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Freedom of academic thought, research and speech was dealt a shuddering blow when UCLA fired Professor Dr. James Enstrom for “research not aligned with the academic mission” which is University speak for “we fire those that do not promote politically correct academic thought.” I have long argued that there is ongoing censorship of conservative academic thought at colleges and universities across the country, this recent firing for non-liberal speech is merely the latest and most public of these incidents.
Dr. Enstrom’s problems began in 2005 when he had the temerity to produce an academic study that challenged assertions made by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that particulate emissions from diesal trucks caused 200,000 deaths per year in California. Dr. Enstrom’s study refuted these findings and determined that the number of diesel particulate deaths was much closer to zero. “I was shocked by the lack of academic rigor in the CARB study,” stated Dr. Enstrom.
Examination of the CARB funded and supported study produced a very interesting result – its chief author, Hien Tran, fraudulently stated that he had a Ph.D. in statistics from U.C. Davis. Mr. Tran never received his degree from U.C. Davis but instead bought a Ph.D. for $1,000 from diploma mill Thornhill University, an institution not recognized by CARB. Instead of discounting the highly flawed study (which ignored significant environmental factors such as the smoking histories of the diesel drivers) produced by someone with a fraudulently created academic history, CARB used that flawed study to impose significant new diesel emission regulations that will likely put numerous California businesses in bankruptcy court. Dr. Enstrom’s study was ignored because it did not support CARB’s regulatory position.
Dr. Enstrom then took a step that might have wrongly cost him his job – he pointed out that fellow UCLA professor John Freunds had been on the CARB committee for 26 years when that position carried a three year term limit. “The point is to rotate professors on and off of those panels so that there is always fresh thought,” state Dr. Enstrom. After Dr. Enstrom pointed out that several of the CARB scientific panel members had long outstayed their legal terms of office, 5 of the 9 panel positions were turned over to new scientists.
Unfortunately for Dr. Enstrom, Dr. Freund is a powerful professor at UCLA. Last week, after 36 years of service as a professor at UCLA, Dr. Enstrom was told that his services were no longer required. Much like with the Climategate fiasco, censorship of conservative thought rung out clearly through the land of academia. I have had several professor friends deny that such censorship exists (and conservative professors that tell me that it is very much alive and well). I would love to hear their thoughts on the firing of UCLA professor Dr. Enstrom.
Yes, and with wrong science, society can’t advance and in fact advancement reverses. Irresponsible, greedy scientists only looking for recognition and big salaries and retirement. The harm they cause families and businesses is immoral. This is why people are beginning to realize that the new RED is GREEN!
Of course he got fired for saying what he did. No question. But, tenure plays a role in this issue. I’m not saying it was right to fire him, and yes, he pissed off a powerful tenured full professor, who clearly had an axe to grind. However, if he was adjuncting then yeah, he’s screwed. If he was tenured, then they would have had very little room to fire him regardless of what he said or published. If he thinks his free speech rights were violated (doesn’t sound like it), then he needs to go to FIRE and start a case. Otherwise, he’s now free to publish/speak, etc. how he wishes. I’m guessing that if he worked for UCLA for 36 years and wasn’t a tenured prof, then he was moonlighting from a “real world” career. If he wants to pursue this, more power to him. But legally, if he was an adjunct, he’s a part-time, contracted employee who can be let go at any time for pretty much any reason.
Becky – FIRE has been representing him for months and is taking his case to court.
Classical case of Leftist agenda and Brownism. The concentration cams and forced relocation to Siberia are next.
I see political correctness is alive and well on college campuses. Try being a ethnic minority on campus and speak out against the “liberal” philosophies. Then you will see how tolerant some of these “liberals” are.
Perhaps that “shuddering blow” was dealt for academic integrity, it seems the good Professor was a nothing more than a paid shill, or what do you call someone who asks an industry to fund his research and then SURPRISE, he and he alone finds industry favorable results?
This is just a one-sided attack on UCLA (as UCLA is bound by privacy not to respond to these allegations), but you anti-liberalism types are ready to jump on the bandwagon before you hear both sides. What a bunch of lemmings.
From Integrity in Science;
Tobacco Scientist Moves On to Particulate Matter
A new industry-funded study downplaying the risks of particulate matter (PM) was authored by a researcher who previously published studies downplaying the risks of second-hand smoke, documents available at the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California at Los Angeles show. The Electrical Power Research Institute hired James E. Enstrom of the University of California at Los Angeles to analyze 30 years of air pollution data. His recently published analysis, which showed PM had no effect on mortality after the initial ten years of the study, is now being used by industry trade groups in their letters to the EPA arguing against a tighter PM standard. Ens
Sorry, my crappy internet didn’t transfer the entire article.
Tobacco Scientist Moves On to Particulate Matter
A new industry-funded study downplaying the risks of particulate matter (PM) was authored by a researcher who previously published studies downplaying the risks of second-hand smoke, documents available at the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California at Los Angeles show. The Electrical Power Research Institute hired James E. Enstrom of the University of California at Los Angeles to analyze 30 years of air pollution data. His recently published analysis, which showed PM had no effect on mortality after the initial ten years of the study, is now being used by industry trade groups in their letters to the EPA arguing against a tighter PM standard. Enstrom’s study, published in Inhalation Technology, was subsequently questioned in the same journal by Bert Brunekreef, a highly-regarded professor of environmental health at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
In 1997 Enstrom asked Philip Morris scientific affairs director Richard Carchman for $150,000 to study the link between environmental tobacco smoke and mortality rates. “A substantial research commitment on your part is necessary in order for me to effectively compete against the large mountain of epidemiologic data and opinions that already exist regarding the health effects of ETS and active smoking,” he wrote. In 2003, Enstrom’s study, “Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98,” concluded that it is “premature to conclude that environmental tobacco smoke causes death from coronary heart disease and lung cancer.” The study appeared in the British Medical Journal, after being rejected by the Journal of American Medical Association. Enstrom recently founded the Scientific Integrity Institute, which offers “epidemiologic research services . . . designed to investigate weak and/or controversial epidemiologic relationships with the highest level of scientific integrity.” The example posted on the site is his 2003 tobacco study.
And speaking of “crappy internet”, have the “recent comments” been eliminated from the home page or is it my “CI” messing with my head?
I’ve been seeing that feature on some computers and not on others. What about those moving pictures at the top, are they moving for you?
I have neither the recent comments nor the moving pictures at the top. Every time I try to move them, the site resets.
I don’t have moving pictures and the “recent comments” come and go at will.
The poor conservatives, being picked on by the big bad liberals and all afraid to speak their minds. Like what happened to Ward Churchill.
Oh, sorry, never mind.
Here is a quote from Professor Emeritus Hal Lewis (University of California at Santa Barbara) who resigned from the prestigious American Physical Society:
“It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.”
Read more here:
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/reasonmclucus/reasonmclucus/15835660/professor-emiritus-hal-lewis-resigns-from-american-physical-society/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504383_162-5933353-504383.html
And, of course, 33,000 scientists signed petition that “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”
http://mindlessandspineless.blogspot.com/2008/05/now-35000-scientists-say-inconveniet.html
Global Warming Petition
We urge the United State government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
This story is yet another wonderful example of the liberal agenda to snuff out anyone who attempts to question the liberal status quo. A great example of this movement can be seen in the documentary starring Ben Stein called “Expelled”. Scientists and professors who admit to questioning the scientific facts behind evolution and the big bang theory are being bullied and threatened and fired. Just for questioning the theories. (I thought that was what scientists where supposed to do) Check out the movie and see what’s going on…pretty amazing stuff.
When the ex soviet union collapsed a lot of the reds came over here and threw in with the enviro nazis. Nichols and Froines are nothing but hippies trying to reconstitute society to their socialistic ideals. They think capitalism is evil and the capitalists steal their money from people rather than earn it. Therefore, businesses must be destroyed. Ironically, as Margaret Thatcher has implied, it is their money which is supporting all the giveaways.
CARB is worse than the IRS in my opinion. They would love to see Kalifornia collapse.
Nothing will probably happen until a 16lb sledge hammer falls on everyone’s head before the inane rules are rescinded. The biggest problem I see is that most people are completely unaware of how they are being screwed by the liberals in charge.
Most of the state by area, is a red state really. The reason Kalifornia is hard blue is that the population centers on the coast control the voting and legislature. Kalifornia has disproportionate share of liberal freaks from the Hollywood left, and academia as well as the fruits in the bay area and the pot growers up north in Ukiah. Santa Cruz, SF, Silicon Valley,Marin co,Berzerkely and UC Davis are nests of liberals. Public employees unions and illegal aliens make matters worse. District gerrymandering is also a factor.
I suggest Calif be broken up into two states east and west. I also suggest that fines that CARB levies are audited and I bet that you will find at least some of the money is siphoned off by the bigwigs in the agency.