Anthony points out the eructions of an Exeter University geographer named Stephan Harrison, who says that debating sceptics is like wrestling with pigs.
Ho hum - another day, another academic making a fool of themselves.
Nevertheless, Dr Harrison has an interesting CV. Apparently his research work on glaciers is centred on Patagonia although he previously worked on the Tian Shan mountains in Central Asia. Probably fair to say that he has a very large carbon footprint indeed. It's therefore no surprise to see that he is also an very keen environmental activist. He is:
- An invited member of the Environmental Research Group and the Climate Research Group of the Institute of Actuaries.
- An invited member of the Carbon Counting Group, an international group of economists, scientists, architects, politicians and environmental activists working in the field of mitigation and adaption for climate change.
- An invited member of the Climate Justice Programme
- An expert witness for the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide looking at the impact of mining on mountain glaciers in the Chilean Andes, and specifically the Pascua Lama mine.
And with a background like that, it's no surprise to see him involved with the Science Media Centre too.
So, another scientivist. One can bang on about these people, but I'm not sure it does much good. People in universities are obviously not accountable to the public, and are therefore pretty much immune to public criticism. It's perhaps therefore more useful if we ask ourselves what can be done about them. I have no problem with academics having political views, but in my view there needs to be a clear dividing line between research and political activism. Where such a line cannot be drawn, the public ends up paying half-wit academics to promote their often eccentric, immature and even extreme views. This seems to me to be entirely immoral.
So my question to readers is: Is it possible to formulate some guidelines that would at least make this kind of thing more difficult? Or is the answer just to cut funding to the universities?