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The plaintive plaintiff Dr. Tim Ball - much rebuked even before he launched his ill-considered lawsuit against Dr. Dan Johnson - is roughed up yet further in the Statement of Defence filed in December by the Calgary Herald.
Without wandering too presumptuously into details of the case, here's a brief synopsis:
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 credential 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.
The Herald's concluding paragraphs give a sense of the defence:
50. The Defendants (the Calgary Herald) state that the Plaintiff (Ball) never held a reputation in the scientific community as a noted climatologist and authority on global warming. The particulars of the Plaintiff's reputation are as follows:
(a) 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;
(b) The Plaintiff has published no papers on climatology in academically recognized peer-reviewed scientific journals since his retirement as a Professor in 1996;
(c) The Plaintiff's credentials and credibility as an expert on the issue of global warming have been repeatedly disparaged in the media; and
(d) The Plaintiff is viewed as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and gas industry rather than as a practicing scientist.
Latter, Ball abandoned his libel suit against Johnson.
Edited by idea1947 6/19/2010 21:51
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Global warming and weather?
