Tag Archives: lawsuit

Help fight against JCU attack on scientific enquiry and advancement of knowledge

Posted on September 22, 2019 | Comments Off

Great Barrier Reef scientist Peter Ridd is heading back to court. Astoundingly, John Cook University (JCU) has appealed the verdict ruled against them in court last month for firing Ridd and which awarded him $1.2 million in damages, in part for JCU’s appallingly behaviour. Peter is asking for additional funds to mount a defense to take this fight to the highest court in Australia. I have made my donation and on his behalf, I ask readers to support this important issue if they are able.

peter-ridd-m

This sort of attack on professional scholars who legitimately challenge the work of their colleagues – just because the questions pertain to the topic of human-caused climate change – must stop. Such stifling of academic freedom by universities goes against the very essence of scientific inquiry and advancement of knowledge. I’ve had my share of it and it stinks.

Please help if you can: https://www.gofundme.com/f/peter-ridd-legal-action-fund

From Peter Ridd this morning on his academic freedom/free speech lawsuit against with his former employer, John Cook University: Continue reading

Comments Off on Help fight against JCU attack on scientific enquiry and advancement of knowledge

Posted in academic freedom, Advocacy

Tagged advancement of knowledge, fired, integrity, JCU, John Cook University, lawsuit, Peter Ridd, science

Blacklist by Nature follows defamation by BioScience: journals reject ethics of science

Posted on August 17, 2019 | Comments Off

Along with hundreds of other people – 385 to be exact – I have been blacklisted [#181] by the science journal Nature Communications in a recently-published abysmal paper by three authors from University of California Merced, after I and a number of others were publicly defamed by a squadron of authors in a similarly-stupid paper less than two years ago in the general interest journal BioScience. This obsession that scientists-with-a-message have about silencing peers with other viewpoints (rather than constructing and communicating a winning argument themselves) is vile and utterly counter to what real science is about. Not surprisingly, they positively fawn over media stars like Al Gore and Greta Thunberg who have no science background but willingly repeat the accepted message of climate-change-doom.

Stupidest paper ever final

Data from a new study by Professor @LeroyWesterling published in @NatureComms shows that about half the mainstream media visibility about #climatechange goes to climate-change deniers, many of whom are not climate scientists. https://t.co/lgsrcO9Ajo pic.twitter.com/PtyqJurCZZ

— UC Merced (@ucmerced) August 14, 2019

Now we have two stupid papers that purport to uphold the sanctity of one particular view of climate change: the Harvey et al. “absolutely the stupidest paper I have ever seen published” (Curry 2017) – which we all truly thought could not be matched – and now the Petersen et al. “worst paper published in a reputable journal” (Curry, 2019).

Judith Curry: “Apart from the rank stupidity of this article and the irresponsibility of Nature in publishing this, this paper does substantial harm to climate science.”

Jo Nova: “Skeptics get banned, rejected, blocked and sacked from the mainstream media yet somehow Nature has a paper on Skeptics getting too much media. Believers don’t have to be an expert to control the news agenda, just a Greenpeace activist, or a teenage girl. Skeptics on the other hand, can be Nobel Prize winners, but the BBC won’t even phone them.”

UPDATE 18 Aug. 2019: Additional commentary on this new paper (new or previously overlooked in my initial story); do cruise the comments, some additional gems of analysis there:

Visibility and Invisibility (15 Aug 2019)

A thin bench (15 Aug 2019)

Nature Defamation (16 Aug 2019)

The Nature Communications hate list – a fast-moving story (17 Aug 2019)

Inside The Sausage Factory 18 Aug 2019

ADDED 20 Aug 2019: See this scathing letter to the Editor of Nature Communications by President of the National Association of Scholars, Peter Wood. (15 Aug 2019). In part, he states:

“Nature Communications has published an article which forwards the technology of censorship in pursuit of political activism, but which does not even pretend to forward scientific knowledge.”
Continue reading

Comments Off on Blacklist by Nature follows defamation by BioScience: journals reject ethics of science

Posted in Advocacy, Scientists hit back

Tagged blacklist, censor, climate change, contrarians, deniers, Greta, lawsuit, media, peer-review, Petersen

BioScience pushback update and plea for a virtual beer

Posted on February 4, 2018 | Comments Off

Writing this blog takes a lot of time and effort but it gives me immense personal and professional satisfaction. I get emails from readers all over the world saying how much they appreciate what I do for science. The fact that my colleagues felt threatened enough to publish a malicious hit piece attacking my scientific credibility tells me I’m reaching a wide and influential audience that are convinced by the science I present. Crockford and Polar bear_0245 sm

My books are getting good reviews. I discount the few Harvey et al. supporters that showed up in the days after the BioScience paper appeared in late November to write some Harveyesque comments in the Amazon review section for my Polar Bear Facts & Myths kids’ science book. A thuggish stunt but predictable given the nasty tone of the paper.

I’m not worried, though: book sales over the last couple of months have been very good, even though my university didn’t issue a press release to promote my kids book like Penn State did today for Harvey et al. co-author Michael Mann. I know that folks will head to Polar Bear Facts & Myths for a child-appropriate science book about polar bears, and to Mann’s Tantrum book if they want their kids to be petulant activists before they finish elementary school.

You might be interested to know I’ve decided not to take legal action against the Harvey cabal responsible for the defamatory BioScience paper. I’m not backing down. I will definitely be pushing back (already started) but doing so will take time away from my paid work.

So if you’d like to buy me a virtual beer to help defray costs, it would be much appreciated. I’ll keep you posted on progress. My new donate button is upper right on the sidebar: “Support Polar Bear Science” — it takes credit cards or PayPal.

Cheers!

Comments Off on BioScience pushback update and plea for a virtual beer

Posted in donations, Scientists hit back

Tagged children's book, defamation, donations, facts, lawsuit, legal action, polar bear, science, support, tantrum

No proof walrus are “struggling from the loss of sea ice” as new Earthjustice lawsuit claims

Posted on November 10, 2014 | Comments Off

A new day, a new lawsuit by environmentalists: this time, the species-on-a-pedestal is the same population of Chukchi Sea walrus that generated a news frenzy last month, which apparently still has legs.