Peter Ridd’s court case against James Cook University is scheduled for March 26-28Th (2019) in
Brisbane.
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https://independentaustralia.net/env...e-denial,11352
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...25326X18301425
Ridd has long been associated with groups that have misrepresented the state of climate science, he has been speaking openly for more than a decade about his views which, is that the
Great Barrier Reef is doing just fine, and is not threatened by global warming or industrial activity.
He has been fired for alleged multiple breaches of his university’s code of conduct*. Some of his earlier breaches that led to James Cook University’s disciplinary action did relate to comments about his colleagues, but that’s not quite it. JCU started disciplinary action because the way Ridd chose to go about that “criticism” breached aspects of the university’s code of conduct. We know this because Ridd posted all the “strictly private and confidential” letters from his university onto his public website.
Of course Ridd criticised published work, but that’s not what got him fired. Ridd did recently pull together his criticisms of published work in a “viewpoint” article in a journal. But the scientists at AIMS who responded, pointed out that Ridd was simply repeating criticisms that had already been discussed in the academic literature. They questioned why Ridd had ignored those published critiques of his own work, and instead just repeated the claims. If you want to see the “charge sheet” where JCU lists in its termination letter the reasons why they fired him , then look below. You won’t find anything about “criticising published work” in the full termination letter.
The echo chamber of conservative media, websites, and think
tanks, that push climate science denial, swung into action, urging readers to visit Ridd’s crowdfunding page. Rather than focus on the alleged breaches of the code of conduct, Ridd and his supporters are attempting to reframe the case around academic freedom, free speech, and scientific integrity.
I doubt that his court case will address these larger philosophical questions, but will adjudicate the narrow
legal questions:
Is the Code of Ethics
legal & binding?
Did he breach them?
If so, so egregiously as to justify:
- Censure?
- Termination?
Charge Sheet ➥
James Cook’s termination letter to Peter Ridd – Graham Readfearn
*Code of Conduct ➥
https://www.jcu.edu.au/policy/corpor...ersity-council