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Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting

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Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting

#3
Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money.

If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?

Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting

#5
post #2

Will this be enough to fire tenured professors?

One of them, Frank Clemente, is emeritus. He retired in 2010, and gets whatever pension or such PSU offers. I wonder what their disciplinary options are. This is clearly a case of an end-of-career cash-out of social/political capital.

Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting

#6
post #3

Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?

1) Intentionally hiding the source of funding; aka taking a bribe.

2) Intentionally publishing in a sham journal to avoid peer review.

These are both tolerable behavior in the free market, but ought to be firable offenses for university professors.

Re: Undercover Activists Buy Off Professors in Climate Sting

#10
post #6
post #3

Hm, I feel like this is way less sinister than it sounds. From what I know of his prior reputation, Will Happer has long made his position on climate change clear, so it's not like he changed his mind when people offered him a big pile of money. If you already believe something and someone is going to give you money to promote your views, why on earth would you say no?

1) Intentionally hiding the source of funding; aka taking a bribe. 2) Intentionally publishing in a sham journal to avoid peer review. These are both tolerable behavior in the free market, but ought to be firable offenses for university professors.

If applied universally there would be significantly fewer professors. But I don't really think that would be a bad thing.
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