If nothing else gives away the truth about climate alarmism, the propensity of its adherents to resort to denunciation, witch-hunting and lawfare in order to silence sceptics should remove all doubt.
Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann has launched (and lost) a series of vexatious court actions against his critics. Climate alarmists in the US argued for using anti-organised crime laws to prosecute doubters. Sceptics are vilified, smeared and sued.
These are not the actions of scientists. These are the actions of apparatchiks and despots.
One of their biggest victims in Australia has been Professor Peter Ridd. As already covered in the BFD, for daring to point out that claims about the threat of climate change to the Great Barrier Reef are alarmist nonsense with little basis in fact, Ridd was sacked from his position at Australia’s James Cook University. Ridd took his former employer to court and won.
But the university is determined to waste no end of taxpayers’ money in order to burn down the heretic.
Back in April, Judge Salvatore Vasta delivered a withering judgment against James Cook University, which he concluded had abused Peter Ridd from pillar to post. Before reading on, it is worth reviewing his criticisms of JCU, especially this one:
The manner in which JCU trawled through his emails, to try and find some more evidence of breaches of the Code of Conduct, was reprehensibly unfair to Professor Ridd, especially since he was entitled to write everything that he wrote.
And this:
It would seem that the only way in which Professor Ridd could potentially mitigate his loss is if there were a changing of the guard at the University and [Vice-Chancellor Sandra] Harding and [Provost Chris] Cocklin were no longer in their positions. There is no evidence this will happen any time soon.
This a shocking verdict on JCU. The judge is openly stating that its most senior management deserve to be sacked.
One might think the judgment’s 34-page flogging would be enough to see JCU lick its wounds, write some cheques and hope that the education minister, formerly Simon Birmingham and currently Dan Tehan, had not been paying too much attention to the disgraceful state of academic freedom on the North Queensland campus.
Which is not much different to most of the other campuses in Australia. The campuses where, for instance, anti-Semitic movements are not just allowed, but openly encouraged; or staff pursue spurious vendettas against students for years in the laughably-named “Human Rights Commission”. As is typical, JCU is pillaging the public purse to keep up its anti-science witch-hunt.
JCU […] is tapping what amounts to a bottomless pit of public money to mount an appeal. Professor Ridd isn’t so well-heeled, so must once again rattle the cup. At his fund-raising site he writes:
‘On hearing that JCU was appealing, Cheryl and I seriously considered just walking away. After all, why should I ask donors for $1.5M to fight a pointless battle that the State or Federal education ministers could settle with a phone call to JCU. $1.5M is a crazy amount that could be used for much better things.’
‘JCU will use its infinite financial resources – effectively government money – to appeal. They have hired three or four senior barristers, one of which we are told charges over $20K per day and between them must be over $40K per day.’
‘Last week JCU also stayed the judgement and capped my access to the compensation for legal fees.’
‘So I must very regretfully ask again for help. We need the best legal assistance to ensure a win. My fabulous legal team led by Stuart Wood AM QC has greatly discounted their costs so far. But appeals are horribly expensive and we need to be prepared to ultimately go to the High Court.’
https://quadrant.org.au
This is the absolute state of modern academia: vindictive apparatchiks wield state power and money in order to hunt down dissenters.
Trofim Lysenko must be laughing in Hell.