Saturday 5 December 2009


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Letter from UKIP Party Leader

Saturday, 5th December 2009

The following is a statement from UKIP Party Leader Lord Pearson. More

New UKIP Video on Demand

Saturday, 5th December 2009

Watch a hi-definition video of the full address from world-leading climate change sceptic Prof Ian Plimer to the UKIP event at the Royal Overseas League. More

Lord Pearson in The Express

Friday, 4th December 2009

AT midnight on Monday Britain ceased to be a sovereign nation in full charge of its own destiny. That is when the fully ratified Lisbon Treaty came into effect, giving Brussels the ability to accrue new powers over our lives whenever it feels like it, writes UKIP Leader Lord Pearson. More









Saturday, 5th December 2009
Watch a hi-definition video of the full address from world-leading climate change sceptic Prof Ian Plimer to the UKIP event at the Royal Overseas League. More

Ian Plimer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ian Rutherford Plimer

Born12 February 1946 (age 63)
ResidenceAustralia
CitizenshipAustralia
NationalityAustralian
FieldsGeology
InstitutionsUniversity of Adelaide
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
Macquarie University
Known forOutspoken views against global warming andcreationism
Notable awardsEureka Prize (1995, 2002)

Ian Rutherford Plimer (born February 12, 1946) is an Australian geologist, academic and businessman. He is a critic of creationism and of the scientific consensus thatglobal warming is driven by anthropogenic CO2 . He has published approximately 60 academic papers and six books, including his book on the global warming debate,Heaven and Earth — Global Warming: The Missing Science. He is a director of three mining companies.

Contents

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[edit]Early life and career

Plimer grew up in Sydney. He was educated at Gordon Public School andNormanhurst Boys' High School.[1] He earned a BSc at the University of New South Wales, and a PhD at Macquarie University.[2]

Plimer then went to work at the Broken Hill mines, ultimately as chief research geologist at North Broken Hill. He has maintained an interest in the Broken Hill mining district throughout his career.[3]

Plimer then moved to academia, first at the University of New England, New South Wales, next at the University of Newcastle, Australia , and then at the University of Melbourne. [3] He is currently Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide [3].

[edit]Political affiliations

Plimer is listed as an associate of the Institute of Public Affairs,[4][5] a free market think tank. In 2007, Plimer was listed as an "allied expert" for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian anti-Kyoto Protocol advocacy group.[6] He is also a member of the Australian Skeptics.[7] In November 2009, Plimer was named as a member of the academic advisory council for Nigel Lawson's global warming skeptic group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.[8]

[edit]Climate change scepticism

Carbon dioxide has an effect on the atmosphere and it has an effect for the first 50 parts per million and once it's done its job then it's finished and you can double it and quadruple it and it has no effect because we've seen that in the geological past, and we've seen it in times gone by when the carbon dioxide content was 100 times the current content. We didn't have runaway global warming, we actually had glaciation, so there's immediately a disconnect. So carbon dioxide is absolutely vital for living on earth; it's plant food, all of life lives off carbon dioxide. To demonise it shows that you don't understand school child science.
—Ian Plimer, interviewed on ABNNewswire, June 2009[9]
Main article: "Heaven and Earth", Plimer's book on climate change

Plimer is critical of what he sees as an irrational environmental movement and believes that the vast bulk of the scientific community, including most major scientific academies, is prejudiced by the prospect of research funding. He has characterised the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change so: "The IPCC process is related to environmental activism, politics and opportunism" and "the IPCC process is unrelated to science".[10] He is critical of greenhouse gas politics and argues that extreme environmental changes are inevitable. These views prompted Phillip Adams of The Australian to describe him as a "denialist poster-boy".[11]

In 2009, Plimer released Heaven and Earth, a book in which he claims that climate models focus too strongly on the effects of carbon dioxide, rather than factoring other issues such as solar variation.[12] This is disputed by scientists involved in climate change research.[13][14]

Before writing the book, Plimer stated that El Niño is caused by earthquakes and volcanic activity at the mid-ocean ridges and that the melting of polar ice has nothing to do with man-made carbon dioxide.[15] Plimer told Radio Australia that Pacific island nations are seeing changes in relative sea level not because of global warming but quite commonly due to other factors, such as "vibration consolidating the coral island sands", extraction of water, and extraction of sand for road and air strip making.[16]

Plimer challenged George Monbiot of The Guardian to a public debate on the issues covered in the book, after Monbiot criticised the book, calling Plimer a climate change denialist.[17] According to Monbiot, negotiations with Plimer for a face-to-face debate eventually broke down and no debate was held.[18][19]

[edit]Mining interests

Plimer is a director of three Australian mining companies: Ivanhoe,[20] CBH Resources[20] and Kefi Minerals.[21] Plimer rejects claims of a conflict between his commercial mining interests and his view that man-made climate change is a myth.[20] Plimer has said that the proposed Australian carbon-trading scheme could decimate the Australian mining industry,[3] and probably destroy it totally,[22] as well as creating massive unemployment.[22]

[edit]Political influence

Plimer was cited by the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, Tony Abbott,[23] in dismissing the IPCC and its findings:

“I think that in response to the IPCC alarmist - ah, in inverted commas - view, there've been quite a lot of other reputable scientific voices. Now not everyone agrees with Ian Plimer's position, but he is a highly credible scientist and he has written what seems like a very well-argued book refuting most of the claims of the climate catastrophists.”
 
— Tony Abbott, The Sydney Morning Herald

[edit]Critic of creationism

Plimer is an outspoken critic of creationism and is famous for a 1988 debate with creationist Duane Gish in which he asked his opponent to hold live electrical cables to prove that electromagnetism was 'only a theory'. Gish accused him of being theatrical, abusive and slanderous, calling it "the most disgusting performance I have ever witnessed in my life".[24]

[edit]Book: Telling Lies for God

In his book Telling Lies for God: Reason vs Creationism (1994), Plimer attacked the creationists in Australia, in specific the Queensland-basedCreation Science Foundation (now called Christian Ministries International or CMI), arguing that claims of a Biblical global flood are untenable.[25] In the book he also attacked aspects of traditional Christian belief and literal interpretations of the Bible, with chapters titled "Scientific Fraud: The Great Flood of Absurdities" and "Disinformation Doublespeak".[24] In response, the church published a rebuttal criticising the arguments made in the book.[26][27]

[edit]Court case

In the late 1990s, Plimer went to court alleging misleading and deceptive advertising under the Trade Practices Act 1974 against Christian minister Allen Roberts of the Australian Creation Science Foundation (now called Christian Ministries International),[25][26] arising from Plimer's attacks on Roberts' claims concerning the location of Noah's Ark. Before the trial, Plimer was forcibly ejected by police from Melbourne andHobart public meetings at which Roberts spoke.[24] The court ruled that although the minister had indeed made false and misleading claims, they were not made in the course of trade or commerce, so Plimer lost the case,[28] and was ordered to pay his own and Roberts' legal costs estimated at over 500,000 Australian dollars.[29][30][31]

Plimer's debating style has been criticised as counterproductive by some of his fellow skeptics. He was criticised for making false claims and errors in his debates with creationists by skeptic Jim Lippard.[32]

[edit]Awards, fellowships and prizes

Source: [2]

[edit]Bibliography

[edit]References

  1. ^ Johnson, Anne (2006-05-28). "The coffin, the Ark & the Prof". The Sunday Mail.
  2. ^ a b Ian Plimer at the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide.
  3. ^ a b c d "Mining Journal - Warming up". www.mining-journal.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  4. ^ "The Global Warming Sceptics Club — a Crikey list - Crikey". www.crikey.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  5. ^ "Ian Plimer". www.ipa.org.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  6. ^ "Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP)". Dec 2007. Archived from the original on 12/02/2007. Retrieved 08/07/2009.
  7. ^ "Top scientist debunks global warming". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  8. ^ "The voices of climate change sceptics". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  9. ^ "Doomed Planet". Quadrant Online. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  10. ^ Hendrik Gout (April 2009). "Ian Plimer: A question of faith". Independentweekly.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
  11. ^ Phillip Adams. "Business as usual". www.theaustralian.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  12. ^ "Beware the climate of conformity". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  13. ^ "Heaven + Earth - review by David Karoly - Science Show - 13 June 2009". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  14. ^ "Non-greenhouse theorists (’sceptics’) « BraveNewClimate.com". bravenewclimate.com. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  15. ^ Kirby, Simon (2007-04-12). "Mankind 'can't influence' climate | National News". News.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  16. ^ "Australia Network News:Stories:Australian scientist sceptical of climate change". australianetworknews.com. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  17. ^ Let battle commence! Climate change denialist ready for the fight, The Guardian, August 6, 2009, George Monbiot
  18. ^ "This professor of denial can't even answer his own questions on climate change". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  19. ^ "Spectator's new editor fails to tell a straight story". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  20. ^ a b c "AdelaideNow... Why I'd put global warming on ice". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  21. ^ "Proactive Investors UK - Kefi Minerals has How many gold prospects in Turkey?". www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  22. ^ a b "Lateline Business - 11/11/2008: Ian Plimer joins Lateline Business". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  23. ^ "Marian Wilkinson". smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  24. ^ a b c Thomas H. Jukes (1995). "Battling creationism down under". Journal of Molecular Evolution 40 (6): pp. 707–708. doi:10.1007/BF00160521.
  25. ^ a b ""Telling Lies For God"? - One Man's Crusade". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  26. ^ a b "Plimer book - Our point-by-point rebuttal". creation.com. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  27. ^ "Ian Plimer's Bloopers — a selection". Creation Ministeries International. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  28. ^ Leigh Dayton (June 1997). "Ark verdict spells ruin for geologist". New Scientist. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  29. ^ Carl Wieland. "Plimer Settles". Creation Ministries. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  30. ^ "Denialist ark a wobbly craft". The Australian. May 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  31. ^ Geoff Maslen. "Noah's Ark case leaves professor high and dry". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  32. ^ How Not To Argue With Creationists by Jim Lippard, issue XXIX of Creation/Evolution, 11(2):9–21, Winter 1991–1992

[edit]External links

Awards
Preceded by
Lesley Joy Rogers		Clarke Medal
2004		Succeeded by
Mark Westoby

Posted by Britannia Radio at 13:25