University of Colorado rightly stands behind Professor Roger Pielke, Jr.-Denver Post Editorial Board

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3/2/15, "CU rightly defends Roger Pielke Jr. against political bully," Denver Post Editorial Board

""We stand behind him." 

It was good to see University of Colorado-Boulder Provost Russell Moore rally decisively on behalf of Professor Roger Pielke Jr. after the ranking Democratic member of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, launched an inquiry into the professor because of his academic views. 

Grijalva has written CU (and six other institutions that employ researchers whose views on issues related to climate change he dislikes) demanding a mind-boggling amount of information, including Pielke's funding sources, communications and "all drafts" of testimony before "any government body." 

Grijalva's purported purpose is to ferret out "conflicts of interest," specifically funding by energy companies, but in fact his gambit amounts to a bold, abusive assault on academic freedom. 

Moreover, as Pielke noted on his blog, "I have no funding, declared or undeclared, with any fossil fuel company or interest. I never have. Rep. Grijalva knows this too, because when I have testified before the U.S. Congress, I have disclosed my funding and possible conflicts of interest. So I know with complete certainty that this investigation is a politically-motivated 'witch hunt' designed to intimidate me (and others) and to smear my name."

Pielke, by the way, has never disputed a role of human activity in climate change. He even favors a carbon tax and supports federal regulatory attempts to crack down on carbon emissions.

But his sin, it seems — as Grijalva tells it — is to have told the U.S. Senate that it is "incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases." 

In short, he disagrees with the Obama administration and various environmental groups, which repeatedly claim — contrary to what Pielke documents as mainstream scientific thinking— that natural disasters have gotten more frequent, intense and costly as a result of global warming.

Pielke happens to have spent much of his career studying disasters and climate change, and is an international authority on the subject,. But his careful opinions have resulted in repeated attacks by those who demand fidelity to the most alarmist view of present-day climate — to the point that he's apparently had it. 

"The incessant attacks and smears are effective, no doubt. I have already shifted all of my academic work away from climate issues," he wrote on his blog.

It's a sad day when bullies such as Grijalva can push honest brokers such as Pielke into another line of research." via Junk Science
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Comment: To this country's great embarrassment it now has only one functioning political party (democrat) thereby rendering it a totalitarian dictatorship. You either "partner" with government or you're out. Credit the Bush family, Rupert Murdoch, and their pals for this great feat. And they're not done.


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