Book Burning is Alive and Well
“SHown above, Drs. Bridger and Clements test the flammability of the book”
Sad but true, mock book burnings appear to be acceptable behavior of professors at San Jose State University.
In this case, Dr. Alison Bridger is doing the honors. She is proudly assisted by SJSU assistant professor Dr. Craig Clements. They disagree with the text’s content.
Drs. Bridger and Clements are currently featured on the front April entry on San Jose State University’s Department of Meterology and Climate Science web page. They may mysteriously disappear before you read this.
Most certainly they thought what they did was hilarious. Apparently, so did the whole department.
Lousy texts get tossed in the trash every day at universities around the world. But when you make a public statement of it, as San Jose State did, you cross a line. You tarnish any legitimate climate research that institution ever does.
Unfortunately, all they proved is how politics has stained the pristine world of science.
Debate climate science on the merits of science, not on the merits of opinion polls.
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Update 5/2/2013:
The April 2013 posting was unceremoniously deleted from the Department of Meterology and Climate Science web page.
Dorothy Poole, SJSU President’s Chief of Staff, explained in an email:
“The Department of Meteorology and Climate Science has removed the material in question from its website, and regrets what was clearly an ill-conceived attempt at satire.“
One wonders if Heartland Institute lawyers will think it was “satire” or “slander”.
Posted on May 2, 2013, in Climate, climate change, environment, Global Warming, Life, news, Opinion, Politics, science, Thoughts. Bookmark the permalink. 24 Comments.
Inform The Pundits! 
Just how exactly does ridiculing a climate-change denial treatise written by a non-scientist “cross a line” and tarnish the integrity of a school’s research? You said yourself, it’s a MOCK book burning. Any idiot will still be able to buy it, and pseudo-science books that pretend they ought to be considered equally should be ridiculed in any way possible, at every opportunity. The book’s purpose is to inflame, rather than to inform. Experimenting to test the book’s flammability is therefore valid as well as ironic.
Allow me to explain…
Contrary to what you may believe, there is no such thing as “settled science”.
Skepticism is the driving force of science. Questioning the status quo is what leads to scientific progress, breakthroughs and greater understanding.
Suppress divergent research and you suppress the process of science itself. If you have not read the book, how do you know it is psuedo-science? You don’t.
What professors Bridger and Clements should have done is have a big laugh to themselves while they tossed the book into a nearby trash bin.
They didn’t. What they chose to do is to make a public statement…
with a book burning, no less.
That is what can and should tarnish the university’s reputation.
But perhaps this is beyond your limited ability to comprehend.
Have you read the book?
Nope… I haven’t read the book. I have no idea if it is good or bad.
It’s not divergent research, it’s op-ed writing, and I see little point in wasting my time reading it, when the book reviewers all say it’s not a scientific treatise. The author of the book hasn’t submitted anything to peer-review panels or publications, but is merely criticizing the motives of those he says are promoting the concept of climate change for profit. Here’s a typical review discussing it in depth: http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=552
You haven’t read the book, yet condemn it… just like professors Bridger and Clements. That says it all.
You really are clueless what I was writing about, aren’t you?
It is about a little concept called intolerance.
The point is not whether this is a despicable book or not, everyone is free to think so. There is also no law against the burning of books, but when an academic suggests that a book should be burned it shows that he/she has no faith in his own science and would like to stop the debate by use of force. You portray yourself as little dictators who have no arguments anymore. We skeptics very much enjoy that sight. It confirms our suspicion that the green movement (which is largely indistinguishable from climatology ‘science’) has indeed dictatorial aspirations, would love to burn opponents and only wants to ‘debate’ people they already agree with.
But for global warming, you need global warming and there has been no such thing in the past 18 years, despite an increase in CO2. People notice that, so they do not believe ‘science’ when it claims that the world is warming regardless. Your kind has lost and it would be much more productive to start repairing your totally rotten peer review system.
By the way, that ‘Catrholic Culture magazine you refer to is that a scientific journal?
Note…
The original entry shown above didn’t even write the book title correctly in its caption.
It truly was a boneheaded move.
An archive of the original page is found here:
http://www.webcitation.org/6GJvAbb2t
And a long discussion about it here:
I looked at the review you cited. The conclusion is
‘Overall this book is useful and entertaining, and I recommend it’.
So why do the ‘scientists’ want to burn it?
Does not history show that those who do the burning of the books are on the wrong side?
Is there a link to a source that says for 18 years there has not been any warming?
AZ is correct: science is rooted in skepticism. If the scientists are now burning books that gives me the creeps.
This isn’t about climate science. It is not about whether AGW alarmists are right or wrong. It is about preserving the process used to make a valid determination.
Even in jest… I shutter to think what Drs. Bridger and Clements are teaching their students about the concept of critical thinking.
Why are these individuakls still employed at SJSU? Fire them NOW!!!!!!!!
This isn’t bad taste – it’s flat-out fascism. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
The professors should be privately rebuked, but not fired. Their crime is bad judgement, nothing more.
I read the book, and agree with it wholeheartedly.
Professor Bimbo and her trusted side-kick have done nothing except advertise the book.
Good Work, Perfesser Doofus!
yawn… no warming for 16 years … there’s nothing to deny. your take on science sits well with homeopathy and acupuncture and other quackeries
What the last 13-14 years proves is that climate modeling is not as good at forecasting as it should be and that the fundamental CAGW theory is faulty and needs revision.
For “revision” read “abandonment.”
“Theories” that don’t explain or predict anything are useless. This junk science has been around since the turn of the 20th century. It was debunked as junk science long before the Left took it as some reason to justify their own existence.
The term “left” explains nothing. The appeal of issues like AGW rests on a broad sense of political powerlessness – across political lines. “Left” and “Right” – meh, that’s so last century.
Why does everyone believe that our doom is imminent? That’s the question. If anyone’s existence has been justified beyond its shelf life, it’s the green movement.
I wish greenies would return to more easily achieved and practical goals – like eliminating elements from the periodic table.
For a comparison look at how Judith Curry responds to things she doesn’t agree with. Or better yet, how the sceptic blogs responded to Mann’s book.Watts might like to engage in some childish name calling at times but he usually provides counterpoints to what he disagrees with. I can’t imagine anyone on the sceptic side engaging in book burning, mock or not.
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