Monday, November 17, 2008

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . . ?   [Chris Horner]

ICECAP.us received the following e-mail revealing how the folks at the University of Colorado, many of whom fought to deflect complaints about the hateful rantings of Ward Churchill as attacks on free speech and open academic inquiry, have failed to extend those same rights to one of their own scientific colleagues — at least, not one who might upset the global-warming gravy train.

 

The student wisely chooses to remain anonymous in reporting a professor openly asking his students to organize in protest of thought and speech of which the professor disapproves; of course, he’ll be watching.

 

If you aren’t someone who simply read that without blinking and asking yourself, why? (see “gravy train” above) and why do we accept such a state of affairs? then this book is for you.

 

Emphases below to passive, sneaky, or sniveling language are added. Read this, but also enjoy the unacceptable, must-be-muzzled slide show prompting an academic "investigative committee."

The following email was shared around to graduate students, from another graduate student, at the Atmospheric Sciences Dept at University of Colorado following a dustup over Dr. Richard Keen's "global warming quiz" which has been removed from the University website. The Dept has set up an investigative committee. So much for academic freedom. I wish to remain anonymous.

Hi all,

 As you may or may not be aware, there has recently been concern over
 inaccurate, partisan teaching in an ATOC 1050 class.  The material
 presented in the class seriously misrepresented scientific data, had a
 significant political slant, and has now made its way across various
 climate change related blogs.  The faculty requested the material be
 removed from the atoc server, as it was felt that by hosting the
 material this implied an endorsement by ATOC.  In response, the
 material is now hosted off site and there is now a link on the atoc
 server to this material:

 http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Globalwarmingquiz.pdf

 In my personal opinion, ATOC continues to implicitly endorse this
 material by continuing to allow the presentation of it in class and
 hosting it (now a link) on the atoc server.  By supporting bogus
 science and politically oriented teaching, I believe that:

 1) The reputation of a graduate degree from ATOC is diminished.
 2) Future graduate students who are motivated by the pursuit of
 objective science will be less likely to apply and accept offers of
 admission.

 Faculty members value academic freedom and are therefore justifiably
 hesitant to suppress views that run counter to the mainstream
 scientific consensus.  As such, I believe that the ATOC faculty are
 unclear on how to handle this.

 My suggestion is that ATOC create and enforce a policy of only
 teaching material from peer reviewed scientific sources.  I do not
 think this is too much to ask for a science department.  However, I am
 not sure that faculty members will endorse that suggestion due to
 their concerns over academic freedom.  If you, as graduate students,
 have any other suggestions, comments, or concerns, please let me know.
 I will compile thoughts, remove names, and forward them on to the
 faculty.  The faculty ultimately have the choice on how, or if, to
 respond - that's not our call.  However, I do think that if there was
 a strong consensus from graduate students on how to handle this, the
 faculty would take our opinion seriously.

Thanks,
 Matt

 —
 Matt Higgins
 Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
 Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
 University of Colorado - Boulder
 matthew.higgins@colorado.edu

Despite obviously not being limited by space considerations, the complainant offers few specifics of the alleged transgressions — except for a perceived political slant. Presumably, this concerns Keen's criticisms of Al Gore, whose wild-eyed claims have hysterically politicized the issue of climate change. [Thus, noting that politicization is to insert politics. Dialectics never flowed so smoothly.] Oddly enough, I don't recall Higgins' complaints about the misrepresentations of scientific fact in An Inconvenient Truth, the falsehoods in which have been laid bare in open court.

Once again, the real offense is refusing to go along with group-think and group-speak. The American academy: champion of free speech and open inquiry. As the great chronicler of climate change Thomas Jefferson noted, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

11/17 11:30 AMShare