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
Incredible. Call me stunned. Then outraged.
He is Rosa Parks. He is Timothy Leary. He is Murry Salby.
When Oz gets rid of its execrable Fabian Left Government sometime this year some of us have been calling on the incoming government to hold an enquiry into the whole scam and the $Bns wasted.
We now have the necessary five members of the realist and unbiased Commission on the Religion of Climate Pseudo-Science:
Chairman – Professor Bob Carter
Deputy – Professor Murry Salby
Members – Clive Spash, Monckton of Brenchley & me (I have been doing this too long without getting my share!)
Terms of Reference: 1. Is there any evidence that the alarms have any substance?
2. Did anyone financially gain from promoting dud science? In doing so were they simply incompetent (and therefore unemployable in any academic institution) or did they commit a deliberate fraud for which they can be prosecuted (such as by committing ‘identity fraud’)?
3. Which less than useful grants should be cancelled immediately?
I just sent a quick email to the Dean,
Att. Dean of Science, Macquarie University
Dear Sir/Madam,
As you will no doubt be aware, claims concerning the treatment of Dr. Salby by your university are now spreading rapidly across the Internet. These claims should significantly increase the circulation of this video –
Allow me to extend my congratulations to your staff for their efforts in discrediting the post normal pseudo science of global warming.
Regards,
Konrad.
Professor Salby should consider the criminal as well as the civil route. The university has defrauded him and has attempted to pervert the course of justice.
“I’m beginning to think Australia is ground zero for AGW crackpottery.”
You’re BEGINNING to think that?? How many years of Flanneryism (and in fact the creation of an entire govt department of Flanneryism, with Flannery as the Flannery-in-chief) was it going to take before you’re sure that we’re ground zero?
Perhaps it is time for a few FOIA requests to a certain university.
P.S. As an Australian, it sickens me to think our centres of “higher” learning may have descended to levels of behaviour more in line with third world dictatorships.
Time to shine a very bright light under some dark rocks, and to see what crawls out.
Australia is a mess at present …….Australian intellectual elite are so precious about what they see as their lofty standing in the community that they don’t see the derision with which they are held by many of us…..they see themselves as the determinants of “the right thing to do” i.e they are moralists but they are without a moral base to work from except the world of symbolism, seeming and self-congratulation (shadows)….meanwhile the rest of us watch as Australian society unravels into the harsh, sneering and totalitarian world that Salby and Carter etc are experiencing
I’m great fan of Dr. Salby and his work but I think we should listen to what the other side has to say, too.
In any case I hope Dr. Salby will be able to find a different place to continue his research.
@alex at 11.37pm. Vee haff vays und means of keeping you shtum ja?. Plonker!
Absolute shits the lot of them, utterly disgusting way to treat a man shame on Australian academia for allowing this to happen
Agree with the remedy of legal action. Such action should be taken under U.S. jurisdiction, where there is a better discovery process. Prof Salby was enticed from the U.S.; actions were taken within this country, by agents of Macquarie. Dr. Salby suffered subsequent financial loss and damage to his professional reputation, which the university must be forced to explain. There are ongoing damages being incurred.
As always, if financial support is required to right this wrong, I will contribute. Others here have indicated they will help, too. This is a battle worth fighting.
What do you expect. Universities are a breeding ground for left wingers, useless arts degrees and government funded moral hazard.
“Andrew says:
July 9, 2013 at 2:38 am”
Flannery is a disgrace, along with the likes of Karoly, Cook et al, maybe we should pay him more than the $180k/pa (On top of his regular salary) for his 3 days per week job as Climate Commissioner? He, like Gore, warns us of catastrophic sea level rise and then buys a sea front property. Then, the icing on the cake, an old ex-Australian Naval Officer is wheeled out on national alarmist MSM newscasts and tells us we’re doomed if we don’t “do something” by 2020. Unfortunately far too many voters obtain their “science” from the ABC, SBS, the BBC, the BoM and the CSIRO.
In Australia, we used to have cattle stations/farms. Now we have carbon stations/farms. Australia passed the tipping point sometime in 2007.
We have a pro warmist watermelon leadership, this is about the usual sorry standard we now expect from our so called science leaders.
CSIRO once..was a trusted institution, however the more I learn of them past and present show our trust seriously MISplaced then and now.
I am so sorry for Prof Salby. hes not alone but that doesnt make it better.
the utter crap promulgated unhindered by ABC broadcast media is enough to make one cry, in shame and Rage!
we are teetering on the bronk of a big Fail financially right now, and yet?
our present KRuddy leader is now going to push an ETS that will place a tax on diesel fuel to finish wiping out our indusry transport and rural sectors in one hit.
fuel prices for petrol alone are tipped to hit 1.70 a litre soon. presently I am paying 1.48. and cant afford to go out to shop from my rural town, whos prices are also far above elsewhere due to freight etc.
the only “lucky” thing about Aus right now?
umm, thinking…still thinking.. nope!
until this crew is OUTED! we dont have much chance.
roll on the elections!
and I Have forwarded this page link to 4~~ politicians
Ferdinand Engelbeen says:
July 8, 2013 at 11:48 pm
It is a shame how Macquarie university did handle this case. One may have differences in opinion, as is often the case for academic topics, but the way they handled this is as unademic as possible: pure dictatorial, suppressing any disagreement with the so called “consensus”.
Not that I agree with point 7 of the long list, as the current increase is unprecedented in the past 800 kyears. Salby’s opinion on ice cores is based on a purely theoretical occurance of CO2 diffusion in ice cores which in reality doesn’t exist.
Ferdinand perhaps you should read this and other research into CO2 diffusion before you are so hasty in saying ‘it doesn’t exist’.
CO2 diffusion in polar ice: observations from naturally formed
CO2 spikes in the Siple Dome (Antarctica) ice core
Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 54, No. 187, 2008
ABSTRACT. One common assumption in interpreting ice-core CO2 records is that diffusion in the ice does not affect the concentration profile. However, this assumption remains untested because the extremely small CO2 diffusion coefficient in ice has not been accurately determined in the laboratory. In this study we take advantage of high levels of CO2 associated with refrozen layers in an ice core from Siple Dome, Antarctica, to study CO2 diffusion rates. We use noble gases (Xe/Ar and Kr/Ar), electrical conductivity and Ca2+ ion concentrations to show that substantial CO2 diffusion may occur in ice on timescales of thousands of years. We estimate the permeation coefficient for CO2 in ice is 4 10^–21 molm^–1 s^–1 Pa^–1 at –238C in the top 287m (corresponding to 2.74 kyr). Smoothing of the CO2 record by diffusion at this depth/age is one or two orders of magnitude smaller than the smoothing in the firn. However, simulations for depths of 930–950m (60–70 kyr) indicate that smoothing of the CO2 record by diffusion in deep ice is comparable to smoothing in the firn. Other types of diffusion (e.g. via liquid in ice grain boundaries or veins) may also be important but their influence has not been quantified
Nick Stokes
You tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth (self snip).
‘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’
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!
Wow. What a great presentation Murry Salby gave. How can anyone argue against such logic and mathematical evidence. Well the answer seems to be “nobody” so instead they just cut him out of their world.
What do you expect from a “University” that has chiropractic studies as part of its curriculum?
It is important at times like this to look on the bright side. There is evidence of progress since 1600. At least Professor Salby hasn’t been “burned at the stake, hanging upside-down, gagged, and naked” as poor Giordano Bruno was for supporting Copernicus’s model of the solar system with the sun at its center. Seriously though, one wonders how some ‘centers of conspiracy’ otherwise known as university departments manage to continue to exist, payrolled by taxpayers.
One of the two staff of Macquarie University who are members of the 6 member Australian Climate Commission is Tim Flannery. Professor Flannery holds the Panasonic Chair in Environmental Sustainability at Macquarie University. He is also the chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council.
In February 2011 he was appointed Commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission on a salary of $180,000 a year for his part time participation.
In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years because global warming was drying up the rains.
Less than 2 weeks ago Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s main source of water was overflowing, closing some of the bridges across the Nepean River that connect the city from the west.
In June 2007, Flannery prophesied “Brisbane’s water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months”
On 01 Jul 2013 Brisbane Catchment was 84.3%, Wivenhoe Dam 99.2%, Somerset Dam 100%, North Pine 88.4%.
And so the story continues for other predictions including that in 2008 he stated “this may be the Arctic’s first ice-free year”.
The Climate Commission’s latest featured report states that:
“Two years ago the Climate Commission warned that 2011-2020 is the ‘Critical Decade’ for tackling climate change. In particular, this is the Critical Decade for turning around rising emissions of greenhouse gases and putting us on the pathway to stabilising the climate system. One quarter of the way through the Critical Decade, many consequences of climate change are already evident”
http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/the-critical-decade-2013/
The Australian Climate Commission according to The Australian Newspaper:
“…is part of a $1.6 billion-a-year climate change behemoth in place to administer the government’s carbon tax. It also includes the Clean Energy Regulator, the Climate Change
Authority and the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator.
The sprawling bureaucracy is centred in Canberra (see URL for picture below), with departmental staff housed in the six-star energy-rated Nishi building, which is under a 15-year lease worth $158m. Departmental figures given to the Senate last year revealed that 1094 staff members also work from offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Samoa – in a rental space located about 5km from the beach and a nearby golf course.
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2010/04/29/1225859/695862-climate-change.jpg
Questions HAVE been asked about the cost of this model of pretension and waste and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will scrap it if elected but the political climate has also changed recently here. Kevin Rudd is back on the throne and will be forever quoted as proclaiming climate change as the greatest moral challenge of our time – so I hardly imagine that he will take Tim’s away little empire away.
So what chance does Professor Salby have? But then again Michael Caine and Stanley Baker did alright against the Zulus.
(I am sure that you will all agree that any connection between the views and opinions of the Climate Commission and Macquarie University are purely co-incidental.)
UPDATE: I hear from Christopher Monckton that he has spoken to Salby and the situation is indeed outrageous. So it’s very likely the email is legit. Of course we have not heard Macquarie Uni’s point of view. But the email — if accurate — suggests appalling behaviour on their part.
After point #5, I would have handed the case over to a lawyer to sue Maquarie University for damages and compensations, and would have left the country long since.
What kept him there?
Gotta be more to this story. I admit I’m committed to the notion of AGW. It means I disagree with those of you here (most?) who have a different view. Nonetheless, this is just plain wrong.
I’m compelled to point out that this is only one side to the story. In fact, the behavior of the University, as reported by the Professor, is so egregious one wonders if there aren’t some facts missing.
I look forward to a fuller explication. More:if he has the smoking gun, I’m anxious to see it.