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Timothy Francis "Tim" Ball[1] is a credential-fudging denialist crank. He has no relevant credentials on climate change.


Credential fudging and climate denial[edit]

Ball was a professor of geography with a focus in historical climate who retired in 1996, but has been represented in the media as a "climatologist" (Canada's first, don'tcha know?) who has held a professorship for upward of twenty-eight years. However, he carefully omits this in his curriculum vitae.[2] When the Calgary Herald published a letter[3] that questioned the credentials listed for Ball (in an article in which Ball attacked Tim Flannery[4]). Ball sued for libel, while admitting that he had not been a professor for twenty-eight years.[5] (Don't think too hard about that or it might make your head hurt.) Before the suit was dropped (against 3 defendants), Tim Lambert of Deltoid dared Ball to sue him, too.[6] Lambert also expressed doubt over the relevance of Ball's research:

“”However, hardly any of those 51 publications are in scientific journals but include things like gardening magazines. I looked in Web of Science and could only find four papers by Ball, all on historical climatology, none on climate and atmosphere. I don't see how Ball can possibly win his case, but I guess that's not the point.[7]

Eli Rabett has created the "Tim Ball Award for Resume Stretching" in his honor.[8]

Even within the deniosphere, Ball hasn't come up with anything new or impressive. All he does is constantly repeat points refuted a thousand times about solar cycles and how carbon dioxide is plant food. For example, take a look at his ingenious "refutation" of rising sea levels where he just puts some ice cubes in a glass and lets them melt.

Creationism[edit]

Ball also seems to be a creationist of some sort. In an op-ed in Canada Free Press, he wrote:

“”Even though it is still just a theory and not a law 148 years after it was first proposed, Darwinian evolution is the only view allowed in schools. Why? Such censorship suggests fear of other ideas, a measure of indefensibility.[9]

On his website, he attacks Richard Dawkins and claims science, evolution, and environmentalism are religions. He also believes that the Bible's predictions have been just as verified as those made by science:

“”Perhaps the ultimate irony[10] is that the biblical views on nature, human roles and responsibilities are as logical as any other including modern environmentalism.[11]

When you take his global warming denialism together with creationism and his admiration for Immanuel Velikovsky,[12] there's clear evidence for crank magnetism.

Lawsuits turning around and kicking Ball[edit]

In 2011, Ball found himself at the receiving end of a couple of libel suits. In February, University of Victoria climatologist (and now a member of the British Columbia legislature) Andrew Weaver filed a lawsuit against Ball for his op-eds that accused Weaver of incompetence and corruption. In March, Penn State climatologist Michael Mann filed a lawsuit against Ball and his think tank for publishing statements on their websites that claimed Mann was complicit in a "cover-up" of Climategate and that he had committed scientific fraud.[13]

Since the suits were launched Canada Free Press has retracted one of the interviews with Ball on the website.[14] Furthermore, they seem to have scrubbed a good deal of Ball's articles and Ball-related material.[15]

In February, 2018, the suit by Weaver was dismissed on the grounds that Ball's attack on Weaver was so stupid and inept that it couldn't be considered libelous thus doing no injury to Weaver's reputation to an informed reader. [16] Therefore the official judgement of the Canadian court system is that Tim Ball is either an incompetent idiot or someone pretending to be an incompetent idiot.

In August 2019, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed the suit against Ball by Micheal Mann for technical reasons,[17] despite the rantings of climate denialists[18] that claim this is a victory for Ball's pseudoscience.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Not to be confused with Calvinball
  2. ↑ Tim Ball's CV
  3. ↑ Tim Ball Sues for $325,000, Deltoid
  4. ↑ "Aussies' Suzuki heavier on rhetoric than on science" Ball's original letter
  5. ↑ Tim Ball vs. Dan Johnson lawsuit documents archived at DeSmog Blog
  6. ↑ Dear Tim Ball: Sue Me, Deltoid
  7. ↑ Tim Ball Sues for $325,000, Deltoid
  8. ↑ The Tim Ball Nominees, Eli Rabett
  9. ↑ Still Just a Theory, Ball in Canada Free Press (via Uncommon Descent)
  10. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk
  11. ↑ "Logic from Those Who Claim to be Logical", Tim Ball
  12. ↑ "Scientific Reaction to Velikovsky Symptomatic of Climate Science Debate", Tim Ball
  13. ↑ Weaver v. Ball and Mann v. Ball lawsuit documents archived at DeSmog Blog.
  14. ↑ More libel troubles for Tim Ball, Carbon Fixated
  15. ↑ No columns are currently listed under Ball's profile at the website. and his archives redirect to the homepage.
  16. ↑ Judge Finds Written Attack on Climate Scientist Too Ludicrous to be Libel
  17. ↑ Tim Ball Pleads For Mercy As An Irrelevant Sick Old Man, Gets It, Declares Victory. Daily Kos, 28 August 2019.

    [...]the court dismissed the case on the basis that it has dragged on and been delayed for so long. Ball requested a ruling based on the timing instead of merits to allow the court avoid the messiness of whether or not his attacks on Mann’s climate science were valid. Now Mann (and his lawyers) have a month to decide if they’d like to appeal.

  18. ↑ Breaking News: Dr Tim Ball Defeats Michael Mann’s Climate Lawsuit! principia-scientific.org, 23 August 2019.