The clearest explanation yet of why Patrick Michaels resigned as state climatologist comes in this story from the Washington Post (my emphasis below):
“I resigned as Virginia state climatologist because I was told that I could not speak in public on my area of expertise, global warming, as state climatologist,” Michaels said in a statement this week provided by the libertarian Cato Institute, where he has been a fellow since 1992. “It was impossible to maintain academic freedom with this speech restriction.”
I have yet to see anyone contradict this account.
First question: Who told Michaels not to speak in public about global warming? Someone in the University of Virginia? Someone in the Governor’s Office?
Second question: Where are the protectors of academic freedom? If the situation had been ideologically reversed, if, say, the state climatologist used his office as a platform to promote awareness of Global Warming and, say, Gov. George Allen had silenced him, would there not be an uproar? Of course there would. Is “Academic freedom” in Virginia reserved for those with whom the academic elites happen to agree?
