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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 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, academic and businessman. He was first known as a prominent critic of creationism, but more recently he has been known for his skepticism of the scientific consensus that global warming is driven by anthropogenic CO2 . He has published approximately 60 academic papers (none on climate change) 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.

Early life and career

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

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.

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. He is currently Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide .

Mining interests

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

Affiliations

Plimer is listed as an associate of the Institute of Public Affairs, a free market think tank. In 2007, Plimer was listed as an "allied expert" for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian advocacy group that opposes the Kyoto Protocol .

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.

Plimer is a life member of the Australian Skeptics.

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 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". He is critical of greenhouse gas politics and argues that extreme environmental changes are inevitable.

One of Plimer's central hypotheses is that volcanoes emit more carbon dioxide than humans. Climate scientists respond that humans emit 130 times more CO2 than volcanoes. NASA's Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist, examined the Plimer hypothesis and said it was based on a "basic logical fallacy".

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. This is disputed by scientists involved in climate change research.

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. 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.

Debate with George Monbiot

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. Negotiations for a face-to-face debate eventually broke down over a series of questions the two exchanged beforehand, and no debate was held. They did eventually meet on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Lateline in December, 2009. After the debate, Monbiot wrote in The Guardian that throughout the discussion Plimer had used evasion and distraction when faced with straight questions.

Copenhagen Climate Challenge

During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15), Plimer spoke at a rival conference in Copenhagen for sceptics, called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, which was organised by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. While COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates, the rival sceptic conference was attended by 60 people (15 journalists, 18 speakers, 27 audience). In closing his speech, Plimer stated that “They’ve got us outnumbered, but we’ve got them outgunned, and that’s with the truth.” Plimer also stated that "It's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down". Perth had below average rainfall in 2009, and temperatures of 38 °C (100 °F) were forecast for December 13; on December 19 the Department of Water announced that Perth would likely need to build a third desalination plant if it was to avoid looming water shortages.

Political influence

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

I think that in response to the IPCC alarmist - 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.

— 8px, in Tony Abbott, The Sydney Morning Herald, 8px

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.

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-based Creation Science Foundation (now called Creation Ministries International or CMI), arguing that claims of a Biblical global flood are untenable. 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". The church published a rebuttal criticising the arguments made in the book.

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 Creation Ministries International), 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 and Hobart 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.

In 1990 Plimer's debating style was criticised by skeptic Jim Lippard for making false claims and errors in his debates with creationists.

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. 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: |accessdate= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Ian Plimer at the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide.
  3. ^ "Mining Journal - Warming up". www.mining-journal.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  4. ^ "AdelaideNow... Why I'd put global warming on ice". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  5. "Proactive Investors UK - Kefi Minerals has How many gold prospects in Turkey?". www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  6. ^ "Lateline Business - 11/11/2008: Ian Plimer joins Lateline Business". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  7. "The Global Warming Sceptics Club — a Crikey list - Crikey". www.crikey.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  8. "Ian Plimer". www.ipa.org.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30. {{cite web}}: Text "Institute of Public Affairs Australia" ignored (help)
  9. "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)
  10. "The voices of climate change sceptics". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-11-24. {{cite web}}: Text "Environment" ignored (help); Text "The Guardian" ignored (help)
  11. "Top scientist debunks global warming". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-30. {{cite web}}: Text "The Courier-Mail" ignored (help)
  12. Penelope Debelle, The Advertiser (Adelaide), May 28, 2009, Why I'd put global warming on ice (archived by Plimer's publisher, Connor Court). "The outcome of the Federal Court case was not clear-cut but Plimer says he won...The Australian Sceptics were so impressed they made Plimer a life member."
  13. "Doomed Planet". Quadrant Online. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  14. Hendrik Gout (2009). "Ian Plimer: A question of faith". Independentweekly.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  15. "How climate change sceptic Ian Plimer dodges valid criticism". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-12-14. {{cite web}}: Text "Environment" ignored (help); Text "James Randerson" ignored (help); Text "guardian.co.uk" ignored (help)
  16. "Joss Garman: Climate change deniers cost the earth - Commentators, Opinion - The Independent". www.independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  17. "Beware the climate of conformity". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  18. "Heaven + Earth - review by David Karoly - Science Show - 13 June 2009". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  19. "Non-greenhouse theorists ('sceptics') « BraveNewClimate.com". bravenewclimate.com. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  20. Kirby, Simon (2007-04-12). "Mankind 'can't influence' climate | National News". News.com.au. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  21. "Australia Network News:Stories:Australian scientist sceptical of climate change". australianetworknews.com. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  22. Let battle commence! Climate change denialist ready for the fight, The Guardian, August 6, 2009, George Monbiot
  23. "This professor of denial can't even answer his own questions on climate change". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-20. {{cite web}}: Text "George Monbiot" ignored (help); Text "The Guardian" ignored (help)
  24. "Spectator's new editor fails to tell a straight story". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-23. {{cite web}}: Text "Environment" ignored (help); Text "George Monbiot" ignored (help); Text "guardian.co.uk" ignored (help)
  25. "Quadrant Online - Why Monbiot ran". www.quadrant.org.au. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  26. "Lateline - 15/12/2009: Plimer, Monbiot cross swords in climate debate". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
  27. "The parallel universe with a life of its own". The Australian. Dec 17, 2009.
  28. "Ian Plimer's volcano claims vaporise under questioning on Australian TV". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-12-17. {{cite web}}: Text "Environment" ignored (help); Text "George Monbiot" ignored (help); Text "guardian.co.uk" ignored (help)
  29. ^ "COPENHAGEN CALLING: Bolstering Barack - Giles Parkinson - News - Business Spectator". www.businessspectator.com.au. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
  30. "Copenhagen climate summit: Behind the scenes at the sceptics' conference - Telegraph". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
  31. "Plimer addresses Copenhagen 'heretics'". smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
  32. "It's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down, says climate sceptic Ian Plimer". www.perthnow.com.au. Retrieved 2009-12-09. {{cite web}}: Text "Perth Now" ignored (help)
  33. "Perth heading for water crisis". West Australian Newspapers. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
  34. "Marian Wilkinson". smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  35. ^ Thomas H. Jukes (1995). "Battling creationism down under". Journal of Molecular Evolution. 40 (6): pp. 707–708. doi:10.1007/BF00160521. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  36. ^ ""Telling Lies For God"? - One Man's Crusade". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  37. ^ "Plimer book - Our point-by-point rebuttal". creation.com. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  38. "Ian Plimer's Bloopers — a selection". Creation Ministeries International. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  39. Leigh Dayton (1997). "Ark verdict spells ruin for geologist". New Scientist. Retrieved 2009-07-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  40. Carl Wieland. "Plimer Settles". Creation Ministries. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  41. "Denialist ark a wobbly craft". The Australian. 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  42. Geoff Maslen. "Noah's Ark case leaves professor high and dry". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  43. How Not To Argue With Creationists by Jim Lippard, issue XXIX of Creation/Evolution, 11(2):9–21, Winter 1991–1992

External links

Awards
Preceded byLesley Joy Rogers Clarke Medal
2004 		Succeeded byMark Westoby
Categories: