Current Consensus Center HQ
Good news, everyone! The University of Western Australia has dropped Bjorn Lomborg's Consensus Centre!
After a few weeks—during which the school's students and professors expressed their outrage and others called attention to Lomborg's career of contrarianism— UWA's Vice-Chancellor announced that the university ultimately decided to cancel the contract for the Consensus Centre and return the money for its creation to the Australian government. While the Vice-Chancellor's statement makes it clear he doesn't agree with the decision, he acknowledges that Lomborg's center "lacks the support needed across the university and the broader academic community."
In less happy news, the Vice-Chancellor's letter offers plenty of red meat to Lomborg's supporters, who are using this as an excuse to trot out the "academic freedom" argument (for example, the trifecta of a column, op-ed and editorial in the Murdoch's Australian.) UWA staff and others are praising the decision and pushing back, saying that it's "not about censorship," but rather "academic integrity" and "[the Australian] government's design to get someone in place…to try and suggest that climate change isn't as significant an issue as it is."
While the same folks who set up Lomborg with UWA will try to find a new home for him, hopefully (as suggested by a Lomborg- defending Financial Review column) UWA has set a precedent that Lomborg is a political pundit, not a serious academic.
Because, as Andrew Street pointed out, "Nothing says 'venerable research institute' like 'parcel forwarding service.'"
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