Robert Balling

{{Short description|American geographer}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Robert C. Balling | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1952|12|16}} | birth_place = Uniontown, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Geography, climatology | workplaces = Arizona State University | patrons = | alma_mater = Wittenberg University (BA)<br />Bowling Green State University (MA)<br />University of Oklahoma (PhD) | thesis_title = Regional winter climatic variations associated with atmospheric circulation change in the coterminous United States, 1939-1965 | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7705447 | thesis_year = 1979 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Climate change denial | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = 2011 Professor of the Year Award from the Order of Omega<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160209100517/https://geoplan.asu.edu//sites/default/files/Balling-2012.pdf Balling's CV]</ref> | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = | spouse = | children = }} '''Robert C. Balling, Jr.''' is an American climatologist. He is a professor of geography at Arizona State University, and the former director of its Office of Climatology. His research interests include climatology, global climate change, and geographic information systems.<ref name=ASU>[http://geoplan.asu.edu/balling/ Professor Robert C. Balling, Jr.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007230047/http://geoplan.asu.edu/balling |date=2013-10-07 }} at Arizona State University</ref> Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming, arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming "is indeed real, but relatively modest",<ref>Patrick Michaels and Robert C. Balling, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lWQdP4_7SycC Climate of extremes: global warming science they don't want you to know]'', Cato Institute, 2009. p7</ref> and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature.<ref>Michaels and Balling (2009:10)</ref>

==Education and career== Balling was born and raised in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and moved to Springfield, Ohio, in 1970 to attend Wittenberg University.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.asufiji.org/2012/balling-professor-year/ |title=Fiji Climatologist Named ASU Professor of Year |date=5 May 2012 |publisher=Phi Gamma Delta at Arizona State University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106181951/http://www.asufiji.org/2012/balling-professor-year/ |archive-date=6 January 2016 |access-date=19 March 2014}}</ref> Balling gained bachelor's and master's degrees in geography in 1974 (Wittenberg University, BA) and 1975 (Bowling Green State University, MA), before gaining his PhD in geography from the University of Oklahoma in 1979.<ref name=ASU/> He was assistant professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1979–1984), before joining the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University.<ref name=ASU/> He gained tenure there in 1987, and served as the director of the Office of Climatology until 2004.<ref name=ASU/>

==Research== Balling has published much research pertaining to various factors that influence the Earth's climate. In 1988, Balling published a study which found that the construction of golf courses around Palm Springs, CA may have cooled the city over the preceding 15 years, in contrast to the warming effect usually associated with urban areas (also known as the urban heat island effect).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/13/science/new-factor-affecting-climate-the-golf-course-effect.html | title=New Factor Affecting Climate: The Golf-Course Effect | work=New York Times | date=13 September 1988 | accessdate=16 March 2014 | author=Wilford, John Noble}}</ref> Seven years later, Balling and Randall S. Cerveny, one of his ASU colleagues, published a study which found that the moon, when it is full, can cause Earth's troposphere to warm by more than 0.03 °F.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Balling|first=R. C.|author2=Cerveny, R. S. |title=Influence of Lunar Phase on Daily Global Temperatures|journal=Science|date=10 March 1995|volume=267|issue=5203|pages=1481–1483|doi=10.1126/science.267.5203.1481|pmid=17743548|bibcode=1995Sci...267.1481B|s2cid=22838451}}</ref> However, it remained unclear why the moon might be able to do this. When interviewed by the New York Times, Balling suggested the main reason might be that infrared radiation from the Sun is reflected towards Earth by the full moon.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/10/us/surprising-scientists-full-moon-is-found-to-play-role-in-warming-the-earth.html | title=Surprising Scientists, Full Moon Is Found to Play Role in Warming the Earth | work=New York Times | date=10 March 1995 | accessdate=16 March 2014 | author=Browne, Malcolm W.}}</ref> In 1998, Balling and Cerveny published a letter to ''Nature'' which found that man-made air pollutants, especially ozone and carbon monoxide, were influencing weather patterns on the East Coast of the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cerveny|first=Randall S.|author2=Balling, Robert C. |title=Weekly cycles of air pollutants, precipitation and tropical cyclones in the coastal NW Atlantic region|journal=Nature|date=6 August 1998|volume=394|issue=6693|pages=561–563|doi=10.1038/29043|bibcode=1998Natur.394..561C|s2cid=204999292}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-aug-06-me-10576-story.html | title=Weekday Pollution Linked to Pattern of Rainy Weekends on East Coast | work=Los Angeles Times | date=6 August 1998 | access-date=16 March 2014 | author=Maugh, Thomas H. II}}</ref> Their study also concluded that this effect was the strongest on Saturdays, and that this was so because "...the end of the week brings worse air pollution than the beginning."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/1998/08/06/saturday-night-showers | title=Saturday-night showers | newspaper=The Economist | date=6 August 1998 | access-date=6 April 2014}}</ref>

==Funding controversy== Balling was mentioned as a fossil fuel industry – funded scientist in Ross Gelbspan's 1997 book ''The Heat is On''. This led the Minnesota ''Star Tribune'' to run an editorial speaking of a "disinformation campaign" by some climatologists. Balling and his colleague Patrick Michaels took a complaint against the Star Tribune to the Minnesota News Council. By a 9–4 decision the council "voted to sustain the complaint that the Star Tribune editorial unfairly characterized the scientific reputations of Patrick Michaels and Robert Balling."<ref name=MNC/> At the 1998 hearing, Balling "acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead)."<ref name=MNC>Minnesota News Council, 16 April 1998, [http://news-council.org/1998/04/16/determination-118-patrick-michaels-robert-balling-v-star-tribune/ Determination 118: Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling v. Star Tribune] archived at {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040317170416/http://www.mtn.org/~newscncl/complaints/hearings/det_118.html |date=March 17, 2004 }}</ref>

Between December 1998<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ |title=Scientific Advisers |accessdate=2010-08-22 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205034857/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ |archivedate=December 5, 1998 |website=Greening Earth Society}}</ref> and September 2001<ref>{{cite web |url=http://greeningearthsociety.org/ |title=Scientific Advisers |accessdate=2010-08-22 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20010925234237/http://greeningearthsociety.org/ |archivedate=September 25, 2001 |website=Greening Earth Society}}</ref> Balling was listed as a "Scientific Adviser" to the Greening Earth Society, a group that was funded and controlled by the Western Fuels Association (WFA), an association of coal-burning utility companies. WFA founded the group in 1997, according to an archived version of its website, "as a vehicle for advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/join.html |title=Join GES |accessdate=2005-03-08 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308200600/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/join.html |archivedate=March 8, 2005 }}, Greening Earth Society website.</ref> In 2001, while it was directed by Balling, ASU's office of climatology received $49,000 from ExxonMobil.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/put-tiger-your-think-tank | title=Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank | work=Mother Jones | date=May–June 2005 | accessdate=30 March 2014}}</ref>

From 1989 to 2002, Balling received more than $679,000 from fossil-fuel-industry organizations; as of 2007, he also had received more than $7 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation and the EPA.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1111balling1111.html | title=Outspoken ASU prof draws ire | work=The Arizona Republic | date=11 November 2007 | accessdate=14 March 2014 | author=Purtill, Corinne}}</ref> He has also come under scrutiny because he was listed as a tentative author of the Heartland Institute's NIPCC report; however, ASU's vice president of public affairs, Virgil Renzulli, pointed out that this did not imply that Balling had been receiving money from Heartland. Balling himself added that his prior involvement with the Heartland Institute's activities amounted only to appearing at a luncheon they held in 2008.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.statepress.com/2012/03/04/professor-accused-of-bias-in-environmental-research/ | title=Professor accused of bias in environmental research | work=State Press | date=4 March 2012 | accessdate=14 March 2014 | author=Peirano, Michelle}}</ref>

On February 24, 2015, Arizona State Representative Raúl Grijalva wrote letters to seven universities where climate change deniers (including Balling) worked, citing concerns about these scientists' conflicts of interest and non-disclosure of corporate funding. In these letters, Grijalva requested records on the funding and testimony prepared before a government body.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/03/12/asu-prof-shocked-target-dems-climate-probe/70164776/ | title=ASU prof 'shocked' to be target of Dems' climate probe | work=Arizona Republic | date=12 March 2015 | accessdate=14 September 2016 | author=Ryman, Anne}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/03/11/grijalva-asu-researcher/70181160/ | title=Drop the climate-change witch hunt | work=Arizona Republic | date=11 March 2015 | accessdate=14 September 2016 | author=Editorial Board}}</ref>

==Books== * Robert C. Balling, ''The Heated Debate: greenhouse predictions versus climate reality'', Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, April 1992, {{ISBN|0-936488-47-6}} * Robert C. Balling, and Martin A. J. Williams, ''Interactions of Desertification & Climate'', Oxford University Press, October 1995, {{ISBN|0-340-63217-8}} * Patrick Michaels and Robert C. Balling, ''The Satanic Gases: clearing the air about global warming'', Cato Institute, 2000 ASIN: 1882577914 * Patrick Michaels and Robert C. Balling, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lWQdP4_7SycC Climate of extremes: global warming science they don't want you to know]'', Cato Institute, 2009

==Views on global warming== Balling believes that humans are increasing the level of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, and that the Earth should warm as a result. Balling also considers the mainstream description of climate change to be "a vastly overrated threat whose proposed solutions are worse than the problem."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2003/12/22/Climate-Taking-stock-of-what-is-known/UPI-92281072116663/ | title=Climate: Taking stock of what is known | work=UPI | date=22 December 2003 | accessdate=26 March 2014 | author=Whipple, Dan}}</ref> In particular, he has dismissed the idea that use of renewable energy could be an effective strategy for combating global warming as "absurd."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=3169 | title='Warming' Skeptic Stresses Costs | work=Carolina Journal | date=8 March 2006 | accessdate=31 March 2014 | author=Kokai, Mitch}}</ref> In the book ''Climate of Extremes'', Balling, along with his co-author Patrick Michaels, contend that certain phenomena usually attributed to anthropogenic global warming have actually been occurring for more than a century. The phenomena named include the loss of ice on Mount Kilimanjaro.<ref name=FA>{{cite journal | url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65615/patrick-j-michaels-and-robert-c-balling-jr/climate-of-extremes-global-warming-science-they-dont-want-you-to | title=Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know | journal=Foreign Affairs | date=November–December 2009 | accessdate=21 March 2014 | author=Cooper, Richard N.| volume=88 | issue=6 }}</ref> Balling has made similar statements about current sea level rise; namely, that it has been occurring for 8,000 years and it is therefore "quite a stretch" to blame it on global warming.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-05-30-sports-globalwarming_x.htm?csp=34 | title=Sports offers a new arena for climate change concerns | work=USA Today | date=5 June 2006 | accessdate=26 March 2014 | author=Ruibal, Sai}}</ref>

===Reaction to Balling's views on global warming=== In the December 1995 issue of Harper's Magazine, Ross Gelbspan described Balling and other global warming deniers as "extraordinarily adept at draining the [global warming] issue of all sense of crisis."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-01-25/news/the-center-of-the-warm/full/ | title=The Center of the Warm | work=Phoenix New Times | date=25 January 1996 | accessdate=16 July 2014 | author=Plank, Dave}}</ref> ''Climate of Extremes'' was reviewed in Foreign Affairs by Richard N. Cooper, who concluded that "Even if the authors have cherry-picked their scientific papers, this book is a useful antidote to the heavy dose of hype to which the public is regularly subjected."<ref name=FA/> By contrast, ''The Satanic Gases'', another Balling-Michaels collaboration which was published in 2000, received a scathing review from ''American Scientist''. Reviewer John Firor argued that the book "does not fulfill" its claim (on the dust jacket) that global warming predictions are "simply wrong", that Michaels and Balling criticized the Kyoto Protocol without having read it, and that they quoted a well-known scientist out of context.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/heat-vs-light-in-the-global-warming-wars | title=Heat vs. Light in the Global Warming Wars | work=American Scientist | date=November–December 2000 | accessdate=26 March 2014 | author=Firor, John}}</ref> After Balling wrote an article for TCS Daily harshly criticizing An Inconvenient Truth as scientifically inaccurate,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052406F |title=Inconvenient Truths Indeed |accessdate=2014-04-05 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060601205454/http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052406F |archivedate=June 1, 2006 }}</ref> his article was itself criticized as inaccurate by Judd Legum, who said that the article used "misleading scientific arguments." Legum's critique was endorsed by geochemist Eric Steig, a contributor to RealClimate, who said that "All those points are accurate," and that "Some of them could probably have been stronger; that is, Balling is even more wrong that Legum indicates."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.salon.com/2006/06/10/truths/ | title=Did Al get the science right? | work=Salon | date=10 June 2006 | accessdate=16 April 2014 | author=Mieszkowski, Katharine}}</ref>

== References ==

=== Notes === {{reflist|30em}}

=== Further reading === * Balling, R.C. and Sen Roy, S. (2005), ''Analysis of spatial patterns underlying the linkage between solar irradiance and near-surface air temperatures'', ''Geophysical Research Letters'' 32 (11): art. no. L11702 June 8, 2005 * EMANUEL K. A. ; IDSO S. B. ; '''BALLING R. C.''' ; CERVENY R. S. ''Comment on : Carbon dioxide and hurricanes : implications of Northern hemispheric warming for Atlantic-Caribbean storms. Author's reply'', ''Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics'' 1991, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 83–86 ISSN 0177-7971

==External links== * [http://geography.asu.edu/balling/ Balling's homepage]. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20040313141619/http://www.house.gov/science/robert_balling.htm Testimony Prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science March 6, 1996] * {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20110701111705/http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_daily/robert-c-balling/ Robert C. Balling articles]}} at TCS Daily {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balling, Robert}} Category:21st-century American geographers Category:Arizona State University faculty Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty Category:American climatologists Category:Living people Category:American lobbyists Category:Wittenberg University alumni Category:University of Oklahoma alumni Category:1952 births Category:People from Uniontown, Pennsylvania Category:Bowling Green State University alumni