Back here, an anonymous commenter refers us to that same article by Ball published last year, where the claim is made yet again that he is the "first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology," despite the fact that he seems to be quietly backing down on that bit of total bullshit. But that's not the best part. No, the best part (on page 3) is this:
In another instance, I was accused by Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki of being paid by oil companies. That is a lie. Apparently he thinks if the fossil fuel companies pay you have an agenda.
Here, let me translate that: "I'm not being paid by the oil companies. But the fact that I am isn't relevant."
"Your Honour, my client is innocent, he wasn't even there. And if he was, he didn't do it. But if he did it was an accident. And, anyway, that son-of-a-bitch had it coming to him."
Yeah, it's kind of like that.
4 comments:
CC:
You wondered (in well chosen insult)why I was confused.
Over and over again in newspapers and online Tim Ball is a "Ph.D. in Climatology."
The links you gave me prove that he is not a "Ph.D. in Climatology."
Fuck.
To be clear, he is not being paid by the oil industry. hew is being funded by an intermediary between him and the oil industry. The 'oily' money is first laundered through a foundation. See http://www.desmogblog.com/node/1272 for the details.
Wayne :
Here is how this whole business about Ball's bogus credentials started :
"On April 19, 2006, the Herald published an article by Tim Ball, whom the newspaper identified as the first climatology PhD in Canada and a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years.
On April 23, 2006, the Herald published a response from Dr. Dan Johnson, a professor at the Univesity of Lethbridge, in which Johnson 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.
Johnson's response, accords well with the Herald defence: establishing the accuracy of Johnson's letter and adding that Ball, in quite savagely attacking climate change science and scientists, was leading with his chin."
Continue here for absolutely killer defense points from Johnson and the Herald.
Dr Dan Johnson is still being sued by Ball for merely pointing out the truth.
Ball's funding :
"There was plenty of money for the anti-Kyoto cause in the oil patch, but the Friends dared not take money directly from energy companies. The optics, Mr. Jacobs admits, would have been terrible.
This conundrum, he says, was solved by University of Calgary political scientist Barry Cooper, a well-known associate of Stephen Harper.
As his is privilege as a faculty member, Prof. Cooper set up a fund at the university dubbed the Science Education Fund. Donors were encouraged to give to the fund through the Calgary Foundation, which administers charitable giving in the Calgary area, and has a policy of guarding donors' identities. The Science Education Fund in turn provides money for the Friends of Science, as well as Tim Ball's travel expenses, according to Mr. Jacobs.
And who are the donors? No one will say.
"[The money's] not exclusively from the oil and gas industry," says Prof. Cooper. "It's also from foundations and individuals. I can't tell you the names of those companies, or the foundations for that matter, or the individuals."
When pushed in another interview, however, Prof. Cooper admits, "There were some oil companies."
The brilliance of the plan is that by going through the foundation and the university fund, donors get anonymity as well as charitable status for their donations. In the last two years, the Science Education Fund has received more than $200,000 in charitable donations through the Calgary Foundation. Yet its marketing director Kerry Longpré said in June that she had never heard of the Friends of Science. The foundation, she said, deals only with the university, which is left to administer donations as it sees fit.
Prof. Cooper and Mr. Jacobs both affirm that the Science Education Fund paid the bills for the Friends' anti-Kyoto video, Climate Catastrophe Cancelled. It features Canada's most vocal climate skeptics, including Prof. Ball, University of Ottawa hydrologist and paleoclimatologist Ian Clark, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Tim Patterson and University of Ottawa lecturer Tad Murty.
It also includes Sallie Baliunas, a senior scientist with the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington, a fiercely anti-Kyoto think tank which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from ExxonMobile."
Globe and Mail Aug 2006
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