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Dr. Tim Ball Defeats Michael ‘Hockey Stick' Mann's Climate Lawsuit
 [ClimateChangeDispatch] The Supreme Court of British Columbia has dismissed Dr. Michael Mann's defamation lawsuit against skeptical Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball. Full legal costs were awarded to Dr. Ball, the defendant in the case.
Mann's "hockey stick" graph, first published in 1998, was featured prominently in the U.N. IPCC 2001 climate report. The graph showed a spike in global average temperature in the 20th Century after about 500 years of stability. Skeptics have long claimed Mann's graph was fraudulent. On Friday morning (August 23, 2019) Dr. Ball sent an email to WUWT revealing: "Michael Mann's Case Against Me Was Dismissed This Morning By The BC Supreme Court And They Awarded Me [Court] Costs." Professor Mann is a climate professor at Penn State University. Mann filed his action in 2010 for Ball's allegedly libelous statement that Mann "belongs in the state pen, not Penn State." The final court ruling, in effect, vindicates Ball's criticisms. On Feb. 03, 2010, a self-serving and superficial academic ‘investigation‘ by Pennsylvania State University had cleared Mann of misconduct. Mann also falsely claimed the NAS found nothing untoward with his work. But the burden of proof in a court of law is higher. Not only did the B.C. Supreme Court grant Ball's application for dismissal of the nine-year, multi-million dollar lawsuit, it also took the additional step of awarding full legal costs to Ball. A more detailed public statement from the world-renowned skeptical climatologist is expected in due course. This extraordinary outcome will likely trigger severe legal repercussions for Dr. Mann in the U.S. and may prove fatal to alarmist climate science claims that modern temperatures are "unprecedented." According to the leftist The Guardian newspaper (Feb. 09, 2010), the wider importance of Mann's graph over the last 20 years is massive: "Although it was intended as an icon of global warming, the hockey stick has become something else – a symbol of the conflict between mainstream climate scientists and their critics." Under court rules, Mann's legal team have up to 30 days to file an appeal. For readers interested in accessing the court website directly, use this link. ‘HOCKEY STICK' DISCREDITED BY STATISTICIANS IN 2003 In 2003 a Canadian study showed the "hockey stick" curve "is primarily an artifact of poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components." When the data was corrected it showed a warm period in the 15th Century that exceeded the warmth of the 20th Century. So, the graph was junk science. But the big question then became: did Mann intentionally falsify his graph from motivation to make a profit and/or cause harm (i.e. commit the five elements of criminal fraud)? No one could answer that question unless Mann surrendered his numbers. He was never going to do that voluntarily – or face severe consequences for not doing so – that is, until Dr. Ball came into the picture! Dr Ball's legal team adroitly pursued the ‘truth defense' such that the case boiled down to whether Ball's words ("belongs in the state pen, not Penn State") fairly and accurately portrayed Mann i.e. Mann knowingly and criminally misrepresented his claims by using statistical fakery (see: ‘Mike's trick‘ below). In the pre-trial Discovery Process, the parties must give up key evidence in a reasonable fashion, that proves or disproves the Claim. Dr. Mann lost his case because he abused Discovery by refusing to honor the "concessions" he made to Ball in 2018 to finally show in open court his R2 regression numbers (Mann's math ‘working out') for his graph (see ‘update' at foot of article). Dr. Ball has always argued that those numbers‐if examined in open court‐would prove Mann was motivated to commit a criminal fraud. The graph first appeared in the UN IPCC 2001 Third Assessment Report (TAR) and has been an iconic image used ever since by environmentalists clamoring for urgent action on man-made global warming. The mainstream media has long acclaimed Mann as "a world-leading climate scientist" and last year was heralded as their champion to help dethrone "climate denier" President Trump. Posted by: Beavis 2019-08-25 |
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