Ian Clark

 Credentials

According to the NRSP, Clark completed his graduate studies at the University of Waterloo and at the Université de Paris Sud (Orsay) in isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology. [6]

 Background

Clark is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa.

He was a  Science Advisor to the skeptical Natural Resources Stewardship Project, and is a  "scientist on call" to the Competetive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

He has been referred to as an "Arctic specialist" by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. [5]

Stance on Climate Change

"I am compelled to disagree that there is a consensus of scientists who agree that this [climate change] is the consequence of human activities. While the melting of permafrost, retreat of glaciers and waning of the permanent ice pack may be alarming, it is only alarming to those unfamiliar with past changes in climate in the North. Paleoclimatologists recognize such events as part of natural changes wholly unrelated to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. In fact, the waxing and waning of ice shelves, along with glaciers, ice caps and pack ice are largely related to changes in solar inputs." [2]

Key Quotes

"Solar activity of the last hundred years, over the last several hundred years correlates very nicely on a decadal basis, with sea ice and Arctic temperatures." [8]

Key Deeds

March 8, 2007

Clark appeared in The Great Global Warming Swindle as an "expert in palaeoclimatology," and claimed that the climate started warming "800 years before rises in carbon dioxide levels." [7]

The Great Global Warming Swindle also starred the infamous climate change denier Tim Ball and other notable skeptics including Roy Spencer, Fred Singer, Pat Michaels and numerous others.

February, 2007

Clark was on the "writing team" for the Fraser Institute's 2007 independent summary for policymakers (ISPM).

The ISPM's conclusion is that "there will remain an unavoidable element of uncertainty as to the extent that humans are contributing to future climate change, and indeed whether or not such change is a good or bad thing." [9]

Other authors included well known global warming skeptics such as Joseph D'aleo, Madhav Khandekar, William Kininmonth, Christopher Essex, Wibjorn Karlen, and Tad Murty.

December 12th, 2007

Clark signed an open letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations alleging that that the "UN climate conference taking the World in entirely the wrong direction." [4]

 Affiliations

• The Natural Resources Stewardship Project  (NRSP) — Past Scientific Advisory Board member.

The NRSP no longer appears to be in operation and their website was taken down in March, 2008.

• The Fraser Institute — Co-author of the Fraser Institute's 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers (ISPM).

• Competetive Enterprise Institute (CEI) — Clark is listed by the Competetive Enterprise Institute (CEI) as an "Arctic specialist" and media contact. ExxonSecrets also lists Clark as a "scientist on call" for CEI.

• The Heartland Institute — "Expert."

 Publications

A search of 22,000 academic journals shows that Clark has published over 45 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, mainly on the subject of hyrogeology and geochemistry.

Clark recently co-authored Critical Topics in Global Warming which was published by the Fraser Institute in 2009. The paper, edited by Ross McKitrick, advertises the ISPM as a credible scientific source and goes on to describe how the "causes and consequences of global warming are more fiction than fact."

 Resources

1. ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Ian Clark.

2. "Letter to the editor of The Hill Times," The Natural Resources Stewardship Project, March 22, 2004. Archived February 10, 2009.

3. "Deniers:Scientists:Ian Clark," ExxonSecrets Wiki.

4. "Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations,"  
   Science and Public Policy Institute, December 13, 2007.  

5. "Are Global Warming Disasters Really on the Way?" The Competetive Enterprise Institute, May 12, 2004.

6. "NRSP People: Dr. Ian Clark," The Natural Resources Stewardship Project. Archived January 20, 2009.

7. "Greenhouse effect is a myth, say scientists," Daily Mail Online, March 5, 2007.

8. Martin Durkin (director). The Great Global Warming Swindle (Documentary). WAGtv Ltd. for Channel 4 (March 8, 2007). 00:35:38-00:35:47. 

9. "Independent Summary for Policymakers: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report" (PDF), The Fraser Institute, March 2, 2007.

10. Joseph D'Aleo, Olavi Kärner, Richard C. Willson, and Ian Clark. "Solar Changes and the Climate" (PDF, Supplementary Analysis of the Independent Summary for Policymakers), The Fraser Institute.

11. "Ian Clark (geologist)," Wikipedia.