{{short description|Canadian public speaker and writer (1938–2022)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{for|the American historian|Timothy H. Ball}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = <!--(as myimage.jpg, no 'File:')--> | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Timothy Francis Ball | birth_date = {{Birth date|1938|11|05|df=y}} | birth_place = Chippenham, England<ref name="FCPP">{{cite web |date=15 November 2004 |title=Dr. Tim Ball |url=http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=864 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309224243/http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/864 |archive-date=9 March 2013 |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=Frontier Centre for Public Policy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10442-98396585/timothy-f-ball-in-england-wales-birth-index |access-date=23 October 2025}}</ref> | death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|09|24|1938|11|05|df=y}} | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} --> | other_names = | citizenship = Canadian | nationality = | fields = Geography, Climatology | workplaces = University of Winnipeg | patrons = | alma_mater = University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, Queen Mary University of London | thesis_title = Climatic change in central Canada : a preliminary analysis of weather information from the Hudson's Bay Company Forts at York Factory and Churchill Factory, 1714–1850. | thesis_url = https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/1382 | thesis_year = 1983 | doctoral_advisor = B.W. Atkinson | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Opposing mainstream consensus on climate change | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Clarence Atchison Award for Excellence in Community Service<ref>{{cite web |title=Clarence Atchison Award for Excellence in Community Service |url=https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/atchison-index |access-date=10 February 2014 |work=University of Winnipeg |archive-date=20 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220212614/http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/atchison-index |url-status=live }}</ref> Clifford J. Robson Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence<ref>{{cite web |title=Clifford J. Robson Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence |url=https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/awards-distinctions/robson/index.html |access-date=23 June 2017 |work=University of Winnipeg |archive-date=13 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413164717/https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/awards-distinctions/robson/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | footnotes = | spouse = Marty Ball<ref name="TGAM">{{cite web |last=Mittelstaedt |first=Martin |date=17 November 2009 |title=Ad campaign takes aim at climate change |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ad-campaign-takes-aim-at-climate-change/article4292833/ |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=The Globe and Mail |archive-date=4 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504014322/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ad-campaign-takes-aim-at-climate-change/article4292833/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | website = {{url|drtimball.com|Official website}} | children = | module = {{Infobox military person |embed=yes |nickname = |allegiance = {{flagu|Canada}} |branch ={{Air force|Canada}} |service_years = 1960–1968 |rank = |unit = |commands = |battles = |awards = }} }}
'''Timothy Francis Ball''' (5 November 1938 – 24 September 2022) was a British-born Canadian public speaker and writer who was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until his retirement in 1996. Subsequently Ball became active in promoting rejection of the scientific consensus on global warming, giving public talks and writing opinion pieces and letters to the editor for Canadian newspapers.
== Early life == Timothy Ball was born on 5 November 1938, in Chippenham England and immigrated to Canada in 1957. He worked in Toronto and Sudbury before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1960. He was trained as an aircraft radio operator and for a time served in search and rescue in northern Canada. It was during his service that Ball first became interested in climate science. After eight and a half years in the Air Force, he left in 1968 and began his college studies.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 October 2022 |title=Timothy Francis Ball - Obituary |url=https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-310987/BALL_TIMOTHY |newspaper=Winnipeg Free Press |archive-date=23 November 2022 |access-date=22 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123013937/https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-310987/BALL_TIMOTHY |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorable Manitobans: Timothy Francis "Tim" Ball (1938-2022) |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/ball_t.shtml |publisher=Manitoba Historical Society |access-date=22 January 2025 |archive-date=9 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209211617/https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/ball_t.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Education and professional career == Ball received a bachelor's degree with honors in geography from the University of Winnipeg in 1970, followed by an M.A. from the University of Manitoba in 1971 and a PhD in geography with a specific focus on historical climatology from Queen Mary University of London in England in 1983.<ref>McLeod, Judi. "[https://canadafreepress.com/2007/cover020707.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123221723/https://canadafreepress.com/2007/cover020707.htm |date=23 January 2019 }}," ''Climatologist Timothy Ball sends PhD to Canada Free Press,'' 7 February 2007: ''Canada Free Press.'' Direct quote of how he describes himself.</ref>
Ball became an instructor at the University of Winnipeg in 1971, and a lecturer the following year. He then served in the latter capacity for 10 years. In 1982 he became an assistant professor there, and was promoted to associate professor in 1984 and full professor in 1988. He retired from teaching in 1996.
== Research and books ==
=== Historical climatology and natural history === Ball founded the Rupert's Land Research Centre,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/rupertsland/ |title=Website at the University of Winnipeg |access-date=1 March 2018 |archive-date=1 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301225701/https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/rupertsland/ |url-status=live }}</ref> a historical society dedicated to promoting the history of the area formerly known as Rupert's Land, in 1984.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruggles |first=Richard I. |title=A Country So Interesting: The Hudson's Bay Company and Two Centuries of Mapping, 1670–1870 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1991 |pages=xiii}}</ref> He also served as its director from then until 1996. The society placed a particular emphasis on the use of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives.<ref>{{cite journal |date=April 1988 |title=Churchill Provides Ideal Meeting Place for Rupert's Land Colloquium |url=http://inedition.uwinnipeg.ca/005/IE_005_16.pdf |journal=In Edition |volume=5 |issue=16 |pages=1–2 |archive-date=25 August 2014 |access-date=6 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825014321/http://inedition.uwinnipeg.ca/005/IE_005_16.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball has published a number of peer-reviewed papers in the field of historical climatology, most of which pertain to reconstructing temperatures in Canada during the past several centuries.<ref>These papers include: *{{Cite journal |last1=Ball |first1=T. F. |last2=Kingsley |first2=R. A. |year=1984 |title=Instrumental temperature records at two sites in Central Canada: 1768 to 1910 |journal=Climatic Change |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=39–56 |bibcode=1984ClCh....6...39B |doi=10.1007/BF00141667 |s2cid=153328941}} *{{Cite journal |last1=Ball |first1=T. F. |year=1986 |title=Historical evidence and climatic implications of a shift in the boreal forest tundra transition in central Canada |journal=Climatic Change |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=121–134 |bibcode=1986ClCh....8..121B |doi=10.1007/BF00139750 |s2cid=150697714}} *{{Cite journal |last1=Ball |first1=T. |year=1990 |title=The migration of geese as an indicator of climate change in the southern Hudson Bay region between 1715 and 1851 |journal=Climatic Change |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=85–93 |bibcode=1990ClCh....5...85B |doi=10.1007/BF00144682 |s2cid=154272626}} *{{Cite journal |last1=Ball |first1=T. |year=1994 |title=Climate of two locations on the Southwestern corner of Hudson Bay: AD 1720–1729 |journal=International Journal of Climatology |volume=14 |issue=10 |pages=1151–1168 |bibcode=1994IJCli..14.1151B |doi=10.1002/joc.3370141006}}</ref>{{npsn|date=August 2021}} In 2003, Ball co-authored a book entitled "Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay," which was reviewed in the American Indian Quarterly by Theodore Binnema of the University of Northern British Columbia in 2005,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Binnema, Theodore |date=Summer–Fall 2005 |title=Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay (review) |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=3 & 4 |pages=732–733 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2005.0078 |s2cid=162302655}}</ref> as well as by Fred Cooke in the Auk in 2004.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cooke |first=Fred |year=2004 |title=Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay Review |journal=The Auk |volume=121 |issue=4 |pages=1301 |doi=10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[1301:ENOHB]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=85610965}}</ref>
=== Climate and polar bears study === In 2007 Ball was one of seven co-authors of a paper arguing that "spring air temperatures around the Hudson Bay basin for the past 70 years (1932–2002) show no significant warming trend," and that, as a result, "the extrapolation of polar bear disappearance is highly premature."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dyck |first1=M. G. |last2=Soon |first2=W. |last3=Baydack |first3=R. K. |last4=Legates |first4=D. R. |last5=Baliunas |first5=S. |last6=Ball |first6=T. F. |last7=Hancock |first7=L. O. |year=2007 |title=Polar bears of western Hudson Bay and climate change: Are warming spring air temperatures the "ultimate" survival control factor? |journal=Ecological Complexity |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=73 |doi=10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.03.002 |bibcode=2007EcoCm...4...73D }}</ref> The paper was a "Viewpoint" article and was not peer-reviewed.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 October 2007 |title=Exxon's funding of polar bear research questioned |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626273.300 |access-date=6 February 2014 |work=New Scientist |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222031121/http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626273.300 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>"[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110205426/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry |date=10 November 2016 }}," ''The Guardian,'' 21 February 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2017.</ref> While the paper was cited by Sarah Palin to justify opposition to listing polar bears on the endangered-species list,<ref name="guardian-palin" /> its findings were contradicted by reports from the U.S. Geological Survey<ref>"[https://archive.today/20140907224136/http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/polar_bears/forecasting.html Forecasting the Future Status of Polar Bears]," ''USGS: Alaska Science Center,'' updated 19 August 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2014.</ref> and other independent researchers, who concluded that man-made climate change was likely to lead to major declines in polar-bear populations by 2050. The paper was also criticized by an expert at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who wrote that it "doesn't measure up scientifically."<ref name="guardian-palin">{{cite web |last=Pilkington |first=Ed |date=30 September 2008 |title=Palin fought safeguards for polar bears with studies by climate change sceptics |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/30/uselections2008.sarahpalin1 |access-date=6 February 2014 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> A subsequent in depth international independent study, ''Re-Assessment of the Baffin Bay and Kane Basin Polar Bear Subpopulations: Final Report to the Canada-Greenland Joint Commission on Polar Bear'' determined that while polar bear populations are not declining overall and are increasing significantly in some areas, "If the current trends in sea ice continue it is reasonable to predict further changes in [the Baffin Bay] subpopulation including, ultimately, declines in abundance and vital rates. This warrants caution in both future monitoring and management."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gov.nu.ca/environment/documents/re-assessment-baffin-bay-and-kane-basin-polar-bear-subpopulations-report |title=Report Summary Pdf, pg 21, p3,5 |access-date=1 March 2018 |archive-date=1 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301225640/https://www.gov.nu.ca/environment/documents/re-assessment-baffin-bay-and-kane-basin-polar-bear-subpopulations-report |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Books disputing climate change === Tim Ball wrote several books positing a false notion that carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas causing warming and advancing a false climate change conspiracy theory.
In his 2016 book ''Human Caused Global Warming : the Biggest Deception in History'' Ball tells "the story of how and why the global warming deception was achieved. The world has not warmed for over 20 years, yet carbon dioxide (CO2) levels continue to rise in complete contradiction to what all governments are saying".<ref name="DeceptionBook"/> Ball writes: {{Blockquote |text=The deception is the hypothesis that human production of CO2 is causing global warming. The hypothesis is referred to as Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). The agency that carried out the deception was the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).<ref name="DeceptionBook"/> }} Ball introduces his book as "presented in the form of a journalistic investigation answering basic questions, Why, Who, What, Where, When, and How."<ref name="DeceptionBook">{{cite book |last=Ball |first=Tim |title=Human caused global warming : the biggest deception in history |publisher=Tellwell Talent |year=2016 |isbn=9781773021300}}</ref>
Ball's 2014 book ''The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science'' was along the same lines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ball |first=Tim |title=The deliberate corruption of climate science |publisher=Stairway Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0988877740}}</ref>
Ball was one of several authors of the 2011 book ''Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory''.<ref>Ball, Tim. "Excerpt from Slaying the Sky Dragon." Accessed from [http://drtimball.com/2011/excerpt-from-slaying-the-sky-dragon/ Ball's website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222064830/http://drtimball.com/2011/excerpt-from-slaying-the-sky-dragon/ |date=22 February 2014 }}, 2 February 2014.</ref><ref>O'Sullivan, John, et al. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=G197OA8Vd4sC Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory].'' Mt. Vernon, WA: Stairway Press, 2011.</ref>
== Climate change-related activism == Ball worked with Friends of Science and Natural Resources Stewardship Project, which oppose the scientific consensus of significant anthropogenic global warming,<ref>Ball, Tim. "The First in A Series of Simplified Explanations of the Corrupted and Falsified Science of Human Caused Global Warming," posted by Ball on [http://drtimball.com/2017/the-first-in-a-series-of-simplified-explanations-of-the-corrupted-and-falsified-science-of-human-caused-global-warming/ his own website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109110736/http://drtimball.com/2017/the-first-in-a-series-of-simplified-explanations-of-the-corrupted-and-falsified-science-of-human-caused-global-warming/ |date=9 November 2017 }}, 17 June 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2017.</ref> and is a former research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.<ref name="guardian-palin" /><ref name="Monbiot" /><ref>"[https://www.fcpp.org/tim-ball Tim Ball, Research Fellow]." ''Frontier Centre for Public Policy.'' 31 January 2007, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140715044659/https://fcpp.org/tim-ball/ archived 15 June 2014].</ref> Ball also rejected the scientific consensus on climate change, claiming that "CO<sub>2</sub> is not a greenhouse gas that raises global temperature."<ref name="drtimball.com">Ball, Tim, [https://web.archive.org/web/20190219153527/http://drtimball.ca/2012/co2-is-not-a-greenhouse-gas-that-raises-global-temperature-period/ "CO2 is not a Greenhouse Gas that Raises Global temperature. Period!"], personal website, 15 February 2016.</ref>
Ball rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and stated that he believed global warming is occurring but that human production of carbon dioxide is not the cause.<ref>{{cite web |date=18 May 2006 |title=Climate of controversy |url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=4cc39711-79fc-43ad-a2c0-73a1b4fe88a2&k=70079 |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=Ottawa Citizen |archive-date=6 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506013929/http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=4cc39711-79fc-43ad-a2c0-73a1b4fe88a2&k=70079 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Glen |first=Barb |date=8 June 2012 |title=Global warming 'biggest deception in history' |url=http://www.producer.com/2012/06/global-warming-biggest-deception-in-history%E2%80%A9/ |access-date=28 January 2014 |work=The Western Producer |archive-date=20 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220030422/http://www.producer.com/2012/06/global-warming-biggest-deception-in-history%E2%80%A9/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="TS">{{cite news |last=Coren |first=Michael |date=13 February 2010 |title=Climatology expert threatened for climate change views |url=http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2010/02/12/12859851.html |access-date=29 January 2014 |newspaper=Toronto Sun |archive-date=2 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202093621/http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2010/02/12/12859851.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball rejected not only {{CO2}} greenhouse gas–induced climate change but the existence of the {{CO2}} greenhouse effect itself.<ref name="drtimball.com" />
Ball told National Geographic that carbon dioxide causing warming was just a hypothesis, but had been treated as fact because it fit a political agenda and the views of the environmentalists.<ref>{{cite web |last=Minard |first=Anne |date=24 September 2007 |title=Global Warming Inaction More Costly Than Solutions? |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070924-global-warming_2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228110051/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070924-global-warming_2.html |archive-date=28 December 2007 |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=National Geographic |pages=2}}</ref> He reiterated the view that man-made global warming was fabricated by the environmental movement, particularly Environment Canada, in a presentation he gave in June 2006 to the Comox Valley Probus Club.<ref name="Montgomery">{{cite web |last=Montgomery |first=Charles |date=12 August 2006 |title=Nurturing doubt about climate change is big business |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/nurturing-doubt-about-climate-change-is-big-business/article967272/ |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=The Globe and Mail |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112012320/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/nurturing-doubt-about-climate-change-is-big-business/article967272/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Ball was also a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM, an alternative media radio show. On 21 July 2011, while a guest on the show, he stated: "To suggest that {{CO2}}'s a pollutant when it's an extremely important gas in the atmosphere for all plant life and therefore for the oxygen that's produced, is just nonsense."<ref name="CTC">{{cite web |last=Noory |first=George |date=21 July 2011 |title=Summer Psychic Special |url=http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/07/21 |access-date=3 February 2014 |work=Coast to Coast AM |archive-date=22 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122092846/http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/07/21 |url-status=live }}</ref> He is also one of the signatories of the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66 |title=Climate Experts Who Signed Manhattan Declaration |access-date=5 February 2014 |archive-date=29 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529040140/http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball also, along with Tom Harris, argued that the National Climatic Data Center misleads the public by announcing premature results from their temperature datasets based on incomplete data, and then quietly updating the data when they gain access to all of it, usually diminishing the warming trend in doing so.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Harris, Tom |author2=Ball, Tim |date=11 January 2013 |title=HARRIS AND BALL: 2012 probably not the hottest on record, after all |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/11/2012-probably-not-the-hottest-on-record-after-all/?page=all |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=Washington Times |archive-date=14 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214201509/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/11/2012-probably-not-the-hottest-on-record-after-all/?page=all |url-status=live }}</ref> He also wrote about ocean acidification from a similarly dismissive point of view, arguing that "Even if {{CO2}} increases to 560 ppm by 2050, as the IPCC predict, this would only result in a 0.2 unit reduction of pH. This is still within the error of the estimate of global average [which is 0.3 units]."<ref>{{cite web |last=Ball |first=Tim |date=22 August 2009 |title=ENVIRONMENT: Analysis of alarmism: ocean acidification |url=http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=3736 |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=News Weekly |archive-date=21 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221183338/http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=3736 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball also said that since he became a vocal opponent of the consensus position on global warming, he received five death threats.<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Tom |date=11 March 2007 |title=Scientists threatened for 'climate denial' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1545134/Scientists-threatened-for-climate-denial.html |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=The Daily Telegraph |archive-date=7 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507093930/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1545134/Scientists-threatened-for-climate-denial.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=McLeod |first=Judi |date=12 March 2007 |title=Death Threats for man-made-global-warming-doesn't-exist scientist |url=http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover031207.htm |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=Canada Free Press |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222033042/http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover031207.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
Michael E. Mann called Ball "perhaps the most prominent climate change denier in Canada."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=Michael E. |title=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars |title-link=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |pages=95}}</ref> The Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Canadian think tank, states that Ball disputed anthropogenic global warming since the mid-1990s, and asserted that global warming is due to natural variations.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 March 2004 |title=Expert says global warming all "bunk" |url=http://www.fcpp.org/posts/expert-says-global-warming-all-bunk |access-date=6 February 2014 |work=Frontier Centre for Public Policy |archive-date=4 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304045906/http://www.fcpp.org/posts/expert-says-global-warming-all-bunk |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball spoke twice at The Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change, where he was presented as a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg.<ref>{{cite web |title=Timothy Ball |url=http://heartland.org/timothy-ball |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222160031/https://heartland.org/timothy-ball |archive-date=22 February 2014 |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=Heartland Institute website |quote=Dr. Timothy Ball is an environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tim Ball |url=http://climateconferences.heartland.org/tim-ball/ |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=International Conference on Climate Change |archive-date=1 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701232659/http://climateconferences.heartland.org/tim-ball/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="inhofe">{{cite web |last=Broder |first=John M. |date=30 June 2011 |title=Senator Inhofe Sends His Regrets |url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/senator-inhofe-sends-his-regrets/ |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=New York Times |quote=Scheduled speakers [at the Heartland Institute's sixth conference] include some of the nation’s best-known global warming skeptics, including Anthony Watts, a television weatherman; Timothy Ball, a former University of Winnipeg professor who has been sued for libel by Michael Mann.... |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222190613/http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/senator-inhofe-sends-his-regrets/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, critics pointed out that Ball was a professor of geography, not climatology, and that the University of Winnipeg never had a climatology department.<ref name="Monbiot">{{cite web |last=Monbiot |first=George |date=21 July 2008 |title=Why does Channel 4 seem to be waging a war against the greens? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jul/21/climatechange.carbonemissions1 |access-date=10 February 2014 |work=The Guardian |archive-date=9 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609101504/http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jul/21/climatechange.carbonemissions1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Complaint">{{cite web |date=11 June 2007 |title=Complaint to Ofcom Regarding "The Great Global Warming Swindle" |url=http://www.ofcomswindlecomplaint.net/fullcomplaint/p134.htm |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=Ofcomswindlecomplaint.net |pages=134}}</ref> Ball replied that the climate program at The University of Winnipeg was part of the geography department in the early 1980s. He also asserted that websites such as DeSmogBlog made false charges about his credentials and professional qualifications.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ball |first=Tim |date=7 February 2011 |title=Ad hominem |url=http://drtimball.com/2011/ad-hominem/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112211030/http://drtimball.com/2011/ad-hominem/ |archive-date=12 January 2014 |website=Dr. Tim Ball}}</ref>{{sps|date=August 2021}}
From 2002 to 2007, Ball wrote 39 opinion pieces and 32 letters to the editor in 24 different Canadian newspapers, and from 2002 to 2012, he gave over 600 public talks about global warming and various environmental issues.<ref name=MR /> Friends of Science maintains a "Climate Digest" of articles written by Ball in 2008–09.<ref>Not all of the [https://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=415 19 articles archived] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805025858/https://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=415 |date=5 August 2017 }} at the Friends of Science website are dated.</ref>
In 2007 Ball appeared on The Great Global Warming Swindle, an hour and a quarter-long British television documentary that aired on Channel 4 and that was described as a "deceptive and propagandist portrayal of the science of global warming".<ref>{{cite news |last=Brook |first=Barry |date=12 July 2007 |title=Don't be swindled |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-07-12/dont-be-swindled/97604 |newspaper=ABC News |archive-date=8 August 2021 |access-date=8 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808220616/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-07-12/dont-be-swindled/97604 |url-status=live }}</ref> Also in 2007, he participated in ''Exposed: The Climate of Fear'', a special presentation of the Glenn Beck Program, with Patrick Michaels, John Christy, and other climate deniers.<ref>Gertz, Matt and Julie Millican. [http://mediamatters.org/research/200705040001 Beck's global warming special dominated by industry-funded experts,' serial misinformers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614204605/http://mediamatters.org/research/200705040001 |date=14 June 2012 }}." ''Media Matters for America.'' May 3, 2007. Accessed 15 Feb. 2014.</ref><ref name="Swindle">{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtevF4B4RtQ |title=The Great Global Warming Swindle |date=12 December 2010 |medium=Film |publisher=YouTube |location=00:14 |people=Durkin, Martin |access-date=30 November 2016 |archive-date=29 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129211417/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtevF4B4RtQ |url-status=live }} Ball was misidentified in the documentary as Professor from the Department of Climatology, University of Winnipeg; he left his faculty position in 1996, and the University of Winnipeg never had a Department of Climatology.</ref> In 2010, he appeared on the Michael Coren Show.<ref>Coren, Michael.[http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2010/02/12/12859851.html Climatology expert threatened for climate change views] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202093621/http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2010/02/12/12859851.html |date=2 February 2014 }}." ''The Toronto Sun.'' 13 February 2010. Accessed 15 February 2014.</ref>
== Controversies and lawsuits == Ball claimed, in an article written for the ''Calgary Herald'', that he was the first person to receive a PhD in climatology in Canada, and that he had been a professor for 28 years,<ref>{{cite web |last=Ball |first=Tim |date=19 April 2006 |title=Aussies' Suzuki heavier on rhetoric than on science |url=http://www2.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=d622e9fa-cdc8-4163-8292-a1a554f58f94 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414100748/http://www2.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=d622e9fa-cdc8-4163-8292-a1a554f58f94 |archive-date=14 April 2015 |access-date=27 January 2014 |work=The Calgary Herald}}</ref> claims he also made in a letter to then-prime minister of Canada, Paul Martin.<ref name="Coverup">{{cite book |last=Hoggan |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQYjQzOkYK0C&q=dan+johnson+tim+ball&pg=PA143 |title=Climate Cover-Up |publisher=Greystone Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-926706-77-1 |pages=142–144}}</ref> Dan Johnson, a professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge, countered his claim on 23 April 2006, in a letter to the ''Herald'' stating that when Ball received his PhD in 1983, "Canada already had PhDs in climatology," and that Ball had only been a professor for eight years, rather than 28 as he had claimed. Johnson, however, counted only Ball's years as a full professor.<ref>Ball was an instructor at the University of Winnipeg in 1971, an assistant professor in 1982, and an associate professor in 1984 before promotion to full professorship in 1988, until his retirement 8 years later in 1996. See [http://drtimball.com/_files/dr-tim-ball-CV.pdf CV] (archived version here: [https://web.archive.org/web/20180927075037/http://drtimball.com/_files/dr-tim-ball-CV.pdf]).</ref> In the letter, Johnson also wrote that Ball "did not show any evidence of research regarding climate and atmosphere," which Ball later admitted.<ref name="MR">{{cite web |last=Farley |first=John W. |date=1 May 2012 |title=Petroleum and Propaganda |url=http://monthlyreview.org/2012/05/01/petroleum-and-propaganda |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=Monthly Review |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222210159/http://monthlyreview.org/2012/05/01/petroleum-and-propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref>
In response, Ball filed a lawsuit against Johnson. Johnson's statement of defence was provided by the Calgary Herald.<ref name=Coverup /> In the ensuing court case, Ball acknowledged that he had only been a tenured professor for eight years, and that his doctorate was not in climatology but rather in the broader discipline of geography,<ref name=MR /> and subsequently withdrew the lawsuit on 8 June 2007.<ref name=Coverup /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/images/ball-discont.jpg |title=Partial Discontinuance of Action |access-date=6 February 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222024522/http://people.uleth.ca/~dan.johnson/images/ball-discont.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2011 climate scientist Andrew J. Weaver sued Ball over an article Ball wrote for the Canada Free Press which was later retracted. In the article, Ball described Weaver as lacking a basic understanding of climate science and stated, incorrectly, that Weaver would not be involved in the production of the IPCC's next report because he had concerns about its credibility.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rudolf |first=John Collins |date=8 February 2011 |title=Climate Scientist Sues Skeptic for Libel |url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/climate-scientist-sues-skeptic-for-libel/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 |access-date=28 January 2014 |work=New York Times |archive-date=2 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180302044733/https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/climate-scientist-sues-skeptic-for-libel/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Brainard |first=Curtis |date=25 July 2012 |title=I Don't Bluff |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/michael_mann_national_review_m.php?page=all |access-date=21 February 2014 |work=Columbia Journalism Review |archive-date=27 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227015016/http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/michael_mann_national_review_m.php?page=all |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Reich |first=Eugenie Samuel |date=9 February 2011 |title=Climate skeptic makes free speech appeal |url=http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/02/post_71.html |access-date=28 January 2014 |work=Nature News Blog |archive-date=4 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204054120/http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/02/post_71.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Andrew Weaver's defamation suit against Ball was dismissed in 2018. The judge noted that Ball's words "lack a sufficient air of credibility to make them believable and therefore potentially defamatory" and concluded that the “article is poorly written and does not advance credible arguments in favour of Dr. Ball’s theory about the corruption of climate science. Simply put, a reasonably thoughtful and informed person who reads the article is unlikely to place any stock in Dr. Ball’s views...".<ref>{{cite news |last=Fraser |first=Keith |date=14 February 2018 |title=B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver has defamation lawsuit against retired prof thrown out |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-green-party-leader-andrew-weaver-has-defamation-lawsuit-against-retired-prof-thrown-out |work=Vancouver Sun |archive-date=29 October 2018 |access-date=27 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029202904/https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-green-party-leader-andrew-weaver-has-defamation-lawsuit-against-retired-prof-thrown-out |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=DeRosa |first=Katie |date=14 February 2018 |title=B.C. Green Party's Andrew Weaver loses defamation lawsuit |url=http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-green-party-s-andrew-weaver-loses-defamation-lawsuit-1.23174209 |access-date=1 March 2018 |work=Times Colonist |location=Victoria, B.C. |archive-date=1 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301225227/http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-green-party-s-andrew-weaver-loses-defamation-lawsuit-1.23174209 |url-status=live }}</ref> The British Columbia Court of Appeal in April 2020 reversed the dismissal. Writing that Ball's statements "meet the classic test for defamation," it sent the case back to the trial judge to decide the amount of damages and whether the article was fair comment.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dickson |first=Louise |date=30 April 2020 |title=Article defamed Andrew Weaver, B.C. Court of Appeal finds |url=https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/article-defamed-andrew-weaver-b-c-court-of-appeal-finds-1.24127405 |work=Times Colonist |access-date=16 June 2020 |archive-date=16 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616231801/https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/article-defamed-andrew-weaver-b-c-court-of-appeal-finds-1.24127405 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The Frontier Centre for Public Policy's web site published a February 2011 interview, in which Ball told an anonymous interviewer that Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, "should be in the State Pen, not Penn State". This referred to Mann's role in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy.<ref>{{cite web |date=10 February 2011 |title=Dr. Tim Ball, Historical Climatologist |url=http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/3606 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110214123151/http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/3606 |archive-date=14 February 2011 |access-date=2 February 2014 |publisher=Frontier Centre for Public Policy}}</ref> Mann then sued Ball and Frontier Centre for libel,<ref name="Notice of civil claim">{{cite court |litigants=Michael Mann v. Timothy Ball |vol=VLC-SS-111913 |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= | format=pdf |court=BCSC |date=11 March 2011 |url=http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/non-us-case-documents/2011/20110325_Court-No.-VLC-S-S-111913_complaint.pdf |quote=}}</ref> and stated that he was seeking punitive damages and for the article to be removed from the web site.<ref>{{cite web |last=Greer |first=Darryl |date=28 March 2011 |title=Prof Claims Climate-Denier Defamed Him |url=http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/03/28/35274.htm |access-date=2 February 2014 |work=Courthouse News Service}}</ref>
On 7 June 2019, the Frontier Centre For Public Policy published a retraction and apology<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Retraction and apology to Michael Mann |date=7 June 2019 |publisher=Frontier Centre for Public Policy |url=http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/non-us-case-documents/2019/20190607_Court-No.-VLC-S-S-111913_press-release.png |via=Columbia University |access-date=19 September 2019 |format=png |archive-date=6 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906092151/http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/non-us-case-documents/2019/20190607_Court-No.-VLC-S-S-111913_press-release.png |url-status=live }}</ref> and settled their part of the case with Mann.<ref name="McIntosh 2019">{{cite web |last=McIntosh |first=Emma |date=16 June 2019 |title=A Scientist Took Climate Change Deniers to Court and Wrested an Apology From Them |url=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/06/a-scientist-took-climate-change-deniers-to-court-and-wrested-an-apology-from-them/ |access-date=16 June 2019 |website=Mother Jones}} (story originally published by the ''National Observer'')</ref> On 21 March 2019, Tim Ball had applied to the court to dismiss the action for delay. This request was granted at a hearing on 22 August 2019, and court costs were awarded to Ball. The actual defamation claims were not judged, but instead the case was dismissed due to delay by Mann's legal team.<ref name="BC Court Decision to Dismiss Mann v Ball">{{cite court |litigants=Michael Mann v. Timothy Ball |vol=1580 |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=BCSC |date=2019 |url=https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/19/15/2019BCSC1580.htm |quote=This is a relatively straightforward defamation action and should have been resolved long before now. That it has not been resolved is because the plaintiff has not given it the priority that he should have. In the circumstances, justice requires that the action be dismissed and, accordingly, I do hereby dismiss the action for delay. |archive-date=20 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920213716/https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/19/15/2019BCSC1580.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Funding sources == Some have linked Ball's activism to funding from the fossil fuel industry,<ref name=Monbiot /><ref name=Montgomery /><ref>{{cite web |last=Moore |first=John |date=23 February 2012 |title=John Moore: A peek into the climate denier industry |url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-moore-a-peek-into-the-climate-denier-industry |access-date=5 February 2014 |work=National Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoggan |first=James |date=12 August 2006 |title=Oil Companies Funding Friends of Science, Tim Ball takes the brunt |url=https://www.desmog.com/2006/08/12/oil-companies-funding-friends-of-science-tim-ball-takes-the-brunt/ |access-date=22 May 2025 |website=DeSmog |language=en-US |archive-date=26 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250426145658/https://www.desmog.com/2006/08/12/oil-companies-funding-friends-of-science-tim-ball-takes-the-brunt/ |url-status=live }}</ref> especially through the organization Friends of Science, whose scientific advisory board he sat upon.<ref name=TGAM /> For example, Peter Gorrie said in the ''Toronto Star'' that Friends of Science received a third of its funding from the oil industry.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gorrie |first=Peter |date=1 January 2007 |title=Who's still cool on global warming? |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/2007/01/28/whos_still_cool_on_global_warming.html |access-date=23 February 2014 |work=Toronto Star |archive-date=1 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301135033/http://www.thestar.com/news/2007/01/28/whos_still_cool_on_global_warming.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Bankruptcy disclosures made by Peabody Energy, a large US coal company, showed that Friends of Science received funding from the company.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mandel |first=Charles |date=16 June 2016 |title=U.S. coal giant owed money to Canadian climate change deniers |url=https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/16/news/exclusive-us-coal-giant-owed-money-canadian-climate-change-deniers |access-date=1 October 2022 |work=Canada's National Observer |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002005012/https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/06/16/news/exclusive-us-coal-giant-owed-money-canadian-climate-change-deniers |url-status=live }}</ref> Ball himself has publicly denied these claims,<ref name=Swindle /><ref>{{cite web |date=2 May 2007 |title=Exposed: The Climate of Fear |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0705/02/gb.01.html |access-date=10 February 2014 |work=CNN |quote=...I'm accused of getting the money from the oil company, which is simply a lie. |archive-date=1 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301204611/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0705/02/gb.01.html |url-status=live }}</ref> as has his wife, Marty Ball.<ref name=TGAM />
== Books == * {{cite book |last=Ball |first=Tim |title=Human caused global warming : the biggest deception in history |publisher=Tellwell Talent |year=2016 |isbn=9781773021300}} * {{cite book |last=Ball |first=Tim |title=The deliberate corruption of climate science |publisher=Stairway Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780988877740}} * {{cite book |last1=Ball |first1=Tim |title=Slaying the sky dragon : death of the greenhouse gas theory |last2=Siddons |first2=Alan |last3=Olson |first3=Joseph A. |publisher=Stairway Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780982773413 |display-authors=etal}} * {{cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Stuart |title=Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay |last2=Ball |first2=Tim |last3=Houston |first3=Mary |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780773522855 |series=McGill-Queen's Native and Northern |volume=34}}
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Tim}} Category:1938 births Category:2022 deaths Category:Academic staff of University of Winnipeg Category:Canadian geographers Category:University of Manitoba alumni Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Category:Royal Canadian Air Force personnel Category:English emigrants to Canada