In an extremely worrying development, we can add Nick Drapela’s name to the list of skeptics fired for the heresy of speaking out. This email from Gordon Fulks came around today, and I want to spread the message. I have written before about the scientist of upstanding integrity and action that is Art Robinson — When he ran for Congress, three of his children doing PhD’s were targeted at OSU. The details of Joshua, Bethany and Matthews work are described on the Oregon State Outrage blog. These exemplary students were close to finishing their work towards PhD degrees in nuclear engineering when all three suddenly faced major obstacles and the likelihood of losing all their work to date. (See the Outrage blog for updates).
But the outrageous behaviour continues. Legal action may not be the answer (In Robinson’s case the Uni apparently wants them to sue, so it will be obliged to have “no comment” while OSU would get taxpayer funds to extend the case at length.) What we need is facebook, twitter, letters and emails – a campaign to let the State of Oregon (and especially university donors) know their university has regressed to a feudal religious institute — Jo
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Gordon Fulks writes:
Hello Everyone,
In theory at least Oregon State University (OSU) seems to be a bastion of academic freedom, diversity, and tolerance. A wide range of ideas are openly discussed. The most viable rise to the top and the least viable fade away. But it is all a fairy tale, because OSU operates under a politically correct regimen that dictates what is acceptable to say and what is not. Transgressors who dare to be different are eventually weeded out so that the campus maintains its ideological purity.
OSU is not yet as swift or efficient as the Soviet system when Joseph Stalin was trying to quash dissent among biologists who refused to go along with Trofim Lysenko. If warnings to compromise their integrity were not followed, Stalin simply had biologists shot. That quickly thinned the ranks of all biologists and persuaded the remaining ones to comply with Stalin’s wishes. Of course, it also destroyed Soviet biology, because Lysenko was pedaling nonsense. And Russian biology has never recovered.
We learned over the weekend that chemist Nickolas Drapela, PhD has been summarily fired from his position as a “Senior Instructor” in the Department of Chemistry. The department chairman Richard Carter told him that he was fired but would not provide any reason. Subsequent attempts to extract a reason from the OSU administration have been stonewalled. Drapela appears to have been highly competent and well-liked by his students. Some have even taken up the fight to have him reinstated.
What could possibly have provoked the OSU administration to take precipitous action against one of their academics who has been on their staff for ten years, just bought a house in Corvallis, and has four young children (one with severe medical problems)? Dr. Drapela is an outspoken critic of the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming, the official religion of the State of Oregon, the Oregon Democratic Party, and Governor John Kitzhaber.
Five years ago, Oregon State Climatologist George Taylor went around quietly saying that he was not a believer. Then Governor Ted Kulongoski and many faculty at OSU including Dr. Jane Lubchenco made life impossible for Taylor, and he retired. (Lubchenco is now head of NOAA in the Obama administration.) Under those currently in charge, OSU climate research has grown to be a huge business, reportedly $90 million per year with no real deliverables beyond solid academic support for climate hysteria. A small army of researchers ponder the effects of Global Warming on all sorts of things from tube worms living along the Oregon Coast to butterflies inland. When the climate refuses to warm (as it has for the last twenty years), they just study ‘warming in reverse!’ Most of us call that “cooling,” but they are very careful not to upset their Obama administration contract monitors with politically incorrect terminology.
Skeptics of Global Warming who oppose the OSU approach and oppose the politicians who make it all possible but do not work for OSU also find themselves attacked. Dr. Art Robinson who is running against Peter DeFazio for an Oregon Congressional seat found three of his children under attack at OSU. All were attempting to obtain advanced degrees in the Nuclear Engineering Department and were threatened with dismissal. Because Robinson fought back, we understand that the OSU administration backed down.
As to the latest victim of political correctness at OSU, Dr. Nickolas Drapela gives us an excellent synopsis of what is going on:
“The fact of the matter is that it is now two weeks since I was fired and no one has had the cajones or the common courtesy to even tell me why. I have spoken with the Dept. Chair (Rich Carter) who fired me, and he refused to tell me why. I spoke to the Dean of Science (Vince Remcho) and he couldn’t tell me why. I spoke to HR who set up a meeting with me, then cancelled it an hour before. Then I went to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (Becky Warner) and she sent me back to Rich Carter, the chemistry chair.
It’s just a sad, sad state of affairs that an institution like OSU would fire a good employee for (ostensibly) no reason and then run around and hide from the person they fired. I had stellar teaching evaluations, I won College of Science awards for teaching, and published textbooks. My class sections were always full and I was well-liked by students (see ratemyprofessors.com). I was doing my job very well. But I guess I didn’t march in step with their philosophies.
There were quite a few student protests over this at OSU (Barometer, Facebook, etc.) but to no avail.
I was given no severance and had no warning this was about to happen. In fact, I was lured into the chair’s office under the guise of a fallacious story before being fired.
As you know, I was probably the most visibly-outspoken critic of the Global Warming doctrine at OSU. I gave several public talks on the topic and did research in the area which I regularly posted on the web. I was also on a few talk radio shows in the area. I think they finally just said, we can’t have this.
Can it be that a university whose motto is “Open minds. Open doors” cannot abide even one faculty member who disagrees with their dogma? I suppose I am too naive, but I’m still reeling from it. Unbelievable.
I should say that they regularly read all my email communications, which is why I am writing from this private email address. That has been going on for quite some time now.
As far as my options at this point, like I said I haven’t even really grasped what has just happened. I don’t know what I’m going to do, or what options I have yet. I’m sure OSU wants their story to be tight and perfectly identical among all administration before coming out with an official reason why I was fired, hence the long wait and refusal to speak to me.
I truly thank you for your concern, and I hope there is some recourse, even just for the sake of exposing what is happening at OSU.”
In a separate e-mail Drapela went on to say:
“Thanks so much for your support and your concern. That’s really nice. My students were all really upset about it. They started an email writing campaign to have me re-hired but I guess no one cares what they think.
I find that the people who want to keep things secret all the time are usually the people that have something to hide. It is certainly ok by me for you to disseminate this story. But I’m sure OSU would be horrified.
I’m not sure how I will support my family at this point. We just bought a house in Corvallis. I have four kids, one of whom has a rare, blood disorder and requires regular trips to Doernbecher’s Children’s Hospital for treatment. Now we will be without health insurance.”
We can only speculate as to how the decision to fire Drapela was made. Unlike the decision to force Taylor out (which came from the governor’s office), this decision was likely internal to OSU with the implicit backing of Governor Kitzhaber and NOAA administrator Lubchenco. I would suspect that Dr. Phil Mote (Director of their Climate Change Research Institute) had a hand in the decision, because he has previously been highly intolerant of those who oppose his ideas and could potentially threaten his business empire.
Please join with me in supporting Nick Drapela. Please join with me in supporting objective science, as well as academic freedom, diversity, and tolerance. The issues here go far beyond just Global Warming and strike at the very heart of who we are as scientists and Americans.
Gordon J. Fulks, PhD (Physics)
Corbett, Oregon USA
P.S. Please circulate this e-mail far and wide. The world needs to know what is going on here.
Related Posts:
- The moment to test what we-are-made-of, is here
- The truth shall make you free (Art Robinson writes about the essential humility of a scientist in the search for truth).
I think what I wrote in my play on the topic of the entrenched bullying, the group-think of the brainwashed, and the marginalising of dissenters is germane to this sad indictment of post modern science.
Artemidorus (Lewandowsky): If I may be so bold, Caesar, I suggest we must embark first and foremost on a concerted campaign to win the hearts and minds of these naive, yet ever so troublesome plebeians. We shall ask our friends, the Tribunes , to disseminate as much disinformation as possible through persuasive debates with like-minded patriots,in order to disarm the populace. Persuade them of the certainty of the science of the Soothsayers, frighten the masses with exaggerated tales of the catastrophes about to befall us, vilify this “Carbonis” in it’s every form no matter how innocuous it may really be! If any are so bold as to contradict our assertions, vilify and attack them without mercy, for they are traitors and must be silenced. Perhaps tattooing them with their vile conceit will suffice, to mark forever their treachery for all to see. Those who are employed must be marginalized in their place of work. Depriving them of their professional reputations and their livelihoods will cut them down to size more swiftly than any sword. Also, we must spread the creed through all the places of learning, persuading those teachers of a similar mind to present these facts to their students without question, discouraging wherever we can any abominations such as “analytical thought” or “inquiring minds”. Such thoughts and expressions of liberty are dangerous in the hands of these denizens of the lower depths! Without these measures, we cannot succeed in appeasing the wrath of the Gods. Exitus acta probat (The end justifies the means)!
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[…] Nova reports that Oregon State University has gone […]
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The basis of his termination was inevitable. The scientific evidence did not support his assertions. Thereby he did not represent science as it unfolded during the 90s concerning climate change/global warming which is evolutionary not radical or quantum. Research confirmed within the 2012 periods of peer reviewed releases sunk this fellows employments prospects incapable in staying updated.
Going over outdated science and refuted findings of the likes of Lindzen, Spencer and Christy only aided his demise at the University.
Ross J.
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“When the climate refuses to warm (as it has for the last twenty years), they just study ‘warming in reverse!’ Most of us call that “cooling,”
Wonderful piece of writing Jo. Just found you recently through the Fairdinkum Radio expose of the propagandist ABC’s phony debate show, “I can change your mind” on climate change.
I knew it would be propaganda, so I didn’t watch.
Another ABC propagandist piece from 2009, one of scores I’m sure http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2010/s2862588.htm
You know we can trust Four Corners because as they tell us, it is “Investigative journalism at its very best”. If they say it, it must be true. Right ?
The gist of that show – don’t go to anyone for counselling or mental health coaching that we don’t register (read bribe onto the Medicare gravy train….so we can control them, hah hah ! Works like a charm)
Anyone not registered might be a psychopath, like this guy we profile here.
Registration is how we protect the public from abuse. Keep your eye on the swinging watch now …
Back to “I can change your mind”, we could have identified the very NWO mole had we been present in the editing room, when the majority of the 2 hour interview with your husband ended up on the cutting room floor.
It certainly is true that “The time to test what we are made of, is here”
Humanity is truly insane. Here we are doing a repeat of the 1930’s, doing the same thing over again, and hoping for a different outcome.
Don’t people get it ? All it takes is everyone to look and see what is happening, then stand up all together, and end it !
Keep up the great work,
Trish
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OSU is behaving like all CAGW fanatics.
this is more in line with Agenda 21, but will post this update:
11 June: UK Telegraph: David Millward: Airlines urge EU to ditch carbon permit scheme
Airlines have appealed to the EU to ditch its aviation carbon trading scheme amid fears that it will trigger a trade war.
A number of countries, including Russia, China, the US and India have reacted furiously to the scheme, which will require all airlines flying to and from the EU to buy carbon permits…
Tony Tyler, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, described the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as an “obstacle to real progress”.
He added: “Certainly no airline – European or otherwise – should be a target for retaliation because European Governments are acting extra-territorially.”
The solution, he said, was for a global scheme to be agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, an arm of the United Nations.
Rounding on the EU, he continued: “Europe seems more committed to implementing its ETS unilaterally than to sincerely negotiating a multilateral agreement.
“For Europe’s international counterparts, it’s like being asked to negotiate with a gun to their head.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9323649/Airlines-urge-EU-to-ditch-carbon-permit-scheme.html
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still making it up as they go along, with the future of the world in the hands of WWF and Greenpeace! how did this happen?
12 June: BusinessGreen: Emissions trading scheme could be oversupplied until 2024
Report calls for tougher emissions targets and the permanent removal of permits to boost low carbon investment
A surplus of around 1.42 billion emission allowances is predicted by the end of the decade in a report prepared by the Oko-Insitut for campaign groups WWF and Greenpeace and published yesterday to coincide with a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg…
“The EU carbon market was designed to reward cleaner production, [but] the reality is it won’t cut pollution for at least the next decade,” said Joris den Blanken, climate policy director at Greenpeace EU. “This report proves we simply need deeper emission cuts, not just a short-term fix, if we want to keep rewarding green investments in Europe.”
The EU is considering plans to set aside permits from auctions in the next phase of the EU ETS, which runs from next year until 2020. However, under the proposals withheld credits would be returned at a later date and the overall emissions cap would not change…
Jason Anderson, head of European climate and energy at WWF’s European policy office, said a short-term set aside had to be complemented by other measures if it is to drive up carbon prices.
“The EU Commission’s upcoming proposal to backload or set-aside emission allowances must be accompanied with ideas to effectively cancel these allowances as soon as possible,” he added. “Member states must raise the overall adequacy of EU climate policies and adopt a higher target.”…
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2183454/emissions-trading-scheme-oversupplied-2024
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and this is but the tip of the carbon offset iceberg:
5 June: UK Telegraph: Jonathan Russell: Fraudsters turn to carbon credits, according to FSA
Carbon credits have emerged as the latest asset class being targeted by fraudsters intent on fleecing vulnerable investors
Figures obtained from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) revealed an explosion in companies fraudulently offering to deal in carbon credits – transferable certificates that allow companies to pollute. More than 100 companies have been reported to the watchdog over the past 12 months. The figure is up from just six prior to June last year.
The City watchdog has already published the names of 21 companies in its list of unauthorised firms. The list comes with the warning that some of the firms “knowingly run scams”.
The companies, including Green Carbon Solutions, Global Climate Agency and Carbon Credit International, have names designed to suggest probity. In fact many of them are run by individuals who used to operate boiler room scams selling shares to unsuspecting investors.
One company approached by The Telegraph, which does not appear on the FSA list, was offering “minimum returns” of 15pc per year and up to 30pc or 40pc returns were “quite possible”. The company was not authorised by the FSA.
Jonathan Phelan, head of unauthorised business for the FSA, said: “There has been a massive rise in referrals about carbon credit trading between last year and this…
The rise in scams around carbon credit is being seen by law enforcers at the FSA as proof that work they have been carrying out against boiler rooms and land-banking is paying off. However, as trading in carbon credits is not regulated by the FSA it makes cracking down on the market difficult.
While the FSA can name and shame companies it believes are operating scams it cannot act against them unless they are trading carbon credits as part of a collective investment scheme or a futures contract.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9312063/Fraudsters-turn-to-carbon-credits-according-to-FSA.html
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and the Coalition. LOL. “Australian” calls u a “moderate” if u go along with the CAGW scam!
12 June: Australian: Joe Kelly and Sid Maher: Moderate Libs wish for ETS consensus
KEY Liberal moderates have condemned the divisive political debate over Labor’s carbon tax, saying consensus on a lower carbon price would have served the national interest better.
While Tony Abbott insists the looming carbon tax will damage the economy, some Liberals are concerned at the intensity of the political debate and remain open to the concept of pricing carbon…
West Australian Liberal MP Mal Washer told The Australian the nation would have been better off if former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme had been implemented.
“I think if it was $10 a tonne, they would have got the public more on side,” he said. “That was roughly the price that was estimated to be in the original Rudd-Turnbull agreement if it had gone through. I think that would have been good for the country.
“But now we’ve got a price that’s more than double and that creates difficulty for everyone concerned, and that’s why my party is attacking them so strongly, because the price is just so high now.”…
Fellow West Australian moderate Judi Moylan said it would have been better if there had been a consensus in the parliament on tackling climate change. “I think we lost that opportunity for a consensus to do something about reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and moving towards cleaner energy sources,” she said…
Both MPs will leave parliament at the next election.
Former Liberal MP Judith Troeth, who was one of two senators to cross the floor to vote for the Rudd government’s ETS, told Sky News yesterday the former ETS was a more agreeable option than the current scheme.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-tax/moderate-libs-wish-for-ets-consensus/story-fndttws1-1226391632911
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See Agenda 21 – article below.
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more on the carbon (dioxide) credit fraudsters above, with legal threats silencing the Guardian!
8 June: Guardian: Tony Levene: A green investment that turned hazardous
An explosion in high-pressure selling of carbon credit schemes is exploiting green investors. Tony Levene reveals how one company has left buyers with losses of up to £50,000
Guardian Money can reveal how one City of London firm that specialised in selling carbon credits to private investors looks set to be liquidated in the high court at the end of this month.
The court will hear from the official receiver that the company, Tullett Brown, should be wound up on public interest grounds following the presentation of a petition by the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills. The firm is in provisional liquidation and its website has been taken down.
It will be unclear how much was invested in Tullett Brown, or how many investors have lost money, until after the court hearing on 29 June. But with many investing £10,000 or more, the total is likely to run to seven figures. It is understood that one investor alone put £50,000 into carbon credits via the firm. But there is little hope of any substantial recovery of funds…
***This week an elderly Guardian Money reader in Eastbourne, East Sussex, wrote to complain about having received “several pressured telephone calls to invest in one form or another in the certificates”. Why, he wondered, has the Guardian not warned readers about these calls?
The answer, in the case of Tullett Brown, is simple. The firm employed firms of lawyers to gag the Guardian and, subsequently, other media. One firm threatened a consumer website with “injunction proceedings” if it failed to remove a Tullett Brown story. A second threatened me (I’m a freelance journalist and former Money staffer) with personal libel proceedings for posting a warning on Twitter.
Tullett Brown initially specialised in landbanking, where investors are persuaded to buy agricultural land at often hugely inflated prices, before moving into carbon credits. Buyers are told they will make large – and often quick – profits…
A week later, I received a call from John Stone, who described himself as a senior spot trader at Tullett Brown. He told me the landbanking brochure was sent in error and promised me a new one. He explained how each credit was “sanctioned by a United Nations agency” and that the market was enormous. He could sell me a credit at £6.90 – undercutting, he claimed, JP Morgan, which wanted £7.50. My purchase, for some unexplained reason, would benefit indigenous people, “as a lot of energy would be sold back to the national grid”.
The next day, a second envelope arrived. It was another landbanking brochure…
With everyone keen to reduce their carbon footprint, carbon credit trading is a big, and legitimate, business – but small investors should steer clear, writes Rupert Jones. “Investing in carbon credits comes with great risk and is generally only suitable for the most experienced and savvy investors,” the FSA says…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/08/green-investment-turned-hazardous?newsfeed=true
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Well I don’t know about this, if a doctor started practising homeopathy in a hospital ordinarily devoted to using modern medical practise based on the medical science of the day then I would have thought the hospital perfectly within it’s rights to sack that person. You can’t have someone in an institution preaching their own wacky ideas that are unsupported by any research. That would be unethical surely?
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[…] More here. […]
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Last year some believers were suggesting the Government should medicate skeptics, this may be the next step.
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Because I regularly whip the piss out of Gordon “Faulks” in the comment sections of the newspapers her attempts to influence, I’ll delight in calling you out on your unsurprising inability to correctly spell his last name. Given the minute number of deniers you need to remain aware of, I’m astonished that you can’t get their goddamned names right, Joe.
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Thanks Jack. Fixed. I’m happy to give you such a thrill as a proof reader for the skeptics. And that’s Jo, not Joe. 🙂 Jo
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Oregon has at-will employment: either party can terminate without notice and without cause. However there are draconian anti-discrimination laws, so as long as the university does not tell him the reason, he can’t sue them.
I would apply FOI for any correspondence relating to him in the last year – may well find evidence of the real reason for dismissal and possible grounds for suing for discrimination.
Perhaps he can also write to his Republican congressman Greg Walden.
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How about they just do what Wattsup devotees advise in these situations. Grow a set of balls and deal with it. Just more on the same vein as tit for tat with death threat emails and Mann court cases. There’s no limit you can stoop to as the other side (that’s one you’re not on) is sub-human. So put the boot in and enjoy it. But don’t whinge.
The guys PPT was a bit scepto-alarmist though wasn’t it. Shrill – hysterical in fact. World Govt – weally.
If you can get the whole family especially when they’re crossing the road – 10 points – well they had it coming didn’t they?
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Hmm.. Economical became ecological – both “ECO”.
I’m so damn sick of these three letters..!
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So we now know how the “consensus” is policed. Ruthlessly.
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