Shameful Day For Australian Universities–Andrew Bolt
May 22, 2018
By Paul Homewood
h/t Stewgreen
https://twitter.com/theboltreport/status/998508795385933824
Andrew Bolt has an excellent piece on the Peter Ridd sacking, well worth a watch.
As well as the specific issue here, he highlights that this is part of a much wider trend in Australian universities, recalling the sacking of Bob Carter for daring to question global warming dogma.
He could also have mentioned Murry Salby.
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Wasn’t Murray Salby sacked while on overseas business…and they cancelled his return air ticket to boot?! Truly vindictive nastiness, that. Entirely in-keeping with our Lefty friends.
Indeed. The ugly affair with Professor Murry Selby is laid out here:
https://mlsxmq.wixsite.com/salby-macquarie
Professor Peter Ridd seems to have been likewise executed by the academic Bolsheviks in Australia.
The good news is that he crowd funded his legal team to take on the university in rapid time:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/05/18/climate-skeptic-professor-peter-ridd-fired-for-his-views-by-james-cook-university-jcu/
Another consultation that needs some serious statistical debunking:
https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/clean-air-strategy-consultation/supporting_documents/Clean%20Air%20Strategy%202018%20Consultation.pdf
We need an Andrew Bolt for British television although, clearly, he/she won’t get a contract from the BBC!
Any suggestions?
Andrew Neil is the nearest we’ve got.
This action by JCU is an absolute outrage. The University has opened itself up to further international ridicule for these egregious and repeated efforts to silence Professors doing their job. They would rather pursue grants at the expense of the truth and well meaning staff.
Universities are more like businesses these days. Fail to sing from the corporate hymn sheet and you’re out.
Interesting that the university is not challenging what he says so much as the fact that he has said it.
Jennifer Marohasy says on her site: “The university has never challenged the veracity of Peter’s legitimate claims about the quality of much of the reef science …” The general thrust of their criticism is that what he says is “unhelpful”.
This is by no means the first time that this criticism has been levelled at “wayward” scientists, one of the prime examples dates back to 2009 when polar bears were still the global warming “poster child”.
Booker reported on the treatment of Mitchell Taylor here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5664069/Polar-bear-expert-barred-by-global-warmists.html
Dr Taylor was due to attend a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group in the run-up to Copenhagen but was vetoed by its members because of his views on global warming.
“The chairman, Dr Andy Derocher, a former university pupil of Dr Taylor’s, frankly explained in an email … that his rejection had nothing to do with his undoubted expertise on polar bears: ‘it was the position you’ve taken on global warming that brought opposition’.
Dr Taylor was told that his views running ‘counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful’”.
His signing of the Manhattan Declaration, he was told, was “inconsistent with the position taken by the PBSG”.
I remember reading the story at the time and commenting somewhere that science had reached its nadir when your colleagues admitted, at least by implication, that you knew what you were talking about but that they weren’t about to let you speak because what you believed was “unhelpful”.
The extended implication was that whether or not the PBSG knew what it was talking about, presenting a united front on global warming was more important than admitting the truth, namely that climate change was an irrelevance as far as the polar bears were concerned.
Nine years later, damn all has changed. For Mitchell Taylor read Susan Crockford (or in the current context Peter Ridd). The mendacity continues!
Reblogged this on UPPER SONACHAN WIND FARM and commented:
The truth can only be ‘buried’ or discussion and opinions gagged for so long……
Some of JCU’S recent Barrier Reef research has been rather dodgy according to this article.
“JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY DRAGGED INTO GLOBAL RESEARCH SCANDAL.”
by Graham Lloyd, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR (The Australian Newspaper, May 12, 2018
“James Cook University has been dragged into a global research misconduct scandal involving a former student, ocean plastics, predatory lionfish and missing data.
Scientific practices at the university’s Lizard Island research facility have been put in the international spotlight and JCU said it was establishing an external panel of experts to investigate.
At the centre of the scandal is work by former student Oona Lonnstedt, who was last year found guilty of fabricating data underpinning a 2016 paper in the journal Science after leaving JCU.
The findings triggered questions over where and how such a young researcher had learned to fabricate data. According to The Times of London, Dr Lonnstedt completed her undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees at James Cook University.
In February, another journal, Biology Letters, issued an “expression of concern” about 2014 research conducted by Dr Lonnstedt while at JCU about lionfish.
“Subsequent to publication of ‘Lionfish predators used flared fin displays to initiate co-operative hunting’ (published June 25, 2014), it has been brought to the attention of the editorial team that there are concerns regarding the validity of the data used in the study,” the journal said.
Biology Letters said it was investigating a discrepancy in the number of lionfish obtained by Dr Lonnstedt at her research facility on Lizard Island and the dozens of specimens supposedly used in her experiments. Editor-in-chief Richard Battarbee said readers would be notified of the results as soon as possible.
JCU told The Times the university was “in the process of convening an external panel to investigate her (Dr Lonnstedt’s) research”. “JCU is committed to the highest standards of ethical research,” a spokesman said.
The scandal has come to a head as the federal government announced $500 million in extra funding for the Great Barrier Reef in this week’s budget.
JCU is also involved in a high-profile Federal Court action with marine physicist Peter Ridd, who has called for better quality assurance of marine science research.
Professor Ridd told The Weekend Australian the Lonnstedt case was “just another somewhat more spectacular example of the failure of the quality systems that we use in science which rely almost entirely on peer review”.
Investigation into Dr Lonnstedt’s research started when two marine biologists asked why original data had not been included in research that found European perch larvae were becoming stunted because they preferred minute fragments of plastic to the tiny shrimp that composed their natural diet.
Dr Lonnstedt and senior researcher Peter Eklov, both of Uppsala University, claimed to have lost their only copy of the data when a laptop was stolen. According to The Times, investigations in five countries raised more questions. Investigations by Sweden’s Central Ethical Review Board led to the paper’s retraction, while a follow-up inquiry by Uppsala found the pair guilty of research misconduct. A spokesman said JCU was continuing its investigation into research conducted by Dr Lonnstedt.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/james-cook-university-dragged-into-global-research-scandal/news-story/c4157b4961cf772e1f3aa3935520fc92
The death of “academic freedom” and the re-institution of the “Spanish Inquisition.”
What’s even more remarkable is the total lack of evidence that unusual warming of the sea surface temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef ever took place…
https://seatemperature.info/great-barrier-reef-water-temperature.html
To the global climate change crowd, you are just being picky.
Yes, Joan… it’s called “cherry-picky”? That’s the usual response from the alarmed “enlightened”. After that? “in denial”?
The AGW myth perpetuates global mainstream politics and academic institutions such as JCU are fully on board. Those who rock the boat are thrown overboard.
More worryingly this is another example of the establishment attempting to silence dissent and therefore debate. So much for free speech and democracy!
Andrew Bolt, still one of the best and always was and will be.
Well said Andrew, I wholeheartedly concur, every word of it, Sir.
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
SCIENTIFIC Marxism. The totalitarians at JCU destroying the meaning and value of ‘science’ in the name of global warming groupthink and government grants.