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Ian Rutherford Plimer (born 12 February 1946) is an Australian
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alth ...
and professor emeritus at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
. He rejects the
scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...
. He has been criticised by
climate scientist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...
s for misinterpreting data and spreading misinformation. Plimer previously worked as a professor of
mining geology Mining geology is an applied science which combines the principles of economic geology and mining engineering to the development of a defined mineral resource. Mining geologists and engineers work to develop an identified ore deposit to economical ...
at the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
, and the director of multiple mineral exploration and mining companies, He has also been a critic of
creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
.


Early life and education

Ian Plimer grew up in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...
and attended
Normanhurst Boys High School Normanhurst Boys' High School (colloquially known as Normo) is an academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the suburb of , on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Consistently ranked as one of the ...
. He earned a
BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
(Hons) in
mining engineering Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...
at the
University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
in 1968, and a PhD in Geology at
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of ...
in 1976. His doctoral thesis (from 1973) was titled, ''The pipe deposits of tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth in eastern Australia''.


Career


Academia

Ian Plimer started as a tutor and senior tutor in earth sciences at Macquarie University from 1968 to 1973. After finishing his PhD, he became a lecturer in geology at the W.S. and L.B. Robinson University College of the University of New South Wales at Broken Hill from 1974 to 1979. Part of his work focused on the Broken Hill ore deposit—a large zinc-lead-silver mine in Australia. Plimer then went to work for North Broken Hill Ltd. between 1979 and 1982, becoming chief research geologist. Due to his publication of a number of academic papers, he was offered a job as senior lecturer in
economic geology Economic geology is concerned with earth materials that can be used for economic and/or industrial purposes. These materials include precious and base metals, nonmetallic minerals and construction-grade stone. Economic geology is a subdisciplin ...
at the University of New England in 1982. After two years, he left to become a professor and head of geology at the University of Newcastle through 1991. Plimer later served as professor and head of geology of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne from 1991 to 2005. He was conferred as professor emeritus of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne in 2005, and was a professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide. Plimer is a
fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...
of the
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) is a learned academy that helps Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems. It was founded in 1975 as one of Australia's then four learned academies (now five) ...
, the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. History The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...
; an honorary fellow of the
Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...
; a member of the
Geological Society of Australia The Geological Society of Australia (GSA) was established as a non-profit organisation in 1952 to promote, advance and support earth sciences in Australia. The founding Chairperson was Edwin Sherbon Hills. William Rowan Browne was a founder of th ...
, the
Royal Society of South Australia The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in rel ...
, and the
Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June 1 ...
. He co-edited the 2005 edition of ''Encyclopedia of Geology''.


Mining companies

Plimer is the former non-executive director of CBH Resources Limited from 1998 to 2010, former non-executive director of Angel Mining plc from 2003 to 2005, former director of Kimberley Metals Limited from 2008 to 2009, former director o
KBL Mining
Limited from 2008 to 2009 and former director of Ormil Energy Limited from 2010 to 2011. He is currently the non-executive deputy chairman of KEFI Minerals since 2006, independent non-executive director of Ivanhoe Australia Limited since 2007, chairman of TNT Mines Limited since 2010, non-executive director of Niuminco Group Limited (formerly DSF International Holdings Limited) since 2011, and non-executive director of Silver City Minerals Limited since 2011. Plimer was appointed director of Roy Hill Holdings and Queensland Coal Investments in 2012. According to a columnist in ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'', Plimer earned over $400,000 (
AUD The Australian dollar ( sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Isla ...
) from several of these companies, and he has mining shares and options worth hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars. Plimer has stated that his business interests do not affect the independence of his beliefs. He has also warned that the proposed Australian carbon-trading scheme could decimate the Australian mining industry.


Views on climate change

He is a member of the academic advisory council for
climate change denialist Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is Denial (Freud), denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is Attribution of recent climate change, caused by hum ...
pressure group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...
The
Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a charitable organization in the United Kingdom whose stated aims are to challenge what it calls "extremely damaging and harmful policies" envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global ...
, a member of Australians for Northern Development & Economic Vision (ANDEV), and was an allied expert for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project. Plimer rejects the
scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...
. He accuses the
environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advoc ...
of being irrational, and claims that the vast bulk of the scientific community, including most major scientific academies, is prejudiced by the prospect of research funding. He characterised the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as: "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 A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...
politics and says that extreme environmental changes are inevitable. Climatologists call his reasoning on climate change flawed, inaccurate and misleading and say he misrepresents their data.


Volcanoes and CO2

Plimer has said that volcanic eruptions release more carbon dioxide (CO2) than human activity; in particular that
submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...
es emit large amounts of CO2 and that the influence of the gases from these volcanoes on the Earth's climate is under-represented in
climate model Numerical climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the c ...
s. The
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States government. The scientists of the USGS study th ...
has calculated that human emissions of CO2 are about 130 times larger than volcanic emissions, including submarine emissions. The
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
(EPA) stated that Plimer's claim "has no factual basis." This was confirmed in a 2011 survey published in the
Eos In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home a ...
journal of the
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's acti ...
, which found that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are 135 times larger than those from all volcanoes on Earth.


''Heaven and Earth''

In 2009, Plimer released '' Heaven and Earth'', a book in which he says that
climate model Numerical climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the c ...
s focus too strongly on the effects of carbon dioxide, and do not give the weight he thinks is appropriate to other factors such as
solar variation The solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun's surfac ...
. The aim of the book is to belittle the impact of humans on Earth by clouting all the other science like a blunt instrument, as in Plimer's words "I wanted to kill an ant with a sledgehammer." Critics of the book have accused Plimer of misrepresenting sources, misusing data, and engaging in conspiracy theories. Some critics have also described the book as unscientific, and said that it contains numerous errors from which Plimer draws false conclusions.


Copenhagen Climate Challenge

During the
United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Parti ...
(COP15), Plimer spoke at a rival conference in Copenhagen for
climate change denier Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...
s, called the ''Copenhagen Climate Challenge'', which was organised by the '' Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow''. According to ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatewa ...
'' newspaper, Plimer was a star attraction of the two-day event. In closing his speech, Plimer stated that "They’ve got us outnumbered, but we’ve got them outgunned, and that’s with the truth."


El Niño, earthquakes and sea levels

Plimer has stated that
El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date Li ...
is caused by
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s and volcanic activity at the
mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a diver ...
s and that the melting of polar ice has nothing to do with man-made carbon dioxide. Plimer told
Radio Australia ABC Radio Australia, also known as Radio Australia, is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's public broadcaster. Most programming is in English, with some in Tok ...
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.


Political influence

In 2009, Plimer was cited by the leader of the
Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Austra ...
,
Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...
, in dismissing the IPCC and its findings. But by 2011, Abbott had modified his position and stated that climate change is real and humanity makes a contribution to it. In early 2010, Plimer toured Australia with British
climate change denier Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...
Christopher Monckton Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (born 14 February 1952) is a British public speaker and hereditary peer. He is known for his work as a journalist, Conservative political advisor, UKIP political candidate, and fo ...
, giving lectures on climate change, and Plimer's views came to be associated with Monckton's claim that the international left created the threat of catastrophic global warming. On this association, left-wing columnist
Phillip Adams Phillip Adams, Philip Adams, or Phil Adams may refer to: Sports * Phillip Adams (American football) (1988–2021), American football cornerback * Phillip Adams (sport shooter) (born 1945), Australian pistol shooter * Phil Adams (cricketer) (born 1 ...
commented: "Praise the lord for Lord Monckton! For Ian Plimer! For onservative columnistAndrew Bolt! Not only does this evil axis of scientists tell lies bout the Greenhouse Effectbut they've also doctored the weather to frighten people with huge droughts, cyclones and tsunamis to prove what they now call 'global warming'." Plimer's book ''Not for Greens'' expanded his view. Climate scientist Ian McHugh has refuted a number of the scientific claims in the book.


Opposition to creationism

Plimer is an outspoken critic of
creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
and is famous for a 1988 debate with creationist
Duane Gish Duane Tolbert Gish (February 17, 1921 – March 5, 2013) was an American biochemist and a prominent member of the creationist movement. A young Earth creationist, Gish was a former vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR ...
in which he asked his opponent to hold live electrical cables to prove that
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of ...
was 'only a theory'. Gish accused him of being theatrical, abusive and slanderous. In 1990 Plimer's anti-creationist behaviour was criticised in ''Creation/Evolution'' journal,Updated at TalkOrigins
/ref> in an article titled "How Not to Argue with Creationists" by
skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
and anti-creationist
Jim Lippard James Joseph Lippard (born 1965) is an American skeptic and activist freethinker.Lippard, Jim"Publications and Appearances"(bibliography)''discord.org''.Accessed July 13, 2009. Archived fro/ref> Lippard works for Global Crossing as its head of info ...
for (among other things) including false claims and errors, and "behaving poorly" in the 1988 Gish debate.


Book: ''Telling Lies for God''

In his book ''Telling Lies for God: Reason vs Creationism'' (1994), Plimer attacked creationists in Australia, in specific the Queensland-based ''Creation Science Foundation'' (now called ''
Creation Ministries International Creation Ministries International (CMI) is a non-profit organisation that promotes the pseudoscience of young earth creationism. It has branches in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United State ...
'' or ''CMI''), saying that claims of a Biblical global flood are untenable. In the book he also criticised aspects of traditional Christian belief and literal interpretations of the Bible, with chapters titled "Scientific Fraud: The Great Flood of Absurdities" and "Disinformation Doublespeak".


Court case

In the late 1990s, Plimer went to court alleging misleading and deceptive advertising under the
Trade Practices Act 1974 The ''Competition and Consumer Act 2010'' (CCA) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia. Prior to 1 January 2011, it was known as the ''Trade Practices Act 1974'' (TPA). The Act is the legislative vehicle for competition law in Australia, an ...
against
Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in t ...
searcher Allen Roberts, arising from Plimer's attacks on Roberts' claims concerning the location of Noah's Ark. Before the trial, Plimer was removed by police from public meetings at which Roberts spoke. The court ruled that Roberts' claims did not constitute trade or commerce, and so were not covered by the act. It found that Roberts had indeed made false and misleading claims on two of 16 instances cited by Plimer, Plimer had failed to show the other 14, and the two were minor enough to not require remedy. Plimer lost the case, and was ordered to pay his own and Roberts' legal costs estimated at over 500,000
Australian dollars The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island ...
.


Awards

* 1994 – Daley Prize, for communication of science,
Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...
* 1994 – Goldfields Prize, for best paper in Institution of Mining and Metallurgy * 1995 –
Eureka Prize The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organizations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion b ...
, for promotion of science, Australian Museum * 1995 – Australian Humanist of the Year, Humanist Society of New South Wales * 1998 – Leopold-von-Buch-Plakette, German Geological Society * 2001 –
Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or gov ...
,
Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
* 2002 – Eureka Prize, for best science book – ''A Short History of Planet Earth'', Australian Museum * 2004 –
Clarke Medal The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales, the oldest learned society in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, for distinguished work in the Natural sciences. The medal is named in honour of the Reverend William Branw ...
, Royal Society of New South Wales * 2005 –
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...
Award, for Mining Excellence * 2005 – Sir Willis Connolly Medal, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy * 2009 – 'Plimerite' a new
phosphate mineral Phosphate minerals contain the tetrahedrally coordinated phosphate (PO43−) anion along sometimes with arsenate (AsO43−) and vanadate (VO43−) substitutions, and chloride (Cl−), fluoride (F−), and hydroxide (OH−) anions that also fit i ...
named in honor of Plimer for his contributions to the geology of ore deposits, in particular the Broken Hill deposit.


Bibliography

*''Mineral collecting localities of the Broken Hill district'', Ian Plimer, Peacock Publications, Hyde Park, S.A., 1977 () * ''Telling lies for God – reason vs creationism'', Ian Plimer, Random House, Sydney, 1994 () * ''Minerals and rocks of the Broken Hill, White Cliffs and Tibooburra districts : a guide to the rocks and minerals of the Broken Hill district'', Ian Plimer, Peacock Publications, Norwood, S. Aust., 1994 () * ''A journey through stone : the Chillagoe story, the extraordinary history and geology of one of the richest mineral deposits in the world'', Ian Plimer, Reed Books, Kew, Vic., 1997 () * ''A short history of planet Earth'', Ian Plimer, ABC Books, 2001 () * '' Heaven and Earth'', Ian Plimer, Quartet Books (1 May 2009 hardcover ) and Taylor Trade Publishing, Lanham, MD, (July 2009 Paperback ) * ''Not for greens: he who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon'', Ian Pilmer, Connor Court Pub., Ballarat, Vic., 2014 ()


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plimer, Ian Australian geologists 1946 births University of New South Wales alumni Macquarie University alumni Non-fiction environmental writers University of Adelaide faculty Living people Australian sceptics University of New England (Australia) faculty University of Newcastle (Australia) faculty University of Melbourne faculty Fellows of the Geological Society of London Recipients of the Centenary Medal Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering