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Ian Plimer

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Ian Rutherford Plimer
Born (1946-02-12) 12 February 1946 (age 78)
NationalityAustralian
CitizenshipAustralia
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
Macquarie University
Known forOutspoken views against anthropogenic global warming and creationism
AwardsEureka Prize (1995, 2002)
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
InstitutionsUniversity of Adelaide

Ian Rutherford Plimer (born February 12, 1946) is an Australian geologist and academic. He was described by journalist Jamie Walker of The Australian newspaper as "Australia's best-known academic geologist and certainly one of the most outspoken". He is a critic of creationism and of anthropogenic global warming. 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. Plimer is a director of three Australian mining companies: Ivanhoe, CBH Resources and Kefi Minerals.

Early life and career

Plimer grew up in Sydney. He was educated at Gordon Public School and Normanhurst Boys' High School. He earned a B.Sc.(Hons) at the University of New South Wales, and a Ph.D. at Macquarie University.

Plimer is currently Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide. He was previously a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Political affiliations

Plimer was formerly listed as an associate of the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Liberal Party of Australia. Plimer is currently listed as an "allied expert" for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian anti-Kyoto Protocol advocacy group , and is also a member of the Australian Skeptics.

Critic of creationism

Plimer is an outspoken critic of creationism and is famous for a debate with creationist Duane Gish in which he asked his opponent to hold live electrical cables to prove that electromagnetism was 'only a theory'. Creationists claim Plimer makes numerous scientific errors.

In the late 1990s, Plimer went to court alleging misleading and deceptive advertising under the Trade Practices Act 1974 against creationist minister Allen Roberts, arising from Plimer's attacks on Roberts' claims concerning the location of Noah's Ark, after Plimer had been forcibly ejected by police from several public meetings at which Roberts spoke. 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, and was ordered to pay his own and Roberts' legal costs estimated at over 500,000 Australian dollars.

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

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 Main article: "Heaven and Earth", Plimer's book on climate change

Plimer is critical of what he sees as an irrational environmental movement and claims 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 IPCC so: "The IPCC process is related to environmental activism, politics and opportunism" and " is unrelated to science". He is critical of greenhouse gas politics and argues that extreme environmental changes are inevitable. 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. Scientists involved in climate change research counter that they have, in fact, factored in the influence of natural forces and that there still remains a significant human influence on the Earth's climate system.

Before writing the book, Plimer stated that El Niño is caused by earthquakes and volcanic activity at the mid-ocean ridges. This contrasts with the view held by the meteorological and oceanographic communities, which is that El Niño arises from dynamical interactions between the atmosphere and ocean.

Mining interests

Plimer, who has financial interests in mines that stand to lose money if an emissions trading scheme is adopted by the Australian government, has said that such a carbon-trading scheme will "decimate Australia’s mining industry". But Plimer rejects charges of a conflict of interest between his commercial mining activities and his dismissive stance on global warming.

Debate with George Monbiot

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After the publication of his book met with harsh criticism from The Guardian's George Monbiot, who derided the book, saying that "Since its publication in Australia it has been ridiculed for a hilarious series of schoolboy errors, and its fudging and manipulation of the data", Plimer challenged Monbiot to a public debate on the issues covered in the book. Monbiot responded by insisting that Plimer, who is known for his Gish Gallop approach to debates (a rapid-fire presentation of arguments and changing topics very quickly), first answer a series of written questions for publication on the Guardian's website. Plimer refused and Monbiot labeled Plimer a "grandstander" with a "broad yellow streak" who has nowhere answered the accusations of serious errors in his Heaven and Earth book, and accused him of trying to "drown out the precise refutations published by his book's reviewers". Plimer then reversed his decision, and agreed to answer written questions in return for a live debate. However, the answers he sent to Monbiot consisted of a series of questions for Monbiot, and no answers to the questions Monbiot had sent him. Monbiot commented that by avoiding answering the questions, Plimer was procrastinating and blustering, and that Plimer's questions had no relevance to the debate at hand.

Awards, Fellowships and Prizes

Source:

Bibliography

  • Telling Lies for God - Reason vs Creationism, Ian Plimer, Random House, Sydney, 1994 (ISBN 0-09-182852-X)
  • A Short History of Planet Earth, Ian Plimer, ABC Books, 2001 (ISBN 0-7333-1004-4)
  • Heaven and Earth, Ian Plimer, Connor Court Publishing, Ballan, 2009 (ISBN 978-1-921421-14-3)
  • Heaven and Earth, Ian Plimer, Taylor Trade Publishing, Lanham, MD, June 2009 (ISBN 978-1-58979-472-6)

References

  1. Interview of Ian Plimer, The Australian, April 18, 2009
  2. ^ "AdelaideNow... Why I'd put global warming on ice". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  3. "Proactive Investors UK - Kefi Minerals has How many gold prospects in Turkey?". www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  4. Johnson, Anne (2006-05-28). "The coffin, the Ark & the Prof". The Sunday Mail. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Ian Plimer at the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide.
  6. http://www.liberal.org.au/about/partypeople.php
  7. "Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP)". 2007. Archived from the original on 12/02/2007. Retrieved 08/07/2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |archivedate= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. "Ian Plimer's Bloopers — a selection". Creation Ministeries International. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  9. Leigh Dayton (1997). "Ark verdict spells ruin for geologist". New Scientist. Retrieved 2009-07-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. Carl Wieland. "Plimer Settles". Creation Ministries. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  11. "Denialist ark a wobbly craft". The Australian. 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. Geoff Maslen. "Noah's Ark case leaves professor high and dry". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  13. How Not To Argue With Creationists by Jim Lippard, issue XXIX of Creation/Evolution, 11(2):9–21, Winter 1991–1992
  14. "Doomed Planet". Quadrant Online. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  15. Hendrik Gout (2009). "Ian Plimer: A question of faith". Independentweekly.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  16. "Beware the climate of conformity". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  17. Kirby, Simon (2007-04-12). "Mankind 'can't influence' climate | National News". News.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  18. "What is an El Niño?". NOAA. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  19. "Mining Journal - Warming up". www.mining-journal.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  20. "Spectator recycles climate rubbish published by sceptic, by George Monbiot, The Guardian, 9 July 2009
  21. "Plimer does the Gish gallop". SiloBreaker. 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  22. George Monbiot (2009). "Let battle commence! Climate change denialist ready for the fight". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. George Monbiot (2009). "Why can't the champion of climate change denial face the music?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  24. George Monbiot (2009). "Let battle commence!". The Guardian UK. Retrieved 2009-08-06. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  25. George Monbiot (2009). "Plimer resorts to attack as the best form of defence". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

Awards
Preceded byLesley Joy Rogers Clarke Medal
2004 		Succeeded byMark Westoby

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