Tim Ball

Learn more from the Center for Media and Democracy's research on climate change.

Dr. Timothy Ball is Chairman and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP). Two of the three directors of the NRSP - Timothy Egan and Julio Lagos - are executives with the PR and lobbying company, the High Park Group (HPG). Both HPG and Egan and Lagos work for energy industry clients and companies on energy policy.

Ball is a Canadian climate change skeptic and was previously a "scientific advisor" to the oil industry-backed organization, Friends of Science. Ball is a member of the Board of Research Advisors of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Canadian free-market think tank which is predominantly funded by foundations and corporations.

Ball is also a writer for Tech Central Station.

Profiles

NRSP

"Dr. Ball is a renowned environmental consultant and former [retired] professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg. Dr. Ball has served on many local and national committees and as Chair of Provincial boards on water management, environmental issues and sustainable development. Dr. Ball has given over 600 public talks over the last decade on science and the environment. He is the co-author of the book Eighteenth Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay (2004 - McGill/Queens University Press) with Dr. Stuart Houston, one of the World's leading authorities on arctic birds," his NRSP biographical note states."

However, more correctly, Dr. Ball was a former professor of geography at the University of Winnipeg between 1988 to 1996. The University of Winnipeg never had a climatology department.

Frontier Centre for Public Policy

The following comes from an October 20, 2006, byline profile by the Frontier Centre for Tim Ball:

"Tim Ball has an extensive science background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition with additional experience in water resources and areas of sustainable development, pollution prevention, environmental regulations, the impact of government policy on business and economics. He is a regular contributing writer for Country Guide Magazine and a researcher/author of numerous papers on climate, long range weather patterns, impacts of climate change on sustainable agriculture, ecosystems, historical climatology, air quality, untapped energy resources, silting and flooding problems. He had a long academic career at the University of Winnipeg until he moved to Victoria in 1996. He has a BA from the University of Winnipeg, an MA from the University of Manitoba and a PH.D (Doctor of Science) from the University of London England."

Climate change

Ball has has even argued that climate change and global warming would be good for us. "A warmer Canada would improve our lives in these and other ways too numerous to list. Global warming? Let's hope so," he wrote in June 2006.

In January 2007 in a column on the Canadian website, Straight.com, Mitchell Anderson wrote of Ball that "Over the past five years, he has published no less than 39 opinion pieces and 32 letters to the editor in 24 Canadian newspapers. Fifty of these pieces ran in papers owned by CanWest MediaWorks. These efforts totalled an incredible 44,500 words."

Among his unorthodox views, published as recently as last month in the Calgary Sun:

• Global temperatures have declined since 1998 in direct contradiction to computer models on which the Kyoto Accord is based.
• Ice-core records show that temperature rises before CO2 rises, not because of it.
• Evidence is mounting that pre-industrial levels of CO2 may have been much higher than the 280 parts per million assumed by environmentalists to have existed at that time.
• New research shows that changes in the energy output of the sun account for most of the recent warming and cooling of our planet.
• The primary evidence of human influence on climate, the famous 'hockey stick' temperature-trends graph of climatologist Michael Mann, has been debunked as manipulated and wrong."

Lawsuit

In September 2006, Ball filed a lawsuit against The Calgary Herald, a division of CanWest MediaWorks, specifically naming four of its staff, as well as Dr. Dan Johnson, a professor of environmental science at the Department of Geography at the University of Lethbridge and the Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge. Ball's suit is over the publication of a letter to the editor published in April 2006 by Johnson responding to an opinion column by Ball. In his statement of claim, Ball objects to Johnson's letter in which statements about his academic record were disputed. Ball's claim seeks $250,000 in damages, special damages for loss of future income and punitive damages of $75,000.

Johnson has filed an 18-page statement of defence denying "each and every allegation of fact and law" made by Ball.

In the face of this and an even-more strident Statement of Defence by the Calgary Herald (“The Plantiff (Dr. Ball) is viewed as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and gas industry rather than as a practicing scientist.”), Ball withdrew the suit in June 2007.

Canada Free Press retraction

On January 10, 2011, Canada Free Press began publishing on this website an article by Dr. Tim Ball entitled “Corruption of Climate Change Has Created 30 Lost Years” which contained untrue and disparaging statements about Dr. Andrew Weaver, who is a professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Ten days later, Canada Free Press issued a full apology to Dr. Weaver and retracted Ball's article.

Lobbying the Canadian Government on Climate Change

Tim Ball was one of 60 'accredited experts' who in April 2006 wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper denying climate change and urging inaction

CFC's

In 2006 Ball has also questioned the science behind CFC's and the Ozone layer. Ball claimed that "CFC's were never a problem.... it's only because the sun is changing".

Contact information

At NRSP:

Phone: 250 380-7784

Fax: 250 380-7776

E-mail: timothyball AT shaw.ca

SourceWatch resources

• Climate change skeptics
• Natural Resources Stewardship Project
• Tom Harris

External links

Biographical notes

• "Scientific Advisory Board: Dr. Tim Ball, Retired Professor of Climatology; Consultant", Friends of Science, undated, accessed September 2006.
• Profile: Tim Ball, Tech Central Station.

Articles by and interviews with Tim Ball

• Tim Ball, "Warmer is better: Junk Science Week: Access to central Canada through Hudson Bay and longer growing seasons are only two of the advantages if Canadian temperatures should rise", Financial Post, June 15, 2006.
• "Dr. Tim Ball, Historical Climatologist: On the real danger for Canada, global cooling", "Conversations on the Frontier", Frontier Centre for Public Policy, November 15, 2004.
• Tom Harris, & Dr. Tim Ball, "UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC NRSP cautions against relying on February 2 UN climate report: IPCC documents have a history of bias and misrepresentation of actual science findings", CanadaFreePress, February 2, 2007.
• Tom Harris, & Dr. Tim Ball, "Auditor General right to remove Environment Commissioner: Gélinas' environmental evangelism conflicted with her role as auditor", CanadaFreePress, February 4, 2007.
• Timothy Ball, "Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide: Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?", CanadaFreePress, February 5, 2007.
• Tim Ball, "Emotional bully intolerant of anyone: The Sad Legacy Of David Suzuki," Canada Free Press, February 11, 2008.
• Tim Ball, "How the world was bullied into silence", Canada Free Press, January 19, 2009.

Articles about Tim Ball

• DeSmogBlog articles on Tim Ball.
• "Climate of controversy," Ottawa Citizen (Canada), May 18, 2006.
• Richard Littlemore, "Tim Ball the first Canadian PhD in Climatology" and "Tim Ball's Personal Climate Campaign Continues," DeSmogBlog.com, June 15, 2006.
• Tim Lambert, "What does Tim Ball mean by 'to my knowledge'?" Deltoid (ScienceBlogs.com), July 5, 2006.
• Kevin Grandia, "Dr. Tim Ball On CFC's and the Sponsorhip Scandal", DeSmogBlog.com, July 6, 2006.
• S. Perisic, "A Climate of Convenient Truthiness. Dismantling the doubt-mongering journalism of corporate activists," Guerrilla News Network, July 6, 2006.
• Jim Hoggan, "Oil Companies Funding Friends of Science, Tim Ball takes the brunt," DeSmogBlog, August 12, 2006.
• Charles Montgomery, "Mr. Cool. Nurturing doubt about climate change is big business," The Gobe and Mail (Canada) (CharlesMontgomery.ca), August 12, 2006.
• Dawn Walton, "Climate-change critic sues paper, school, professor," The Globe and Mail (Canada), September 14, 2006. Subscription or purchase required.
• Richard Littlemore, "Tim Ball's Statement of Claim - A Public Document", DeSmogBlog.com, September 17, 2006.
• Tim Lambert, "New Canadian Astroturf Group," Deltoid (ScienceBlogs.com), October 13, 2006.
• Richard Littlemore, "PR Guy Tim Ball in Love with Publicity? We Think Not," DeSmogBlog.com, October 10, 2006.
• mandot, "Debunking climate change and national security myths," Daily Kos, October 10, 2006. Lead for article entitled "Climate of Convenient Truthiness".
• "Tim Ball vs Dan Johnson Lawsuit - Documents," DeSmogBlog.com, October 13, 2006.
• Eli Rabett, "Dan Johnson wins....or virtue rewarded....," Rabett Run Blogspot, November 10, 2006.
• Licia Corbella, "An inconvenient truth. The global climate impact of carbon monoxide levels is not known," The Toronto Sun (Canada), November 23, 2006.
• Richard Littlemore, "NRSP's Tim Ball's Delusions Now Include Paranoia," DeSmogBlog, November 26, 2006.
• Mitchell Anderson, "Trust us, we're the media", Straight.com (Canada), January 25, 2007.
• Peter Gorrie, "Who's still cool on global warming? Naysayers: From conservative bunkers, they plan on sowing enough doubt to derail action against drastic planetary damage done by human activity", Toronto Star, January 28, 2007.
• Canada Free Press retraction (cached), "Apology to Dr. Andrew Weaver", Canada Free Press, January 20, 2011.