US Brain Drain: Climate Scientist Refugees are Fleeing to France?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Oh no – what if all the climate alarmists leave and never come back?

‘We Are Witnessing a New Brain Drain’ as Scientists Flee America for France

A French university says it’s providing safe harbor to American scientists from Yale, Stanford, NASA, and the NIH.

By Matthew Gault  Published March 13, 2025

Aix Marseille University in France has said that 40 U.S. scientists have “answered the call” it put out earlier this month offering safe harbor to fleeing Americans. Scientists in the U.S. under the Trump regime are facing a sudden loss of funding and stricter regulations on speech and areas of research. According to Aix Marseille University President Eric Berton, some of them will find a home in France.

In a press release about its “Safe Space for Science” initiative, the University announced that the 40 U.S. scientists included people from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute for Health, and George Washington University. It said that most of their research topics were related to “health (LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), the environment and climate change…as well as the humanities and social sciences…and astrophysics.”

Aix Marseille University put out the call to American scientists on March 7 as news continued that the Trump administration was pulling funding from many universities and putting heavy restrictions on research topics. “We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Benton said on March 12. “We will do everything possible to help as many scientists as possible continue their research. But we cannot meet all the requests alone.” He then called on the French and European governments for help.

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Read more: https://gizmodo.com/we-are-witnessing-a-new-brain-drain-as-scientists-flee-america-for-france-2000575654

This isn’t the first time France has pulled a stunt like this.

Despite generous French offers of financial support, last time France offered safe haven, many climate scientists stayed in the USA.

Perhaps this time things will be different, and all the alarmist climate scientists will move to Europe.

To be fair, France has a well funded academic system, but that is pretty much where it stops. There is a reason France isn’t home to startups like Google and Facebook. High taxes and excessive regulations in France deter US style entrepreneurs and startups.

France makes no secret of their hostility towards large corporations. France and other European nations regularly slam “Anglo-Saxon capitalism”, by which they mean laissez-faire capitalism – a French position which is rather sad and historically inaccurate.

The very phrase “laissez-faire” is of course French, a phrase coined in the 17th century, back when French philosophers saw economic freedom as a path to liberation from feudalism and economic stagnation. The French sadly retreated from this glorious moment of near freedom, and in modern times have in my opinion re-instated elements of the ancient feudal system, which has created a tightly controlled command economy overseen by feudal bureaucrats, a straightjacketed form of capitalism where the French and European state is always firmly in control.

Despite all this, for scientists who never plan to ever do anything economically productive, France could be a good opportunity. Being a court philosopher in a feudal state is a well paid job, so long as your philosophy pleases the lord.