By Professor Doom
The whole “global warming” nonsense (hint: cooling is more credible) really is remarkable. Time and again when I bring this up with my low-information friends, I’m told (among other talking points to be sure) how scientists by and large agree the world is burning up into a cinder unless we do something about it right now. The fact that it’s been 20 straight years of being told the ice caps will be gone in 10 years unless we do something doesn’t seem to help things.
Anyway, the reason why scientists “agree” on global warming to any extent is because they are mostly employed by the government, at least indirectly in our higher education system. On many campuses, if you dispute the narrative, you’ll quickly find yourself off campus in short order, and the people kicking you off don’t see any problem in doing so even as they shout how they support freedom of expression.
These incidents never make the mainstream news, but allow me to highlight one:
Global
warming is blamed for pretty much everything bad that happens, of course, the
better to scare people into supporting it. The Great Barrier Reef, a massive
coral ecosystem near Australia certainly has its problems (like all coral
systems, and I rather suspect polluting the ocean is the main factor, but I
digress), but this one professor dared to dispute that global warming was the
issue.
(Incidentally, my favorite “it’s global
warming’s fault!” accusation concerned the die-off of horseshoe crabs, whose
populations have dropped off sharply recently. Although this 400 million year
old species has endured much hotter and much colder climates than today, global warming is still blamed for hurting them. It’s nuts.)
So, this professor disputes the latest
blame being laid on the latest nonsense. Was he professional about it?
“There is perhaps no
ecosystem on Earth better able to cope with rising temperatures than the Great
Barrier Reef,” Ridd wrote in the publication. “Irrespective of one’s views
about the role of carbon dioxide (CO2) in warming the climate, it is remarkable
that the Great Barrier Reef has become the ecosystem, more than almost all
others, that is used to illustrate and claim environmental disaster from the
modest warming we have seen over the course of the last century.”
Do note that he’s willing to concede
there’s been some warming. He also criticizes how the research is being done:
“I have highlighted just a
few examples of questionable science—the list is long,” Ridd continues, adding
that in his view, current scientific practices and institutions are
unreliable and in need of reform.
There is a huge, and I mean gargantuan
problem in “science” today, and I’m not just talking about pseudo-subjects like
gender studies, or qualitative subjects like psychology. Even “hard” sciences
like physics and chemistry have a reproducibility problem: the study can be
peer reviewed and published, but can’t be reproduced when someone else tries it. Well over half of peer reviewed studies do not get the same results
when someone else tries them.
Seriously, at this point, when you hear
the results of a scientific study, you may as well flip a coin to determine if
you should believe it.
So, the professor isn’t exactly saying
much here when he says what we’re doing in science is “unreliable”—flipping a
coin is as unreliable as it gets, and produces more reliable results today.
That’s demented.
His university responded as most
universities do when a professor disputes the narrative: they fired him. Yes,
he had those job “protections” you supposedly have as faculty, but they’re
worth very little when you try to work through the kangaroo campus court system.
The professor wisely takes his complaint
to court. How’d that work out?
In a judgment (pdf) issued on
Sept. 6, the Federal Circuit Court of Australia ruled to award Ridd “the
sum of 125,000 AUD [$82,000] by way of pecuniary penalty” plus “1,094,214.47
AUD [$750,397.39] as compensation for loss” that the former James Cook
University employee suffered at the hands of the educational institution.
While I’m happy for the professor, the
gentle reader should take little comfort in that that other universities will
start behaving—I’ve seen time and again that despite these kinds of judgments,
university “leaders” won’t change their ways. They don’t pay the price, you
see, the university does, and that usually just means the cost is passed on to
the taxpayers to pay for their continued supply of misinformation.
A quick overview of just how far off the
rails the university was in firing the professor:
In its decision, the Federal Circuit Court listed a total of 18 “contraventions” of legal acts that the university had in April been found guilty of, including imposing a gag order on Ridd “to keep the disciplinary process confidential;” trying to prevent him from making jokes about his ordeal by directing him to refrain from “make[ing] any comment or engag[ing] in any conduct that directly or indirectly trivialises, satires or parodies the University taking disciplinary action against [him];” and, finally, firing him.
To further reinforce the point about
how the leaders won’t learn anything from this:
“The fact that JCU has not removed either of their press statements (despite my judgement) is almost tantamount to an attempt to ensure that Professor Ridd does not obtain employment in this field,” Judge Vasta noted.
The judge further suggested the university’s conduct bordered on “paranoia and hysteria fuelled by systemic vindictiveness” and Ridd must have felt he was being persecuted.
The professor’s career in academia is
ruined, he’ll be basically unemployable, so the massive judgement is quite fair.
Meanwhile, the “leaders” of the university who have destroyed this man for
daring to question the narrative? They’ll continue to reap massive pay and
benefits, and I promise the gentle reader not a one of them will be fired for
their clear and documented transgression, and all will continue to rise up
through the ranks in the higher education system.
Honest, there’s a real reason why our
scientists agree to whatever the government wants them to say.
I'm afraid that the situation is worse than you describe. The climate-hysterics are furious that a truth-teller should use the law to stand up to their bullying, and are taking the judgement to appeal. All of Prof Ridd's compensation, including his legal costs from the original trial, have been blocked. So he is faced with the choice of walking away, destitute and defeated, or raising the money to take the case through the higher courts, which might take 1.5 million Australian Dollars. He has a go-fund-me at https://www.gofundme.com/f/peter-ridd-legal-action-fund . I would urge anyone who cares at all about rationality or justice to send him whatever they can spare.
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