Nigel Calder (Deceased)

Credentials

Although Calder has been employed as a “Science Writer,” he did not appear to have credentials as a scientist.¹

Background

Nigel Calder passed away in 2014. Calder served his apprenticeship as a science writer (not a scientist) on the original staff of the magazine New Scientist, and became its editor from 1962-66.²

Since 1996 Calder has worked as an independent author and television scriptwriter. He has helped produce numerous films, and he was the script consultant for “The Cloud Mystery” (2008), a 52-minute film that promotes the views of man-made climate change skeptic Henrik Svensmark.

Stance on Climate Change

1980

According to Vanity Fair, Calder was featured in The Book of Predictions, a tome that included contributions from “various experts and psychics.” According to the article, “British science journalist Nigel Calder wrote that, by 2000, ‘the much-advertised heating of the earth by the man-made carbon-dioxide “greenhouse” fails to occur; instead, there is renewed concern about cooling and an impending ice age’.”³

Key Quotes

“Governments are trying to achieve unanimity by stifling any scientist who disagrees [with man-made global warming theory]. Einstein could not have got funding under the present system.”⁴

“It’s likely that CO2 has some warming effect, but real proof of that hypothesis is tricky. You have to confirm by observation exactly how the CO2 changes the situation at different altitudes in the atmosphere and in different regions of the world. For example, CO2 is supposed to warm the upper air faster than the surface, but the measurements don’t show that happening. When the CO2 effect is eventually pinned down, it will probably turn out to be weaker and much less worrisome than predicted by the global warming theorists.”⁵

“Few things annoy me more than to hear people talking about carbon dioxide being a pollutant. You’re made of carbon dioxide, I’m made of carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide is how living things grow”⁶

Key Deeds

2008

Script consultant for “The Cloud Mystery” (2008), a 52-minute film that promotes the views of man-made climate change skeptic Henrik Svensmark.

March 8, 2007

Calder appeared in The Great Global Warming Swindle documentary, introduced as the “former editor” of New Scientist magazine.

Affiliations

Henrik Svensmark — Calder is a proponent of Svensmark’s theories on climate change, and Svensmark co-authored the Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change.⁷

@Bignig2 on Twitter.

Publications

Nigel Calder’s only publications in the area of climate appear to have been in the journal Energy & Environment (E & E) such as:

Nigel Calder. “The Carbon Dioxide Thermometer and the Cause of Global Warming.” Energy & Environment, Volume 10, Number 1 (January 1999).
Jarl Ahlbeck, Nigel Calder, Kirill Kondratyev. “Food for Thought: Continuing the Climate Science Debate.” Energy & Environment, Volume 11, Number 3 (May 2000).
Nigel Calder. “Global Warming : Blame the Sun,” presentation at CERN Lectures on Science and Society, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.

E&E is edited by climate change skeptic Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen and has been described (PDF) as a journal skeptics can go to when they are rejected by the mainstream peer-reviewed science publications. The journal received a great deal of controversy over a research paper published by Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon.

Books

Nigel Calder, The Manic Sun: Weather Theories Confounded. Pilkington Press (April 1997).

The Manic Sun is about Henrik Svensmark‘s theory about solar contributions to global warming.

Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change. Penguin; 1 edition (April 3 2007).

Other Resources

“Nigel Calder,” Biography at Penguin Books.
“Nigel Calder in the Times,” RealClimate, February 12, 2007.
“An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change,” The Sunday Times, February 11, 2007. Archived February 6, 2009.
“Nigel Calder,” Wikipedia.