13 Mar 2007 Tim Ball, DeSmogBlog & Me

I owe a debt of gratitude to the anti-skeptic environmental attack website DeSmogBlog.

As regular readers of this blog may recall, DeSmogBlog is the website that, in its rush to attack those of us who are not losing sleep over global warming, used a picture I had taken of my husband without first getting permission. I offered to let them off the hook for a buck, which I would donate to charity. DeSmoggian Richard Littlemore responded by sending me a $20 check made out to the left-wing political organization Greenpeace. I didn’t forward the check.

DeSmoggians take the position that disagreeing with their cataclysmic views on global warming is a moral failing, and as such, that it is OK for DeSmogBlog to print vile and, amazingly often, false things about those people. (Sort of a “he who is with sin should cast many stones” philosophy.)

So how is it that I owe a debt of gratitude to the DeSmoggians? It’s pretty simple. If there is any one person that the DeSmoggians just can’t stand, it is Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball. Over and over again they attack him, using the same silly and fallacious arguments and sophomoric insults.

Well, I’d never met or otherwise been in touch with Tim Ball. I’d read his writing many times; I even wrote about him when silly lefties falsely reported that he was employed by the National Center for Public Policy Research, and again when the Long Beach Press-Telegram falsely reported that the National Center was “promoting him.” And, of course, I’d see the lefties go absolutely nutty over him, in the deranged meaning of the term.

So when I heard that Dr. Ball was going to be in Washington, I knew I wanted to meet him. Anyone who drives the lefties this nuts, I figured, must be darned effective. I’ve noticed also that his critics never seem to lay a glove on the actual arguments Dr. Ball makes. Insults appear to be their substitute for argument.

Happily, Dr. Ball was willing to have lunch. We assembled a little gathering of good folks (including a number of other delightful people who also are frequent targets of DeSmogBlog invective) and had a chat about climate change.

Dr. Ball was even more impressive than DeSmogBlog’s fear and loathing led me to expect. He was funny, informative, interesting and personable. He answered questions thoroughly and quite reasonably. Where the science is limited; he said it is limited (including, for those of you who are wondering, some of the science supporting the so-called “skeptic” perspective). Where the answer to a question wasn’t definitively settled, he gave the various points of view. When the views of those who believe humanity is causing significant climate change were brought up, he addressed those views rationally and factually and with a civility I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him get from the so-called climate “alarmists” in return.

In short, I see why the environmental left is as frantic about Dr. Ball, and as anxious to discredit him, as it appears to be. Dr. Ball is a very impressive fellow, and he makes a heckuva lot of sense.

_____

Labels: Climate, Environment, Liberals