Reich, McKibbon, & Hansen: Three Academicians Who Have Spoken Out on Social Issues

Some blog followers might be interested in a discussion-list post “Reich, McKibbon, & Hansen: Three Academicians Who Have Spoken Out on Social Issues” [Hake (2014)]. The abstract reads:

**************************************************
In response to my post “Re: Professors We Need You!” [Hake (2014)] at http://bit.ly/1hw62E1 regarding Nicholas Kristof’s “Professors, We Need You!” at http://nyti.ms/1oIs7jD and “Bridging the Moat Around Universities at http://nyti.ms/1kOp8Wi, Christopher Green of the TIPS list responded at http://bit.ly/1dZrWfA [slightly edited; my URLs]:

“Kristof missed the boat on this one. If [Kristof] wants to know why professors are reluctant to enter public debate, he needs to address the quality of public debate in the US political arena. Both the governor of Wisconsin http://bit.ly/1c5FUrS and attorney general of Virginia http://bit.ly/NftpnE have recently used the powers of their offices to investigate and threaten the livelihoods of professors who opposed their political agendas (labor unions and climate change, respectively). [Politicians] have essentially demanded that professors NOT bring their expertise to bear on public debate and professors, understandably, have mostly complied.”

Thankfully, not ALL academicians have complied, e.g.:

(a) UC-Berkeley's Robert Reich http://bit.ly/1fga1Tm, an outspoken champion of labor unions http://bit.ly/1c8scER and tireless critic of income and wealth inequality – see e.g., Beyond Outrage http://amzn.to/1ebN6CI;

(b) Middlebury College’s Bill McKibbon http://bit.ly/1fhrKKb who has been lobbying for action to deter climate change for over two decades – see e.g. The End of Nature http://amzn.to/1p1wIgN and consider his organization http://350.org/;

(c) Columbia’s James Hansen (2010, 2014) http://bit.ly/omiMY3 who alerted the world to anthropogenic global warming in 1981 http://nyti.ms/1gwHUMm. In a recent draft Renewable Energy, Nuclear Power, and Galileo: Do Scientists Have a Duty to Expose Popular Misconceptions? http://bit.ly/1goLfgs, Hansen rebuffs 4 widespread misconceptions: human life is endangered by nuclear power; renewable energy sources alone are sufficient; killing nuclear would make the world safer; and renewable energy is cheaper and faster than nuclear power. Below I quote Hansen at some length because: (1) nuclear power is so controversial; and (2) so doing allows me to insert references, hot-links, and comments.
*************************************************

To access the complete 106 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/1k9QuX5.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University; Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands; President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII); LINKS TO: Academia http://bit.ly/a8ixxm; Articles http://bit.ly/a6M5y0; Blog http://bit.ly/9yGsXh; Facebook http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm; GooglePlus http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE; Google Scholar http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3; Linked In http://linkd.in/14uycpW; Research Gate http://bit.ly/1fJiSwB; Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs http://bit.ly/9nGd3M; Twitter http://bit.ly/juvd52.

REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 26 Feb 2014.]
Hake, R.R. 2014. “Reich, McKibbon, & Hansen: Three Academicians Who Have Spoken Out on Social Issues,” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/1k9QuX5.The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.