Tim Ball's now infamous rant at WUWT seems to me to be pure desperation. Like he's so frustrated that he's nothing more than a mosquito in the scientific world, that no one who matters takes him seriously, that he's on the verge of giving up, so he finally went full Nazi and pulled the ultimate pin.Well, penultimate. The only comparison left is to Satan.
By the way, Tim Ball is hardly a climate science expert, and this has been stated in a court of law.
After the Calgary Herald published an op-ed by Ball on April 19, 2006, whom the newspaper identified as the first climatology PhD in Canada and a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years, they published a letter on April 23, 2006 from Dr. Dan Johnson, a professor at the University of Lethbridge, who pointed out that neither of those descriptions is true; that Dr. Ball's credentials were being seriously overstated. Ball later threatened Johnson and the Herald and ultimately sued for defamation.
In their Statement of Defense filed in Court, the Calgary Herald submitted the following:
"...that the Plaintiff (Ball) never held a reputation in the scientific community as a noted climatologist and authority on global warming....Ball dropped his lawsuit.
"The Plaintiff has never published any research in any peer-reviewed scientific journal which addressed the topic of human contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming;
"The Plaintiff has published no papers on climatology in academically recognized peer-reviewed scientific journals since his retirement as a Professor in 1996;
"The Plaintiff's credentials and credibility as an expert on the issue of global warming have been repeatedly disparaged in the media; and
"The Plaintiff is viewed as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and gas industry rather than as a practicing scientist."
Source: The Calgary Herald, Statement of Defense – paragraph 50, Dr Tim Ball v The Calgary Herald, In the Court of the Queen’s Bench of Alberta Judicial District of Calgary, Dec 7, 2006 (http://is.gd/brO4uO).
More at:
http://www.desmogblog.com/tim-ball-vs-dan-johnson-update-0
http://www.desmogblog.com/tim-ball-vs-dan-johnson-lawsuit-documents
http://www.desmogblog.com/ball-bails-on-johnson-lawsuit
5 comments:
Tamsin and Richard Betts protest. Watts attempts to claim the rational middle ground and fails. http://www.donotlink.com/cozc
Mann's attorneys must be sorely tempted to ask Ball to submit his piece, and the comments endorsing it, as an amicus curiae brief.
Russell: Why?
You never know when your work might come in handy. Thanks. I used other stuff, but "Dr. Tim Ball, Climatologist" has shown up on DotEarth, and plan to keep on posting more facts each time one of the posse shows up. Thanks.
ps. This is an old post, but fwiw, I think Russell means that Ball's/Steyn's claims are so weird they will help his opponents. That's how they look to me, too.
Even crazier than the WUWT opinion piece are the comments following it, as usual. Or at least, as crazy.
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