the public. People need to be reminded:
EVERY national science academy and society (and there are dozens) in EVERY industrialized nation agree that human activity is causing global warming.
This isn’t some “4 out of 5 dentists agree” thing. The jury is in, the debate is over, and Tim Ball is just peddling the proverbial wool you can pull over your eyes if the truth is too hard to take.
If the truth IS what you want, then a very respected and widely read scientific publication – New Scientist – recently came out with a very handy reference. It lists 26 of the most common “myths and misconceptions” that the global warming deniers employ to confuse the public, along with explanations.
Check it out:
NewScientist: 26 most common myths and misconceptions about global warming
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