(DCWatchdog.com) – A geology professor has announced he is leaving the University of Alabama because the radical climate change agenda and DEI (“diversity, equality, inclusion”) are running higher education and “robbing” young people of hope and future.
Dr. Matthew Wielicki stated he would leave his job as an assistant professor of geological sciences at the end of this semester due to the school’s failure to “embrace the freedom of exchanging ideas.”
He accused those pushing a “disastrous climate narrative” of crushing young Americans’ “ambition and their hope.”
“If you go to one of these large conferences for earth scientists… I’ll ask folks like, ‘you don’t really believe that the planets gonna end in eight or 10 or 12 years or anything like that?’” Wielicki told Fox News.
“I’ll go to these talks by some of the most vocal climate alarmists out there, and I notice that they’re pushing a stroller with like a one or two-year-old in it… I talk to my students [and] there’s a good chunk of them that really think that the planet is heading towards some civilization collapse in eight, 10, 12 years,” he added.
“What a terrible way to motivate young people. Why am I going to be a good steward of my planet? Why am I going to be responsible and sacrifice now so I can have a brighter future later on if I think my future is doomed anyway? We’re robbing these young people of their ambition and their hope,” the geology professor elaborated.
Wielicki grew up in California in an immigrant family from Poland. He joined the University of Alabama faculty in 2016 as his “life dream” was to be an educator.
“The scientific community should be the first ones to say, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, some of these claims are absolutely absurd.’ It doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem. It doesn’t mean we won’t face challenges, and we shouldn’t be thinking about solutions, but we can’t be putting out this,” the scientist said.
He painted a bleak picture of how climate change anxiety, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has wrought havoc on young people’s dreams and hopes for the future.
“The anxiety level of young people, COVID obviously added to that, but when it comes to climate, it’s through the roof. My students tell me they used to plan for a family and have children. They were so excited… They’re not going to have children anymore because the kids won’t have a future. Young people are honestly deciding not to raise families now because of the climate. That is horrific to me,” Wielicki warned.
He attributed the universities’ climate alarmism to the requirements of their “funding agencies.”
Earlier, the geology professor posted a series of tweets explaining he was quitting due to the obsession with equity and the “rise of illiberalism” at the University of Alabama, which has 38,000 students.
“The rise of illiberalism in the name of DEI is the antithesis of the principles that universities were founded on. These are no longer places that embrace the freedom of exchanging ideas and will punish those that go against the narrative,” Wielicki said.
He added earth science professors “routinely discuss the mental health effects of climate catastrophism but dare not speak out lest they lose their positions and research funds.”
Science prof blasts green activists who 'clearly don't believe' climate doom, 'robbing' young people of hope https://t.co/su6pZEUb5T
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 25, 2023
