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Balling, R

Dr Robert C. Balling, Jr is director of the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University,and a prominent climate change skeptic.

exxon secrets wayback

director, Office of Climatology and Associate professor of Geography, Arizona State University

NCPPR scientific expert on global warming. (1996)

Dr. Balling wrote the "Heated Debate," published by the Pacific Research Institute and "True State of the Planet," published by CEI. He co-wrote "The Satanic Gases" with Patrick J. Michaels, published by the Cato Institute. Balling signed the Leipzig Declaration in 1995.

According to Harper's, Balling has recieved more than $200,000 from coal and oil interests over the past six years. Specific incidences include significant levels of funding since 1989 from the Kuwaiti government, foreign coal and mining corporations and Cyprus Minerals Company (totalling $72,554). (Kuwait has opposed the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The Kuwaiti government paid for a release of Balling's "A Heated Debate" in the Middle East, a project originally funded by the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science granted Balling $48,993 and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research granted him an undisclosed amount. British Coal Corporation gave him a total of $103,544 and the German Coal Mining Association gave him $81,780 in two separate grants. (Ozone Action, NCPPR directory)

PhD University of Oklahoma, 1979.Senior Consultant United Nations World Meteorological Organization.

KEY QUOTES

13 December, 2003

"Here is the real dilemma for the ski industry. If we were to seriously attempt to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases, we would devastate our economies (the very reason Russia and the United States said "no way" to Kyoto) and no one could afford to ski. Those windmills in Aspen would power empty lifts, and the ski industry would discover that policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas concentrations can be far more damaging than any rise in global temperature."

Source: "Global warming's slippery slope," Chicago Tribune 12/13/03

QUOTES

1 May, 1997

"[N]ot only is there little to no linkage between global warming and hurricane activity, but there seems to have been no warming in recent decades either."

Source: "Calmer Weather," CEI, 5/97

KEY DEEDS

Conducted an ExxonMobil-funded study in 2002, with Craig Idso, entitled "The 2000 United States Historical Climate Network Update: What Changed?"

Source: ASU web site 5/03

KEY EVENTS

Junk Science: A Hazard to Your Health

http://www.pacificresearch.org/events/1998/98-06_jun.html

The relationship of Robert C. Balling Jr. to the event: Speaker

Global Warming: The State of the Debate

http://www.cato.org/events/gw031212.html

The relationship of Robert C. Balling Jr. to the event: Speaker

ORGANIZATIONS

**Arizona State University Office of Cimatology**

Source: ASU web site 5/03

**Greening Earth Society**

Source: CLEAR d-base

**Independent Commission on Environmental Education**

Source: ASU web site 5/03

**Cato Institute**

Source: Cato Institute website 4/04

**Heritage Foundation**

Source: Heritage Foundation "Policy Experts" website

**International Policy Network - North America**

Source: International Policy Network website 4/04

**Tech Central Science Foundation or Tech Central Station**

Source: Tech Central Station Bio - Balling

**Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow**

Source: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow CFACT Website 5/06

SOURCES

ASU web site 5/03

ASU web site 5/03www.asu.edu

CLEAR d-base

CLEAR d-base"Calmer Weather," CEI, 5/97

Subheader: The Spin on Greenhouse Hurricanes By Robert C. Balling Jr.http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,01200.cfm

Cato Institute website 4/04http://www.cato.org

"Global warming's slippery slope," Chicago Tribune 12/13/03

Commentary by Dr. Robert Balling Jr.Heritage Foundation "Policy Experts" websitehttp://www.policyexperts.org

International Policy Network website 4/04http://www.policynetwork.net

Tech Central Station Bio - Ballinghttp://www.techcentralstation.com/bioballingrobert.html

Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow CFACT Website 5/06www.CFACT.org

3 of 4 conf 2014-18?

2017 heartland mail list 17pp also cerzeny sp

https://legacy-assets.eenews.net/open_files/assets/2017/10/25/document_gw_10.pdf

usiness-Managed Environment

Denial Scientists - Robert Balling

  :{»:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}: Associations

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Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. He is a contributing editor for the denial journal, World Climate Report, originally funded by Western Fuels Association and now published by Patrick Michael's firm New Hope Environmental Services.

Balling's books include:

Balling admits that human emitted carbon dioxide can have a warming effect but claims that this is not a problem. In 2004 Balling told Business Week that he believed that in the future people would be able to engineer whatever climate they wanted. In 2006 in an article 'Give a Hoot, Don't (Call It) "Pollute"', he argued that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant:

There is no doubt that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and holding everything else constant, elevated CO2 will act to warm the Earth. But as we see in the CO2 story, the levels of this gas have fluctuated enormously over the history of the Earth, and the ecosystems of the planet have evolved to cope with these variations. To suddenly label CO2 as a "pollutant" is a disservice to a gas that has played an enormous role in the development and sustainability of all life on this wonderful Earth.

Associations

Balling has been an advisor for a number of corporate-funded think tanks and front groups such as the Greening Earth Society and the Information Council on the Environment (see table below and diagram). He is also a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute, a think tank "committed to expanding free enterprise and liberty", based in Arizona.

Affiliation With ExxonMobil-Funded OrganizationsTitle/Role
Cato InstituteBook Author
Committee for a Constructive TomorrowScientific Advisory Board Member
Competitive Enterprise InstituteReport Author
George C. Marshall InstituteRoundtable Speaker
Heartland InstituteGlobal Warming Expert
Heritage FoundationPolicy Expert
Hoover InstitutionRobert Wesson Endowment Fund Fellow (1993-4)
Tech Central StationScience Round Table Member

Source: Seth Shulman et. al., 'Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science'. Union of Concerned Scientists, January 2007, p. 34.; 'Roundtable Speakers', George C. Marshall Institute, 2010; Global Warming Experts', Heartland Institute, 2010.

Corporate Funding

Balling has been heavily funded by fossil fuel interests. In the 1990s he was reported in The Arizona Republic as saying that he had “received more like $700,000 over the past five years” from coal and oil interests in Great Britain, Germany and the US in the previous six years.  Quoted in Ties That Blind: Case Studies of Corporate Influence on Climate Change Policy, Ozone Action, 1997.

Links

https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/files/Pal-review-by-John-Mashey.pdf

no lnx

Chris de Freitas, Pat Michaels and their pals

John R. Mashey,

JohnMasheyAT yahoo DOT com, 11/29/11

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Active editors, tenure by received dates 3

3 People X Articles & Activities, Chronological 4

4 People X Organizations 5

5 Social Network of the pals, a few hints 6

6 Conclusion 7

A.1 – Papers from Climate Research8

A.2 –Chris de Freitas, Papers and Other Activities 15

A.3 –Pat Michaels - Publications 18

1 Introduction

Good peer review is crucial, but not sufficient for credible scientific

publishing. It is merely an early hurdle. Even in carefully-run journals,

mistakes occur, to be found later by the broader reviews following

publication of anything interesting. In most fields, real junk is ignored. In

climate, such junk gets widely endlessly publicized, forcing debunking.

For a few years,Climate Research, a generally-credible journal, published

some weak or even awful articles. The journal had no Editor-in-Chief, so

authors sent manuscripts to an Associate Editor of their choice. Each

selected reviewers, handled the whole process and accepted papers with no

further oversight. From 1990 to 1996, CR published zero papers from

any of the following, called pals hereafter: Sallie Baliunas, Robert

Balling, John Christy, Robert Davis, (Chris de Freitas), David Douglass,

Vincent Gray, Sherwood Idso, PJ Knappenberger, Ross McKitrick, Pat

Michaels, Eric Posmentier, Arthur Robinson, Willie Soon, and GerdRainer Weber.

2 Chris de Freitas became an editor and then accepted 14

papers from the pals 1997-2003....[much more]

11/30/11

Von Storch seemed the obvious choice to become Editor-in-Chief, given

his handling of 110 papers. The identities of the reviewers used by de

Freitas are (properly) unknown, but one might wonder:

 Did dubious papers often get reviewed by pals (or their friends)?

 Were there negative reviews by others and how much did they count?

The table on next page shows the authors, their papers and other activities,

chronologically. The varied year-widths here align this table with the next.

The pals arrived with de Freitas, sent him most of their papers and

essentially departed after the von Storch resignation.

The papers are listed in Appendix A.1 and then briefly analyzed.

...People X Articles & Activities, Chronological

The following lists pal authors, plus Fred Singer and the George Marshall

Institute (GMI) as key connectors.Most are extracted from MAS2010

pp.97-102. Activities are listed in the Index and described there in more

detail. Higher numbers show stronger involvement. Pals’ CR articles are

shown in red, with relevant climate anti-science activities in black, roughly

chronologically, although some activities continued over years, so that

participation does not imply a specific year. Singer was a close ally of the

GMI founders, of whom two were on his SEPP board (Naomi Oreskes &

Erik Conway, Merchants of Doubt, 2010.)

Editorial tenures, by visible received dates, are shown in gray.

Most are noted in www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database

...

4 sallie is hub?!

balling. michaels

4 People X Organizations

This lists the 15 pals plus Fred Singer, a connection for many, and Madhav

Khandekar. Most are extracted from MAS2010 pp.96-102. A few were

not involved enough in the MAS2010 story to be listed there, but were

found in a more inclusive 600-person table. Higher numbers imply

stronger involvement, described p.96. Organizations are described in more

detail and listed in the MAS2010 Index, p.4. Some people have published

real science (a necessity to build any credibility and access to the research

community), but all have shown persistent involvement with organizations

that do climate anti-science, most of which also have tobacco connections.

Almost everyone has been involved with CATO, (GMI) or Heartland,

usually more than one. Baliunas  18 , Balling  11, Michaels  10 , Soon  9 and Singer  13 each

are listed 9+ times.Knappenberger seems the least involved, but was

Michaels‘ student and has worked for him for decades.

Khandekar arrived at the end of the de Freitas era, so was not included in

the pals group, although he surely knew them well. He did not stay long.

Most pals have been involved in many organizations that do climate

anti-science. The same people appear again and again....

6 Conclusion

When de Freitas became editor, CR was ―open for business‖ and it arrived

quickly from the pals, a group of people who have accumulated a long

history of climate anti-science activities, papers and involvement with

organizations that promote anti-science, not just for climate, but often for

other areas.17

Some papers seemed fine, if not necessarily very important, but some very

dubious papers were accepted. Michaels‘ 7 papers accounted for half of

his entire peer-reviewed production during the period.

When de Freitas left, the flow of papers from pals effectively dried up.

One need know nothing about climate science to see the patterns here.

It is a fine example of lax processes allowing a ―rogue editor‖ to subvert

the normal peer review process. The scientists were not only right to be

worried about CR, but may well have underestimated the extent of the

problem.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to various reviewers and help from DeSmogBlog.

Thanks to CR for giving open access to its older papers.

Most all of all, I thank the legions of scientists who tirelessly do the often

thankless task of peer review and do it well. Most of the articles in CR

seemed reasonable, meaning that editors and reviewers did much work on

other people‘s publications. This case seems a real outlier.

off bs

Balling has a long history of conducting research on the climate change issue with a special interest in blending in applications involving Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Many of his research projects look at output from numerical climate models that simulate the effects of altering atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. In his work, Professor Balling compares historical climate observations with results predicted by the models for the same time periods. At times, the observations are consistent with expectations from the models, but at other times, they are not. Other recent projects use satellite-based observations to investigate hourly patterns of precipitation.

Balling has written four books on the climate change issue, he has served as a science consultant to the United Nations, and he was the 2011 ASU Professor of the Year awarded by Order of Omega Greek Honorary Society. He is also the director of the Master of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems program.

2012 cv

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/10484360/1-march-29-2012-curriculum-vitae-dr-robert-c-balling-jr-

called out by grijalva, foia'd, result? (also curry, pielke, balling etc 7

az rep paper symp, Am Meteor Assoc, crow too march

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-arizona-republic/**2015**0312/282514362007779

ASU prof 'shocked' to be target of Dems' climate probe

Anne Ryman The Republic | azcentral.com

march 12 2015 no lnx

ASU President Michael Crow, in a written response to Grijalva last week, said the university will comply with the public-records request. However, Crow said he has "personal concerns" about the manner in which Grijalva is proceeding.

Scientists at seven universities%2C including ASU%2C are subjects of probe over climate-change research funding.

U.S. Rep. Ra%FAl Grijalva%2C D-Ariz.%2C is seeking records on external funding going to Robert Balling Jr.

Balling%2C an ASU professor%2C says he has properly disclosed all his funding.

An Arizona State University scientist said he is "shocked" to be among seven researchers at the center of a probe by an Arizona congressman over funding for their climate-change research.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote letters to seven universities last month, saying he has concerns about issues of potential conflicts of interest and failure to disclose corporate funding sources related to climate research. The issues were raised in a New York Times article.

Grijalva is seeking records on external funding going to Robert Balling Jr., a professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. The request also seeks drafts of any testimony Balling prepared for a government body or agency and correspondence surrounding his testimony and funding dating back to 2007.

The congressman sent the letters in his role as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources. He wrote in the Feb. 24 letters that "my colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships."

Balling, in an interview with The Arizona Republic, said there is "absolutely no truth" to the suggestion he failed to disclose funding sources.

"I have zero concerns," he said. "I know what's there."

ASU President Michael Crow, in a written response to Grijalva last week, said the university will comply with the public-records request. However, Crow said he has "personal concerns" about the manner in which Grijalva is proceeding.

"I strongly urge you and your colleagues to be aware of and to consider the principle of academic freedom as you continue your pursuit of documents and information from universities and individual faculty members," Crow wrote in the letter.

ASU President Michael Crow speaks at the grand opening celebration of SkySong 3 in Scottsdale on Tuesday, January 13, 2015.

Crow said the university's policy on academic freedom gives researchers the right to search for truth and knowledge without obstruction or restraint.

The American Meteorological Society has also weighed in with a letter to Grijalva. Singling out specific researchers based on a perspective they have expressed "sends a chilling message to all academic researchers," the society said.

The records request is the latest controversy to erupt in the contentious field of climate change. Climate scientist Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been criticized recently over allegationshe accepted grants from fossil-fuel companies and didn't disclose all the corporate funding.

Soon has called the attacks a "shameless attempt to silence my scientific research and writing."

The same week Grijalva's letter went out, three other Democratic senators sent letters to 100 fossil-fuel companies, trade groups and other organizations. The letters sought to determine whether they are funding climate-change studies and whether the funded scientists failed to disclose their funding sources in scientific publications or in testimony to legislators.

Grijalva's letter went to scientists at the University of Delaware, the University of Alabama, Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Colorado and Pepperdine University, as well as ASU.

The ASU letter says that, according to a 2012 news article and other sources, Balling as recently as 2012 was receiving $1,000 monthly from the Heartland Institute, "a group funded in part by Altria and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation that once proposed to teach children that climate change is a hoax — despite Balling's claims that he had not been involved with the organization since 2008."

Balling said the claim keeps resurfacing but is false. He said that around 2008 he went to New York City for a meeting with the Heartland Institute and received an honorarium of $1,000.

"I've never seen a dime (from them) since," he said.

Balling, 62, has worked at ASU for 30 years. He has written four books on climate change. His 1992 book, "The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality," explored the position that global warming will be moderate rather than catastrophic.

"Any time you write an argument against the popular vision, you are branded," he said.

ASU Professor Robert Balling (right) is one of seven researchers who have received letters from an Arizona congressman, asking for information on the funding of their climate-change research.

In the past, while he was director of the Laboratory of Climatology at ASU, funding sources included money from fossil-fuel companies, among other sources, Balling said. He added that he properly disclosed the funding and that researchers often seek funding from a variety of sources.

Since 2004, he has been involved in and now runs a master's degree program in geographic-information systems at ASU, which he describes as a "breath of fresh air" compared to tense climatology meetings.

A spokesman for Grijalva directed questions to theHouse Committee on Natural Resources, which issued a statement that the committee continues to pursue information that sheds light on financial conflicts of interest in the preparation of testimony and policy recommendations to lawmakers.

"We look forward to productive conversations with the recipients of our letters about getting the information we need. ... We have every expectation of full and fair disclosure," the statement said.

Balling said the committee is welcome to any documents he has.

"It's a free country, if these guys want to investigate it. I would freely release anything I have. But they better get ready to be bored because there's not much to see."

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8072 or anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com.

Source:[1]

 Background

Robert C. Balling Jr. is aprofessor at the school of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University (ASU). He was the director of ASU'sOffice of Climatologyfrom 1989 to 2004 when he became the director of the MAS-GIS program.

Balling acknowledged that he has received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead). Contributors have included ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC. [2]

Balling is also the editor of the World Climate Report, a blog published by New Hope Environmental Services, an advocacy science consulting form run by global warming skeptic Patrick J. Michaels.

According to leaked documents, Robert C. Balling receives**$1,000 per month from the Heartland Institute**, an organization at the forefront of climate change skepticism.

Stance on Climate Change

“The scientific evidence argues against the existence of a greenhouse crisis, against the notion that realistic policies could achieve any meaningful climatic impact, and against the claim that urgent action is necessary to reduce the greenhouse threat.” [3]

Key Quotes

“All of us engage in activities that involve burning fossil fuels, and according to some self-proclaimed environmentalists we should feel guilty doing so due to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) which can lead to ever-dreaded global warming. However, the botanical literature is full of 1,000s of articles showing thatelevated atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will be beneficial for plantsthroughout the world… . We see the forest and we see the trees, and they both thank us for the CO2 we're adding to the atmosphere… .So drive out to the forest and feel good about the CO2 coming out of your tailpipe!” [4]

“… elevated atmospheric CO2 will produce biological miracles all over the world.” [5]

“Life has existed on our planet for billions of years, and the climate over that time has changed from ice ages to periods much warmer than today. There is little doubt that as our cities grow,heat waves will be more severe in the urban areas. If global warming does in fact add to the problem,we will adapt to the new world, just as humans have done for millions of years.”[6]

Key Deeds

March, 2008

According to his profile at Arizona State University, Balling gave a presentation titled “The Increase in Global Temperature: What It Does and Does Not Tell Us” at the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.

2008

Robert C. Balling gave a presentation titled ” A Climate of Doubt About Global Warming” at numerous venues in 2006, 2007, and 2008.[7]

December 12, 2003

Spoke at Cato Institute conference titled “Global Warming: The State of the Debate” which featured numerous climate change skeptics including John Christy,Patrick J. Michaels, Robert Mendelsohn, and Indur Goklany. [8]

April 10, 2000

Balling co-published *The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming* with fellow climate change skeptic Patrick J. Michaels.

The book was published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that has collectively receivedover $13 Million from**Koch foundations** and and **$125,2000 from ExxonMobil**.

The core argument of the book is that “Global warming is vastly overrated as an environmental threat,” “a largely mythical problem” and that the scientific community will eventually “concede that earlier forecasts dramatically exaggerated the threat of global warming.” [9]

1999

Balling co-published a study with Craig Idso titled “The 2000 United States Historical Climate Network Update: What Changed?”

The study received $49,500 in funding from the ExxonMobil foundation.[10]

June 25-28, 1998

Balling attended a conference hosted by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) titled “:{Junk Science: :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:A Hazard to Your Health.”

According to Balling, factors such asvolcanic activity, and solar activity are the cause of recent climate change:

“It may be as simple as the sun gets brighter and the world gets warmer,” he said. “A lot is happening in this area.” There is a “strong relation to temperature and solar output” and good scientists are contending that warming, if real, “may be entirely related to the sun.” [11]

Among the other arguments presented by Balling include that “It's going to come back down, it always has. There is still no warming trend over the past two decades,” that global satellites show cooling rather than warming, that hurricanes and severe storms will be less in a co2-rich world, that global warming science has become a “big industry,” and with reference to global warming, “It’s all nonsense. This is the definition of junk science.”

AccordingSkeptical Science's list of common arguments presented by climate change skeptics, virtually all of Balling's arguments are false. According to SourceWatch, the term “Junk Science” has often been used in lobbying activities in attempt to discredit scientists who express concerns about consumer safety and environmental risks. “Junk Science” has also been a popular term used by Steve Milloy, a pastadvocate for Phillip Morris.

1998

Balling was mentioned in Ross Gelbspan's 1997 book, The Heat is On, as being funded by the fossil fuel industry. The Minnesota Star Tribune later ran an editorial on the disinformation campaign by some climatologists.

Robert Balling and his colleaguePatrick Michaels, a fellow climate change skeptic, took a complaint against the *Star Tribune* to the Minnesota News Council.

Balling to particular objection to the Star's claim that “… whenever you read or hear the opinions of skeptics Patrick Michaels, S. Fred Singer and Robert Balling, know that their ideas and opinions have been carefully considered by a host of climate scientists, and found to be without merit.”

The Star Tribune's defence was that “Though Dr. Michaels’ curriculum vitae (CV) shows him to have accomplished much in his field, many knowledgeable people nevertheless consider his views on global warming unfounded. Michaels' own writings, hearings testimony and speeches – not an editorial in the Star Tribune – have led to highly controversial status in the scientific community. The editorial simply alerted readers to Michaels' role in downplaying potential dangers of global warming …”

At the 1998 Hearing, Balling acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade. [2]

1996

Balling spoke at a conference sponsored by the Pacific Research Instituteentitled “:{Junk Science: :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:A Hazard to Your Health” which featured climate change skeptic Robert Balling who lectured on how mainstream global warming science was “Junk Science.” [21]

1989 - 1995

According to a report by Ozone Action (PDF), Robert Balling received significant levels of funding since 1989 from the Kuwait government, foreign coal/mining corporations and Cyprus Minerals Company. Reproduced below are the notable funding sources compiled in the report: [12]

Funding SourceFunding Recipient (s)Name of StudyFunding AmountYear
British Coal CorporationRobert Balling, Randall Cerveny, Sherwood IdsoImplications of Potential Northern Hemisphere Warming for British Frontal Storms$29,7121991
British Coal CorporationRobert Balling, Sherwood ldsoAnalysis of British Temperature and Precipitation Records: Search for the Greenhouse Signal$34,0571991
British Coal CorporationRobert Balling, Sherwood ldsoAnalysis of British Temperature and Precipitation Records: Search for the Greenhouse Signal$39,7751992
Cyprus Minerals CompanyRobert Balling, Randall Cerveny, Sherwood IdsoAnalysis of Hurricane Activity During Warm and Cold Years$19,8221989
Cyprus Minerals CompanyRobert Balling, Sherwood IdsoHow Changes in Cloud Cover Moderate Greenhouse Warming$13,4301990
Cyprus Minerals CompanyRobert Balling, Sherwood IdsoGreenhouse Cooling$13,4301990
Cyprus Minerals CompanyRobert Balling, Sherwood IdsoThe Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect and US Precipitation Trends: Is There a Super Dust Bowl in our Future?$13,4301990
Cyprus Minerals CompanyRobert Balling, Sherwood IdsoLikely Effects of Greenhouse Warming on Maximum Summer Temperatures$12,4421989
German Mining CorporationRobert BallingAnalysis of Global-Scale Trends in the Diurnal Temperature Range$41,8001995
German Mining CorporationRobert BallingAnalysis of Global-Scale Trends in the Diurnal Temperature Range$39,9801993
Kenneth BarrRobert BallingAnalysis of Australian Temperature Variations During the Period of Instrumental Record$4,9041992
Kuwait  Foundation for the Adv. of SciencesRobert Balling, Hassan NasrallahAnalysis of Recent Climatic Changes in the Arab Peninsula Region$48,9931993

 Affiliations

 Publications

The now-defunct Greening Earth Society, an organization controlled by the Western Fuels Association, once described Balling as “one of the world's most prolific contributors to the scientific literature on global warming.”

It is unclear whether this statement is true, but a full list of Robert C. Balling's publications, some of which are on the subject of climate, is available at the Arizona State University (PDF).

Books

 Resources

  1. “Robert Balling,” Profile at Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning. Accessed April 19, 2012.
  2. “Determination 118: Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling v. Star Tribune,” Minnesota News Council, April 16th, 1998.
  3. Robert C. Balling Jr. “Global Warming: Messy Models, Decent Data, Pointless Policy,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, November 1, 1994.
  4. Dr. Robert Balling. “The Forest and the Trees,” Tech Central Station, June 18, 2003. Archived October 2, 2003.
  5. Dr. Robert Balling.“Aerial Fertilizer,” Tech Central Station, July 21, 2003. Archived October 3, 2003.
  6. Robert C. Balling. “Heat Wave Hot Air,” TCS Daily, August 4, 2005.
  7. “Robert Balling,” Profile at Arizona State University. Accessed April, 2012.
  8. “Global Warming: The State of the Debate,” Cato Institute. Accessed April, 2012.
  9. “The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming (Paperback),” The Cato Institute. Accessed April, 2012.
  10. Curriculum Vitae: Dr. Robert C. Balling, Jr. (PDF). Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning, March 29, 2012.
  11. “Junk Science: A Hazard to Your Health,” Pacific Research Institute. Archived June 25, 2004.
  12. “Ties That Blind: Case Studies of Corporate Influence on Climate Change Policy,” Greenpeace research document. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  13. “Staff,” World Climate Report, March 15, 2005.
  14. “Scientific Advisors,” The Greening Earth Society. Archived October 21, 2001.
  15. “Senior Fellows,” Goldwater Institute. Accessed April, 2012.
  16. “Dr. Robert C. Balling, Jr.,” Tech Central Station. Archived October 3, 2003.
  17. “CFACT Board of Advisors,” Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, July 8, 2009.
  18. “Robert C. Balling, Jr.,” Profile at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Accessed April, 2012.
  19. “Robert C Balling,” Profile at the International Policy Network. Accessed April 19, 2012.
  20. “Heartland Experts: Robert Balling,” The Heartland Institute. Accessed April, 2012.
  21. “Junk Science: A Hazard to Your Health,” Pacific Research Institute. Archived April 10, 2006.
  22. ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Robert C. Balling Jr.
  23. “Robert C. Balling,” SourceWatch.
  24. “Robert Balling,” Wikipedia entry.

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Robert C. Balling Jr.

student work punked

no lnx many vid

https://www.statepress.com/article/2021/04/spbiztech-the-business-of-poking-holes

'In the business of poking holes'

How an ASU climatologist helped fuel the climate change skeptic movement

“They were in the business of poking holes and doing whatever they could to make the point which reflected their own beliefs." Illustration published on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

By Chris Scragg and Jessica Myers |04/22/2021

Editor’s Note: This story includes quotes from two separate interviews with Robert Balling, one in 2019 and another in 2021. Jerry Taylor and Mark Richardson's interviews were also from 2019.

Robert Balling built his career playing devil’s advocate.

Balling, a climatology professor at the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning, saw warnings in the late 1980s that human-emitted carbon dioxide could be disastrous. He said he "saw a niche," to tell the other side.

"The story was always, 'There’s more to the story,'" Balling said of his first book "The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality," published in 1992.

The book was one of the first texts that helped grow a climate change skeptic movement. Balling accepted the central pillar of human-caused global warming, but he questioned the predictions of dire consequences. Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who died in February, took a liking to the book and talked about it on his popular show, according to Balling.

"If you write a book called 'Heated Debate,' how people use what you write is out of your control," Balling said. "If you feel comfortable that you've adequately represented what's in a professional literature and somebody takes this part of the book and does whatever with it. How do I control that?"

As a distinguished climatologist who conducted research for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations, Balling considers his skepticism a virtue.

But climate and politics experts say Balling and other skeptics proved useful, even necessary, in the campaign by American conservative elites and fossil fuel executives to undermine environmental protection.

Even as atmospheric carbon dioxide climbed to levels never before seen in human history, climate policy researchers and experts on the topic say conservative operatives carried out a decades-long political campaign, disguised as legitimate scientific discourse, to confuse the public and paralyze political action.

By funding a small cohort of qualified climate skeptics over the past 30 years, conservative think tanks and oil and gas giants like ExxonMobil successfully held off environmental laws and regulations they considered threats to beliefs of individual liberty and unconstrained, free-market capitalism.

A 'frontal assault' on a scientific consensus

“The counter movement has effectively neutered parts of civil society,” said Peter Jacques, a professor at the University of Central Florida School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs.

The movement to delegitimize climate change hijacked the nation's political response so "elites get more and more what they want," and misinformation about climate change is "just getting worse," Jacques said.

"The climate counter movement has become much more empowered, especially with President (Donald) Trump," Jacques said.

Though the emergence of COVID-19 related conspiracies shocked him, they appeared to come "straight from the playbook of climate denial," he said.

His investigations into the climate skeptic movement uncovered its roots in conservative politics funded by the fossil fuel industry. His 2008 study pointed to conservative think tanks as the crucial structure behind climate skepticism.

While scientists acknowledge there were uncertainties about Earth’s sensitivity to human-emitted CO2, the consensus at the time encouraged phasing out fossil fuels, according to a report from the IPCC.

In the early 1990s, conservative think tanks "launched a full-scale counter movement in response to the perceived success of the environmental movement and its supporters," according to Jacques’ study.

These organizations publish books, host conferences and advocate for conservative and libertarian policies. Some of the main players in Jacques’ study include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute and the Cato Institute.

The main goal of these organizations, Jacques said, is to advance free-market capitalism, the belief privately owned businesses and their markets should be mostly free from government interference.

But in the face of growing concerns and broad favor among Americans for environmental protection, think tanks had to get creative to fight environmentalism, Jacques said.

"Conservatives realized they couldn’t really attack with a frontal assault towards environmental protections because most Americans believed that was a good thing," Jacques said. 

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So instead of attacking the values of environmentalism, they took aim against the facts and mainstream climate scientists.

Climate scientists, like NASA physicist Mark Richardson, said the result was a "concerted smear campaign" against climate scientists.

"There certainly has been a very well-funded attempt for decades to emphasize these points of view way above the weight that they have in terms of the evidence," he said.

Richardson co-authored a 2013 study that determined 97% of climate scientists attributed warming to human activities.

Balling, however, would consider himself part of that 97% who believe humans are warming the Earth, but he doesn’t buy into the idea “something horrible is about to happen," he said.

"I’m confident that the world will be fine and that people in the next 50 (to) 100 years will be as well off if not more well off than we are," Balling said.

In the late 1980s, Republican politicians were more open to accepting the dangers presented by climate change, said Jerry Taylor, the former director of natural resource studies and vice president for development at the Cato Institute.

"Our job was to roll that back," Taylor said of Republican support for environmental protection.

Taylor, who left the organization in 2014 and switched sides in the climate debate, said leaders at Cato were concerned about the "implications of granting the reality of climate change."

"If you grant the reality of climate change, the entire libertarian agenda, which is to minimize the role of government, gets blown apart," Taylor said. 

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To fight back, Taylor said Cato and other think tanks sought to "make the argument that there were a lot of scientists who were skeptical about the extreme stories about climate change."

The Cato Institute’s stance on global warming is that it is “indeed real, and human activity has been a contributor since 1975,” however, it is a “very complicated and difficult issue that can provoke very unwise policy in response to political pressure.”

Richardson said the strategy resulted in a camp of credible skeptics, some with Ph.D.s in climate science, to be "overemphasized in the public sphere."

"If you don’t want to believe (climate change) for whatever reason, you’re more willing to listen to someone who’s telling you the stuff you want to hear," he said. "If you have a Ph.D., that is almost like a shield you can then use."

Kristin Millie Salazar

“If you grant the reality of climate change, the entire libertarian agenda, which is to minimize the role of government, gets blown apart." Illustration published on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

'Skeptical all the way'

Casting doubt on climate change helped Balling get to where he is today, and he doesn’t regret any of it.

"I wouldn’t do anything differently," he said.

Balling said his climate research and affinity for skepticism in the late 1980s led him to conferences where he rubbed shoulders with other global warming doubters such as Patrick Michaels.

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A climatologist and former research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, Michaels became a leading global warming skeptic and the former director for the study of science at the Cato Institute.

Michaels often appeared in television interviews and at Congressional hearings to attack climate science and policy. The two bonded at a conference and partnered to write books. 

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"Pat Michaels was pure, he was skeptical all the way," Balling said. "He would be like a caged tiger before we’d do these things."

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While other scientists were focused on presenting research, Michaels was preparing for the debate, Balling said.

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"Michaels was a killer."

Balling said Michaels "kickstarted" his role in the climate change skeptic camp. They wrote two books together — "The Satanic Gases," and "Climate of Extremes," both published by the Cato Institute.

In the 90s, Balling said he stood in for Michaels in climate debates and conferences.

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For over a decade, Balling traveled around the world to give dozens of presentations with titles like "A Climate of Doubt About Global Warming," and "Global Warming: Messy Models, Decent Data, and Pointless Policy" to a wide range of audiences from state legislatures and universities to fossil fuel associations and conservative think tanks, according to his curriculum vitae.

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His newfound success was "unbelievable," Balling said. 

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"It was like I lived on an airplane."

Taylor, who knew Balling and worked with Michaels, said the duo's books sold well and were used by Cato to "elevate climate skepticism to a threshold of respectability."

Taylor said their work among others' was essential to their campaigns because "without that, there’s just not much there."

Balling acknowledged the "political dimension" to the global warming debate but said he wasn’t interested in it.

"You turn on any of the many radio stations where the conservative side is presenting their vision of climate change, but I tend to turn that off pretty quickly and listen to sports radio," Balling said.

And he doesn’t feel any of his work published by conservative think tanks was consequential in the politics surrounding global warming.

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"Come on, I mean, it must not have had that big of an impact. We’ve had years of (the) Obama Administration," he said. "Any impact it would’ve had would’ve been well gone before any Trump came along."

Balling also said he didn’t directly work with the Cato Institute, but he instead worked for Michaels who had a close relationship with Cato.

"What I did for Michaels when we worked together was scour the literature in climate science and consistently try to find what’s been published that would be used in a debate format," Balling said. "Somebody says 'X,' we’re going to say something else but grounded in the (scientific) literature."

Publishing a scientific book for a think tank is much different from submitting a paper to a peer-reviewed journal, according to Jacques, "it's free speech."

During this time, Balling was at ASU publishing his climate research in peer-reviewed journals and working on projects sponsored by fossil fuel companies.

After a conference in the late '90s, Balling said former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond approached him. As CEO, Raymond dismissed climate change and criticized policies to regulate fossil fuels.

Raymond recommended Balling look into getting funded by Exxon, and he followed Raymond’s advice and applied for Exxon funding for two studies. Balling received nearly $100,000, which he said was paid to ASU to cover the research.

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"I just think they were good neighbors," Balling said. "They funded everybody."

'How do you know what you think you know?'

"We see the forest and we see the trees, and they both thank us for the CO2 we're adding to the atmosphere," Balling wrote in a 2003 essay titled “The Forest and the Trees.”

"So drive out to the forest and feel good about the CO2 coming out of your tailpipe!"

Plants see elevated carbon dioxide levels "as a gift of the Industrial Revolution," he wrote. 

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"It's like they're going home again."

Increased CO2 promotes photosynthesis and plant growth, but the CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere today are higher than they’ve been in at least 500,000 years, according to NASA. Such a glut of heat-trapping gas is already destabilizing the climate, according to experts, resulting in sea level rise, droughts, floods and other severe weather.

And the trees that absorb CO2 won’t make a dent with deforestation taking place on a massive scale.

When asked about this essay, Balling told The State Press in an email that at the time, he was interested in the biological benefits of elevated CO2.

Taylor said most climate skeptics’ convictions are "genuinely held." Jacques also said he believed scientists, Balling included, stood by the integrity of their research.

Skeptics initially had valid reasons to be critical, Richardson said, and the complexity of the problem provided "space for more debate" about how detrimental climate change could be. 

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For example, when satellite temperature data was studied in 1998, there was no warming in the atmosphere, which Balling emphasized at the time.

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Since then, satellite data has shown rapid atmospheric warming. 

"As we get more and more evidence, it builds up into narrowing down this range of uncertainty that we have," Richardson said.

But as the evidence grew of extreme effects from climate change, Taylor said skeptics engaged in "dodgy reasoning and argument, even when they know it’s dodgy."

According to Jacques, dodgy reasoning is enough to fuel the movement.

"The counter movement doesn't actually have to win any scientific arguments," Jacques said. "All they have to do is cast doubt to immobilize the policy debates. That's a win for them. That's all they want."

For a scientific consensus to be challenged, there has to be substantial doubt, and Taylor said that's what the campaign aimed for.

"They were in the business of poking holes and doing whatever they could to make the point which reflected their own beliefs," Taylor said.

Combating climate change skepticism is important, but difficult, Jacques said.

"People really haven't been very good at vetting information," he said, mentioning the popularity of conspiracy theories in the U.S. today. He also said they're prevalent because most people don’t have time to vet this information thoroughly, so in the end, it comes down to representation and trust in a source.

Jacques said everyone should ask themselves, "how did you get that opinion? Where did it come from? How do you know what you think you know about climate change?"

Leaving it all behind

The atmosphere around the debate became too heated for Balling, and he decided to leave it all behind in 2008.

“It wasn’t a very friendly game anymore,” he said.

In 2009, some skeptics accused high-profile climate scientists of hiding temperature data that didn’t show warming based on thousands of leaked emails.

The scandal was called "Climategate," but several official investigations and reviews of the emails found no wrongdoing by the scientists.

Balling knew at least one of the targeted scientists, and he felt the whole thing was "really unfair."

"It just seemed like people got into this gotcha mode," he said. "If that’s what this has come down to, I’m done."

Years after he shifted focus to run the Master of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems program, Balling’s past came back to haunt him.

In 2015, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Tucson) asked ASU President Michael Crow to investigate Balling for alleged conflicts of interest and failure to disclose funding from The Heartland Foundation, a conservative think tank that hosted a conference where Balling spoke. 

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Balling said ASU launched an investigation into his conduct, but nothing ever came from it. 

"I knew in my heart they weren’t going to find anything," Balling said. "I even had some family members ask if everything was OK. I said it’s fine, it’s all part of the greenhouse debating business."

It wasn’t like climate skeptics were "lying or deceiving anybody," Balling said.

In fact, Balling said, he and others were "trying over and over to say there’s more to the story."

The climate debate continues to rage on, and while Balling no longer publicly engages in it, he reminisced on that “little circuit where you could go out and look at parts of the climate change debate.”

“You get kind of swept up at the time, the sort of excitement of the whole debate and this travel,” Balling said. “All of a sudden you’re getting picked to do things for the United Nations.

“It was really a blessing, in some ways, to get to do it all."

Reach the reporters at cscragg@asu.edu and jlmyer10@asu.edu. Follow @monsoonchaser and @jessvmyers on Twitter.

Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.

Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.

singer beat up on lancaster/revelle

Oil Industry Contractor

In a September 24, 1993, sworn affidavit, Dr. Singer stated that he had two meetings with Robert Balling in Pheonix for which his expenses were re-imbursed. Singer believed the the funding, which he received from Balling, originated from the Western Fuels Association.[22] Singer also admitted to working as a consultant on approximately half a dozen occasions for the Global Climate Coalition and that payments to him came either from the firm of John Shlaes, the coalition's director or the PR firm, E. Bruce Harrison, which worked for the coalition.[23] He also stated that he had undertaken consulting work on "perhaps a dozen or so" energy companies. This included work on behalf of oil companies, such as Exxon, Texaco, Arco, Shell, Sun, Unocal, the Electric Power Research Institute, Florida Power and the American Gas Association.[24]

In February 2001, Ronald Collins from the Center for Science in the Public Interest chided a Washington Post for citing Singer but not disclosing his consulting work. "Although The Post's readers were told of some of Mr. Singer's more impressive credentials, they were not informed that he has served as a consultant to Exxon, Shell, Unocal, Sun Oil, ARCO, Ford and GM. All of those companies, of course, have vested interests in fighting off reductions of carbon dioxide emissions. At a time when industry is buying greater influence in the scientific community, it is essential for the press to provide full disclosure," Collins wrote.[25]

bit of a fight  on talk, gets slack b/c living person?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Robert_Balling

Robert C. Balling, Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University, and the former director of its Office of Climatology. His research interests include climatology, global climate change, and geographic information systems.[2] Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming, arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming "is indeed real, but relatively modest",[3] and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature.[4]

Education and career

Balling was born and raised in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and moved to Springfield, Ohio in 1970 to attend Wittenberg University.[5] Balling gained bachelor's and master's degrees in geography in 1974 (Wittenberg University, BA) and 1975 (Bowling Green State University, MA), before gaining his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Oklahoma in 1979.[2] He was assistant professor at the University of Nebraska (1979–1984), before joining the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University.[2] He gained tenure there in 1987, and served as the director of the Office of Climatology until 2004.[2]

Research

Balling has published much research pertaining to various factors that influence the Earth's climate. In 1988, Balling published a study which found that the construction of golf courses around Palm Springs, CA may have cooled the city over the preceding 15 years, in contrast to the warming effect usually associated with urban areas (also known as the urban heat island effect).[6] Seven years later, Balling and Randall S. Cerveny, one of his ASU colleagues, published a study which found that the moon, when it is**full**, can cause Earth's troposphere to warm by more than 0.03 °F.[7] 

However, it remained unclear why the moon might be able to do this. When interviewed by the New York Times, Balling suggested the main reason might be that infrared radiation from the Sun is reflected towards Earth by the full moon.[8] In 1998, Balling and Cerveny published a letter toNature which found that man-made air pollutants, especially ozone and carbon monoxide, were influencing weather patterns on the East Coast of the United States.[9][10] Their study also concluded that this effect was the strongest on Saturdays, and that this was so because "...the end of the week brings worse air pollution than the beginning."[11]

Funding controversy

Balling was mentioned as a fossil fuel industry – funded scientist in Ross Gelbspan's 1997 book The Heat is On. This led the Minnesota Star Tribune to run an editorial speaking of a "disinformation campaign" by some climatologists. Balling and his colleague Patrick Michaels took a complaint against the Star Tribune to the Minnesota News Council. By a 9–4 decision the council "voted to sustain the complaint that the Star Tribune editorial unfairly characterized the scientific reputations of Patrick Michaels and Robert Balling."[12] At the 1998 hearing, Balling "acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead)."[12]

Between December 1998[13] and September 2001[14] Balling was listed as a "Scientific Adviser" to the Greening Earth Society, a group that was funded and controlled by the Western Fuels Association (WFA), an association of coal-burning utility companies. WFA founded the group in 1997, according to an archived version of its website, "as a vehicle for advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use."[15] In 2001, while it was directed by Balling, ASU's office of climatology received $49,000 from ExxonMobil.[16]

From 1989 to 2002, Balling received more than $679,000 from fossil-fuel-industry organizations; as of 2007, he also had received more than $7 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation and the EPA.[17] He has also come under scrutiny because he was listed as atentative author ofthe Heartland Institute's NIPCCreport;however, ASU's vice president of public affairs, Virgil Renzulli, pointed out that this did not imply that Balling had been receiving money from Heartland. Balling himself added that his prior involvement with the Heartland Institute's activities amounted only to appearing at a luncheon they held in 2008.[18]

On February 24, 2015, Arizona State Representative Raúl Grijalva wrote letters to seven universities where climate skeptic scientists (including Balling) worked, citing concerns about these scientists' conflicts of interest and non-disclosure of corporate funding. In these letters, Grijalva requested records on the funding and testimony prepared before a government body.[19][20]

Books

Views on global warming

Balling believes that humans are increasing the level of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, and that the Earth should warm as a result. Balling also considers the mainstream description of climate change to be "a vastly overrated threat whose proposed solutions are worse than the problem."[21] In particular, he hasdismissed the idea that use of renewable energycould be an effective strategy for combating global warming as "absurd."[22] In the book Climate of Extremes, Balling, along with his co-author Patrick Michaels, contend that certain phenomena usually attributed to anthropogenic global warming have actually been occurring for more than a century. The phenomena named include the loss of ice on Mount Kilimanjaro.[23] Balling has made similar statements about current sea level rise; namely, that it has been occurring for 8,000 years and it is therefore "quite a stretch" to blame it on global warming.[24]

Reaction to Balling's views on global warming

In the December 1995 issue of Harper's Magazine, Ross Gelbspan described Balling and other global warming skeptics as "extraordinarily adept at draining the [global warming] issue of all sense of crisis."[25] Climate of Extremes was reviewed in **Foreign Affairs** by Richard N. Cooper, who concluded that "Even if the authors have cherry-picked their scientific papers, this book is a useful antidote to the heavy dose of hype to which the public is regularly subjected."[23] By contrast, The Satanic Gases, another Balling-Michaels collaboration which was published in 2000, received a scathing review fromAmerican Scientist.Reviewer John Firor argued that the book "does not fulfill" its claim (on the dust jacket) that global warming predictions are "simply wrong", that Michaels and Balling criticized the Kyoto Protocol without having read it, and that they quoted a well-known scientist out of context.[26] After Balling wrote an article for TCS Daily harshly criticizing An Inconvenient Truth as scientifically inaccurate,[27] his article was itself criticized as inaccurate by Judd Legum, who said that the article used "misleading scientific arguments." Legum's critique was endorsed by geochemist Eric Steig, a contributor to RealClimate, who said that "All those points are accurate," and that "Some of them could probably have been stronger; that is, Balling is even more wrong that Legum indicates."[28]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Balling's CV
  2. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling#cite_ref-ASU_2-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling#cite_ref-ASU_2-2) d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling#cite_ref-ASU_2-3) Professor Robert C. Balling, Jr. Archived 2013-10-07 at the Wayback Machine at Arizona State University
  3. ^ Patrick Michaels and Robert C. Balling, Climate of extremes: global warming science they don't want you to know, Cato Institute, 2009. p7
  4. ^ Michaels and Balling (2009:10)
  5. ^ "Fiji Climatologist Named ASU Professor of Year". Phi Gamma Delta at Arizona State University. 5 May 2012. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  6. ^ Wilford, John Noble (13 September 1988). "New Factor Affecting Climate: The Golf-Course Effect". New York Times. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  7. ^ Balling, R. C.; Cerveny, R. S. (10 March 1995). "Influence of Lunar Phase on Daily Global Temperatures". Science. 267 (5203): 1481–1483. Bibcode:1995Sci...267.1481B. doi:10.1126/science.267.5203.1481. PMID 17743548. S2CID 22838451.
  8. ^ Browne, Malcolm W. (10 March 1995). "Surprising Scientists, Full Moon Is Found to Play Role in Warming the Earth". New York Times. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  9. ^ Cerveny, Randall S.; Balling, Robert C. (6 August 1998). "Weekly cycles of air pollutants, precipitation and tropical cyclones in the coastal NW Atlantic region". Nature. 394 (6693): 561–563. Bibcode:1998Natur.394..561C. doi:10.1038/29043. S2CID 204999292.
  10. ^ Maugh, Thomas H. II (6 August 1998). "Weekday Pollution Linked to Pattern of Rainy Weekends on East Coast". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  11. ^ "Saturday-night showers". The Economist. 6 August 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  12. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling#cite_ref-MNC_12-1) Minnesota News Council, 16 April 1998, Determination 118: Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling v. Star Tribune archived at Archived March 17, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Scientific Advisers". Greening Earth Society. Archived from the original on December 5, 1998. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  14. ^ "Scientific Advisers". Greening Earth Society. Archived from the original on September 25, 2001. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  15. ^ "Join GES". Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-08., Greening Earth Society website.
  16. ^ "Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank". Mother Jones. May–June 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  17. ^ Purtill, Corinne (11 November 2007). "Outspoken ASU prof draws ire". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  18. ^ Peirano, Michelle (4 March 2012). "Professor accused of bias in environmental research". State Press. Retrieved 14 March2014.
  19. ^ Ryman, Anne (12 March 2015). "ASU prof 'shocked' to be target of Dems' climate probe". Arizona Republic. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  20. ^ Editorial Board (11 March 2015). "Drop the climate-change witch hunt". Arizona Republic. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  21. ^ Whipple, Dan (22 December 2003). "Climate: Taking stock of what is known". UPI. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  22. ^ Kokai, Mitch (8 March 2006). ":{':(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:Warming' Skeptic Stresses Costs". Carolina Journal. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  23. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Balling#cite_ref-FA_23-1) Cooper, Richard N. (November–December 2009). "Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  24. ^ Ruibal, Sai (5 June 2006). "Sports offers a new arena for climate change concerns". USA Today. Retrieved 26 March2014.
  25. ^ Plank, Dave (25 January 1996). "The Center of the Warm". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  26. ^ Firor, John (November–December 2000). "Heat vs. Light in the Global Warming Wars". American Scientist. Retrieved 26 March2014.
  27. ^ "Inconvenient Truths Indeed". Archived from the original on June 1, 2006. Retrieved 2014-04-05.
  28. ^ Mieszkowski, Katharine (10 June 2006). "Did Al get the science right?". Salon. Retrieved 16 April 2014.

Further reading

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Global Warming Skeptic

Between December 1998[1]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_C._Balling,_Jr.#cite_note-0) and September 2001[2]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_C._Balling,_Jr.#cite_note-1) Balling was listed as a "Scientific Adviser" to theGreening Earth Society, a group that was funded and controlled by the Western Fuels Association (WFA), an association of coal-burning utility companies. WFA founded the group in 1997, according to an archived version of its website, "as a vehicle for advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use."[3]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_C._Balling,_Jr.#cite_note-2)

Balling has acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead). [4]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_C._Balling,_Jr.#cite_note-3) Contributors include ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC.

His views have led to his enthusiastic adoption by various members of the free-market Atlas Economic Research Foundation network. He writes regularly for the Cato Institute, Tech Central Station and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

His writings find him regularly in the company of other prominent climate change scholars, including Sallie L. Baliunas, and S. Fred Singer of the Science and Environmental Policy Project.

In August 2004 Balling told Business Week "I'm convinced there will be engineering schemes that will allow our children's children to have whatever climate they want". [1]

Background

Education:

Books

Affiliations

BS 6/15

Robert Balling

School of Geographical Sciences

Arizona State University

PO Box 875302

Tempe, AZ 85287-5302

USA

480-965-7533

Email: robert.balling@asu.edu

Web: http://geoplan.asu.edu/balling

Biography

Robert Balling came to Arizona State University (ASU) in 1985 to join the Office of Climatology, where he served as the director for 15 years. He is a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, where he is currently the director of Advanced Study in Geographic Information Systems. Balling is a senior fellow in the Goldwater Institute at ASU, a member of the Committee of the European Science and Environment Forum, and a contributing member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is also a past member of the United Nations International Panel of Experts on Desertification. His work focuses upon climate-change issues, particularly how well historical records of climate match numerical model predictions given the ongoing buildup of greenhouse gases. Balling began his academic career in 1979 as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Nebraska, where he was also a Research Fellow for the Center for Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology.

Expertise

climatology; climate change; geographic information science

Education

PhD, Geography, University of Oklahoma, 1979

MA, Geography, Bowling Green State University, 1975

AB, Geography, Witterberg University, 1974

Journal Articles

2014

Hondula, D. M., M. Georgescu and R. C. Balling Jr. 2014. Challenges associated with projecting urbanization-induced heat-related mortality.Science of The Total Environment 490:538-544. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.04.130. (link)

Wentz, E. A., A. J. Wills, W. K. Kim, S. W. Myint, P. Gober and R. C. Balling. 2014. Factors influencing water consumption in multifamily housing in Tempe, Arizona. The Professional Geographer 66(3):501-510. DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2013.805627. (link)

2011

Balling, R. C. and G. B. Goodrich. 2011. Spatial analysis of variations and trends in precipitation intensity in the USA. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 104(3-4):415-421.

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Posters

2008

Balling, R. C., P. Gober and N. S. Jones. 2008. Climate sensitivity of residential water consumption for the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Poster presented at 10 January 2008 CAP LTER 10th Annual Poster Symposium, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. (link)

2007

Lee, S. J., R. C. Balling and P. Gober. 2007. A soft geostatistical application in urban climate research. Poster presented at the January 10, 2007 CAP LTER Ninth Annual Poster Symposium, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. (link)

2006

Balling, R. C. and G. B. Goodrich. 2006. Drought determinations for the Colorado River Basin. Poster presented at the 8th Annual Central Arizona — Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) Poster Symposium, Tempe, AZ. January 19, 2006. (link)

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Presentations

2009

Svoma, B. M. and R. C. Balling. 2009. An anthropogenic signal in Phoenix, Arizona winter precipitation. Presented January 12, 2009 at the Eighth Symposium on the Urban Environment and 89th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona.

Svoma, B. M. and R. C. Balling. 2009. An anthropogenic signal in Phoenix, Arizona winter precipitation. Presented March 25, 2009 at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, Nevada.

2008

Balling, R. C., P. Gober and T. Jones. 2008. Sensitivity of residential water consumption to variations in climate: An intra-urban analysis of Phoenix, Arizona. Presented at the September 2008 18th International Congress of Biometeorology, Tokyo, Japan.

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