Stifling Scientific Heterodoxy

All around the country and the world, scientists who don’t fall in line on human cloning, global warming, neo-Darwinism, and other issues in which the Science Establishment demands lockstep thinking, find themselves being pushed aside—ironically, by the very types who vociferously criticize the Catholic Church for its treatment of Galileo. The latest example may be the dropping of hurricane expert Bill Gray from receiving PR support from Colorado State University because he is a global warming skeptic. From the story:

By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca.

But now the institution in Fort Collins, Colo., where he has worked for nearly half a century, has told Gray it may end its support of his seasonal forecasting. As he enters his 25th year of predicting hurricane season activity, Colorado State University officials say handling media inquiries related to Gray’s forecasting requires too much time and detracts from efforts to promote other professors’ work.

But Gray, a highly visible and sometimes acerbic skeptic of climate change, says that’s a “flimsy excuse” for the real motivation—a desire to push him aside because of his global warming criticism.

The university denies it, of course. But there is always an excuse given in these matters. And isn’t it interesting that the stifling—er, ah, I mean changes in plans for rational reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with subverting free thought and academic freedom—always seems to flow in one direction.