People send me stuff.
Just last week we heard that Dr. Robert Carter had been blackballed at his own university where he served as department chair, and now we have this from Dr. Murray Salby, sent via email.
Between John Cook, Stephan Lewandowsky, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, plus Mike Marriot and his idiotic ideas, I’m beginning to think Australia is ground zero for AGW crackpottery.
This email’s accusations (if true I have independent confirmation now, title changed to reflect this – Anthony) is quite something, it illustrates the disturbing lengths a university will go to suppress ideas they don’t agree with. So much for academic freedom at Macquarie University.
From: [redacted]
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 2:25 PM
To: [redacted]
Subject: From Murry Salby
Thanks for your interest in the research presented during my recent lecture tour in Europe.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/06/another-nail-in-the-climate-change-coffin.php
Remarks from several make it clear that Macquarie University
is comfortable with openly disclosing the state of affairs,
if not distorting them to its convenience. So be it.
Macquarie’s liberal disclosure makes continued reticence unfeasible.
In response to queries is the following, a matter of record:
1. In 2008, I was recruited from the US by “Macquarie University”,
with appointment as Professor, under a national employment contract with
regulatory oversight, and with written agreement that Macquarie would provide
specified resources to enable me to rebuild my research program in Australia.
Included was technical support to convert several hundred thousand lines of computer code,
comprising numerical models and analyses (the tools of my research),
to enable those computer programs to operate in Australia.
2. With those contractual arrangements, I relocated to Australia.
Upon attempting to rebuild my research program, Macquarie advised that
the resources it had agreed to provide were unavailable. I was given an excuse for why.
Half a year later, I was given another excuse. Then another.
Requests to release the committed resources were ignored.
3. Three years passed before Macquarie produced even the first major component
of the resources it had agreed to provide. After five years of cat-and-mouse,
Macquarie has continued to withhold the resources that it had committed.
As a result, my computer models and analyses remain inoperative.
4. A bright student from Russia came to Macquarie to work with me.
Macquarie required her to abandon her PhD scholarship in Russia.
Her PhD research, approved by Macquarie, relied upon the same computer
models and analyses, which Macquarie agreed to have converted but did not.
5. To remedy the situation, I petitioned Macquarie through several avenues provided
in my contract. Like other contractual provisions, those requests were ignored.
The provisions then required the discrepancy to be forwarded to the Australian employment tribunal,
the government body with regulatory oversight.
The tribunal then informed me that Macquarie had not even registered my contract.
Regulatory oversight, a statutory protection that Macquarie advised would govern
my appointment, was thereby circumvented. Macquarie’s failure to register
rendered my contract under the national employment system null and void.
6. During the protracted delay of resources, I eventually undertook the production
of a new book – all I could do without the committed resources to rebuild my research program.
The endeavor compelled me to gain a better understanding of greenhouse gases
and how they evolve. Preliminary findings from this study are familiar to many.
http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/speaker/murry-salby/ Refer to the vodcast of July 24, 2012.
Insight from this research contradicts many of the reckless claims surrounding greenhouse gases.
More than a few originate from staff at Macquarie, which benefits from such claims.
7. The preliminary findings seeded a comprehensive study of greenhouse gases.
Despite adverse circumstances, the wider study was recently completed. It indicates:
(i) Modern changes of atmospheric CO2 and methane are (contrary to popular belief)
not unprecedented.
(ii) The same physical law that governs ancient changes of atmospheric CO2 and methane
also governs modern changes.
These new findings are entirely consistent with the preliminary findings,
which evaluated the increase of 20th century CO2 from changes in native emission.
8. Under the resources Macquarie had agreed to provide, arrangements were made
to present this new research at a scientific conference and in a lecture series at
research centers in Europe.
9. Forms for research travel that were lodged with Macquarie included a description
of the findings. Presentation of our research was then blocked by Macquarie.
The obstruction was imposed after arrangements had been made at several venues
(arranged then to conform to other restrictions imposed by Macquarie).
Macquarie’s intervention would have silenced the release of our research.
10. Following the obstruction of research communication, as well as my earlier efforts
to obtain compliance with my contract, Macquarie modified my professional duties.
My role was then reduced to that of a student teaching assistant: Marking student papers
for other staff – junior staff.
I objected, pursuant to my appointment and provisions of my contract.
11. In February 2013, Macquarie then accused me of “misconduct”,
cancelling my salary. It blocked access to my office, computer resources,
even to personal equipment I had transferred from the US.
My Russian student was prohibited from speaking with me.
She was isolated – left without competent supervision
and the resources necessary to complete her PhD investigation,
research that Macquarie approved when it lured her from Russia.
12. Obligations to present our new research on greenhouse gases (previously arranged),
had to be fulfilled at personal expense.
13. In April, The Australian (the national newspaper), published an article which
grounded reckless claims by the so-called Australian Climate Commission:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/last-summer-was-not-actually-angrier-than-other-summers/story-e6frgd0x-1226611988057 (Open access via Google News)
To promote the Climate Commission’s newest report is the latest sobering claim:
“one in two chance that by 2100 there’ll be no human beings left on this planet”
Two of the six-member Australian Climate Commission are Macquarie staff.
Included is its Chief Commissioner.
14. While I was in Europe presenting our new research on greenhouse gases,
Macquarie undertook its misconduct proceedings – with me in absentia.
Macquarie was well informed of the circumstances. It was more than informed.
15. Upon arriving at Paris airport for my return to Australia, I was advised that
my return ticket (among the resources Macquarie agreed to provide) had been cancelled.
The latest chapter in a pattern, this action left me stranded in Europe,
with no arrangements for lodging or return travel.
The ticket that had been cancelled was non-refundable.
16. The action ensured my absence during Macquarie’s misconduct proceedings.
17. When I eventually returned to Australia, I lodged a complaint with the
Australian employment tribunal, under statutes that prohibit retaliatory conduct.
18. In May 2013, while the matter was pending before the employment tribunal,
Macquarie terminated my appointment.
19. Like the Australian Climate Commission, Macquarie is a publically-funded enterprise.
It holds a responsibility to act in the interests of the public.
20. The recent events come with curious timing, disrupting publication of our research
on greenhouse gases. With correspondence, files, and computer equipment confiscated,
that research will now have to be pursued by Macquarie University’s “Climate Experts”.
http://www.science.mq.edu.au/news_and_events/news/climate_change_commision
Murry Salby
Grumpy says:
July 8, 2013 at 11:43 pm
This leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth. 5 years of this man’s life made a misery (not to menton that of his poor phd student) by deliberate obstruction and breaking of the law. Why did they take him on in the first place if they were so anti his views? It sounds as though it was a strategy evolved to silence dissent. I know we are mocked for conspiracy theories, but why would they lure Dr (Murry, by the way – typo in heading) Salby to Oz, then not come up with the funds for his research and not register his contract?
****************************************************************************************************
That is an old trick. Macquarie were probably contacted by an overseas institution. They agreed to take Salby and set him up then leave him hanging. The Russian student is collateral damage. Hope the right people can get on this and sue them for millions. However that will be difficult also since the justice system is full of Marxists also in cahoots with the government and universities. Sad state of affairs in this once half decent country.
REPLY: so does Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet in Duesseldorf condone such use of their network to write such drivel, or are you “tenured” and thus above the law? – Anthony
Tony, nicht gut!
My comment was anyway very sarcastic.
Sorry, if you did not get it.
Alex.
to Janice Moore thank you. I am in shock.
Completely operations normal for Australia. This sort of behavior is common at all levels of Australian society from small sporting organisations to the Federal government. There is no rule of law, just what the people running things want it to be at the time.
We used to be a rich country with a relatively small population, but Argentina, here we come!
This looks really bad but may not be. Perhaps Macquarie Uni Admin would like to comment.
An opinion from a QC and straight to equity would be a path. This would ensure the examination of all the claims in a fair and honest manner.
As members of my family have been to this Uni, I would not like their qualifications devalued by lack,or the appearance of lack, of probity and fairness in treatment of one of their staff.
I pre-ordered his book when he announced it and have a copy that I am trying to find time to read. I am sure legal action is probably the right way to go, or possibly tribunal, but it is expensive to take legal action and Prof. Salby may not have enough funds to do so. You could all help by BUYING HIS BOOK. Lets make it the worlds first technical book to become a best seller!
FWIW, I would contribute to a legal fund if it can be setup. His research may turn out to be wrong, or it may turn out to be ground-breaking. Either way, it needs to continue to a conclusion. My ire was originally raised around 2000 because of the “consensus” and “science is settled” nonsense. It is only by rejecting the kind of closed minds that persecuted Galileo that science and man-kind will progress.
Professor Salby will have to take this up with MacQuarie University. There are procedures in any University for handling grievances. It would be unwise though to assume it is entirely a consequence of his views on climate change – Australian Universities have been under budgetary pressure for several years and even the top rank ones like Sydney and Melbourne have been shedding staff.
I must say though that I find one part of his letter less than convincing. He stated that he needed technical support to convert computer program to run in Australia. I am familiar with Australian computer centers as I have to use them myself. Their machines are all absolutely standard, with standard hardware and standard operating systems. If his codes ran on a machine in the USA, then they would run on machines in Australia. So the resources he was expecting must have been something else, which he has not detailed.
However if his contract was not registered properly, then MacQuarie’s admin screwed up badly somewhere, so that sound like an avenue which could be followed.
In one of his last letters to Max Born, Einstein wrote (in German, translated here):
“Earning a living should have nothing to do with the quest for knowledge.”
Government funding perverts, corrupts, and ruins everything it touches, including science.
Imprison bureaucrats now, or prepare for catastrophe.
Well, the statists paid for a theory that justifies a total power grab.
They don’t pay for criticism of that theory.
I’ve seen enough of university politics to advance the opinion that Salby’s original woes regarding funding probably had nothing to do with his views on anything. What’s far more likely is that the offer was originally made to him without the department in question having properly allocated and ring-fenced the funding. All that is needed then is for the money to be needed elsewhere and for senior staff to have a callous attitude to ‘stars’ that they have already ‘captured’. (I’ve seen this happen for real.)
After his ‘journey to the dark side’ was probably when things turned nasty.
This is a watershed moment in the climate debate. Salby has clearly been thwarted by the bad faith (and probably actionable) behaviour of Macquerie university.
I think we should give Murray Salby some practical financial support to assist him in fighting Macquerie University and helping him relocate to a more suitable academic environment. Perhaps Dick Lindzen still wields some influence in MIT?
Or will we find all academic institutions will abandon principles of scientific enquiry and run scared before the interests of those who control funding streams?
Scientia weeps.
Meanwhile the Royal society hands big funding to Stephan Lewandowsky and a prominent UK university appoints him to a professorship. This stinks. Strong proof that academia has abandoned serious scientific enquiry into the strong uncertainty surrounding the physical processes which affect the carbon cycle.
The ghost of Lysenko stalks the corridors of academia.
Anthony, lots of people only update their online publication list when they get to a new place and are introduced to its website, then they forget all about it. Now that search engines like google scholar are free to use they are much better.
It looks to me that the University is deliberately cutting off Salby’s publication list.
It’s pretty well explained in the Macquarie University Profile on their website where they state:
“All our hard work is paying off: since 2007 we have consistently moved up the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Rankings of World Universities. In the recent Excellence in Research for Australia exercise performed by the Australian Government, five of our research areas – Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences – were noted for their “outstanding performance well above world standard”. Macquarie was also recently named as the top university in Australia for research in environmental science and ecology based on the number of citations per researcher. “
Jeez, this must be the first time a university has done this over global warming!
–Pat Michaels, University of Virginia, 1979-2009.
PS: The first time this happened to me I was informed by the Provost’s office to “stop saying you were fired. We’re just not going to pay you anymore!”
A quick search for ‘alex Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet’
leads me to two Alex at the university, perhaps it’s this one:
University of Bristol, 2010, PhD in Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science. Dissertation: ‘Back to Our Senses: An Empiricist on Concept Acquisition’.
Did you read the article? Let me put you in the driving seat of a moving car with your hands tied behind your back and see how well you do.
This is why Calamatologists despise sceptics – sceptics are exposing their corruption of science to keep their massive funds flowing. I think I’m going to be sick.
Just ordered a copy of his text from Amazon. Sigh, more reading.
And I have to be careful as a sibling works for the University, which sort of limits anything I might want to vent on a blog.
()*!@&!(&*%)!(&* (expletive deleted)
This is the real function of “consensus”, to provide mutual CYA immunity for any abuse of process or law. Simply by refusal to act according to public mandate.
That Salby has managed to survive this and actually put out his landmark work is miraculous and astonishing.
The Australian Minister for Science and Industry, Kim Carr, has form on this. Leading up to Copenhagen Conference he caused CSIRO to force a leading academic to resign because he had written a paper which implicitly criticized the economic analyses behind the Government’s climate change policies.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/climate-expert-clive-spash-heavied-by-csiro-management/story-e6frg8gf-1225793717744
A month later (just 4 days before the start of the Copenhagen Conference), the article below reports Dr. Clive Spash was forced to resign from CSIRO.
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/clive-spash-resigns-from-csiro-after-climate-report-censorship/story-e6frfku0-1225806539742
If I wanted to describe Australian science in 2013, I would write something like this :
“the state provided scientists with funds, resources, and great public prestige. In turn, the scientific community gives the state expertise and legitimacy in industry, agriculture, and medicine. Each develop various tactics to deal with its partner. The state establishes strict administrative control over institutional structures, scientific personnel, research directions, and scholarly communications. For their part, the scientists cultivate patrons among the highest bureaucrats and skilfully play upon their constantly changing policies and objectives”.
But wait …it’s not Australia, that’s Russia in the 1930’s and those are the words of Nikolai Krementsov (from the University of Toronto, http://individual.utoronto.ca/krementsov) describing Stalinist Science under Russian Communism.
Oh well…….. Here we go again.
Go Comrades!
Welcome to Soviet Australia.
I sincerely hope Salby isn’t ultimately martyred over this. His persistence and achievements in the face of lawless duplicity are astonishing.
Note that his conclusions and studies are as fatal to lukewarmism as warmism. A-GHG is minuscule and of trivial import and impact.