“Deeper Reasons”: The Politicization of Academic Publishing

Effective January 1, 2017, Judith Curry resigned her tenured position as Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Curry cites a number of reasons for her decision, but concedes that “the deeper reasons” have to do with her “growing disenchantment with universities, the academic field of climate science and scientists.”1 While Curry’s distinguished career as a climate scientist and her formidable research credentials speak for themselves,2 she has nevertheless run afoul of the climate change establishment for daring to argue for greater accommodation for scientists and scientific research skeptical of consensus positions. In 2010, for instance, Curry published an influential open letter, “On the Credibility of Climate Change, Towards Rebuilding Trust,” that frankly addressed the damage done by the “Climategate” scandal of 2009.3Curry is in no practical sense a climate change