Science
Related: About this forumAccusations that climate science is money-driven reveal ignorance of how science is done
by John Timmer - May 24 2012
One of the unfortunate memes that has made repeated appearances in the climate debate is that money isn't just influencing the public debate about science, but it's also influencing the science itself. The government, the argument goes, is paying scientists specifically to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is the major culprit in recent climate change, and the money available to do so is exploding.
Although the argument displays a profound misunderstanding of how science and science funding work, it's just not going away. Just this week, one of the sites where people congregate to criticize mainstream climate science once again repeated it, replete with the graph below. That graph originated in a 2009 report from a think tank called the Science & Public Policy Institute (notable for using the serially confused Christopher Monckton as a policy advisor).
The report, called "Climate Money: The climate industry: $79 billion so fartrillions to come" (PDF) and prepared by Australian journalist Joanne Nova for the Science & Public Policy Institute, claims to show how money has distorted climate science. There are several aspects to this argument, but we'll start with the money itself.
more
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/accusations-that-climate-science-is-money-driven-reveal-ignorance-of-how-science-is-done/
eppur_se_muova
(36,263 posts)Nothing more need be said.
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)I'm always amazed at people who can seriously believe that the research grant money scientists are angling for, could in any way seriously be compared with the amount of money the established oil, coal, & gas interests have available for propaganda to deny the science. That includes a lot self-deluded Libertarians who are merely ideologically opposed to regulations.
NickB79
(19,246 posts)Who's cancer research lab I worked in while getting my BS in biochemistry/biotech. The man was doing some very good work, yet he drove a beat-up Honda Accord to work every day, and either ate in the student cafeteria with us because the faculty restaurant was too spendy or just brown-bagged it.
Yeah, those damn research scientists are really raking in the money