# Proof the Climate Scientists are greedy liars
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [July 13, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903 "2011-07-13T18:44:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/1 "2011-07-13T18:44:47Z")
I have said it many times: when it comes to climate “_science_,” just follow the money and you can evaluate how real it is. Well, now there is proof; it was found that a climate “_scientist_” accepted over 1 million dollars over the past decade from groups that take an advocacy position with respect to climate change. That’s right, you heard what I said. But just in case you can’t believe it, let me say it again: there is proof of a climate “scientist” taking money from groups with an ax to grind on climate change and using said money to publish questionable data and conclusions in peer reviewed journals in an attempt to manipulate the field.
If one of these guys does it, let’s face it, probably all of them do.
It just goes to show that the “_science_” these guys are pushing is a vast conspiracy, funded by special interests, in a greedy attempt to line their own pockets. ☹
Here’s the story: [Climate Scientist on the take](http://www.vancouversun.com/business/climate+skeptic+Soon+funded+coal+firms/5023423/story.html).
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/2 "2011-07-13T18:50:57Z")
I do so love link-reading tests.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/3 "2011-07-13T18:51:11Z")
“Climate Change \*Denying \*Scientist” would be more accurate, would it not?
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/4 "2011-07-13T18:51:40Z")
NM. I failed the test.
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### Author:  [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/5 "2011-07-13T18:54:28Z")
I’m curious. If you are say, a company that relies on burning wood to create your product, and you want to do an analysis of how your production would impact local and national weather patterns or air quality - how do you hire a specialist to do that research without paying them?
Where you are paid from does not = you always come up with data in favor of the payor.
That said, get government funding out of science. The sooner the better.
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### Author:  [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/6 "2011-07-13T19:06:28Z")
> [@L. G. Butts](#):
>
> If one of these guys does it, let’s face it, probably all of them do.
Bastards! I bet they don’t even wipe up after using the gym equipment either.
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/7 "2011-07-13T19:06:28Z")
Government funding of the sciences has won us a war, eradicated a number of diseases, and given us 17 of the world’s top 20 universities.
What would be better about eliminating it?
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/8 "2011-07-13T19:07:41Z")
> [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#):
>
> That said, get government funding out of science. The sooner the better.
Fuck that. Government can be impartial. Companies can’t.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/9 "2011-07-13T19:07:58Z")
Wait…
I don’t get it.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/10 "2011-07-13T19:08:19Z")
Ah yes, Willie Soon, how soon many forget. (Yeah I know the OP is a parody but just in case of Poe’s law, Soon’s infamy was noticed before)
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uXesBhYwdRo/hqdefault.jpg "7. Climate Change - "Those" e-mails and science censorship") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXesBhYwdRo)
“If this had been an undergraduate paper, [Soon and Baliunas] would had received an F”.
It did not stop Inhofe to use that flawed paper to stop an early climate bill in congress.
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### Author:  [@AlienVessels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlienVessels)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/11 "2011-07-13T19:12:55Z")
> [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#):
>
> I’m curious. If you are say, a company that relies on burning wood to create your product, and you want to do an analysis of how your production would impact local and national weather patterns or air quality - how do you hire a specialist to do that research without paying them?
>
> Where you are paid from does not = you always come up with data in favor of the payor.
>
> That said, get government funding out of science. The sooner the better.
> [@](#):
>
> Soon, who says global warming is mostly caused by changes in the Sun, not emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, has written some peer-reviewed studies on global climate change.
>
> More recently, he has written non-peer reviewed papers. In 2007 he co-wrote a paper that concluded polar bears are not threatened by human-caused climate change, which was also funded partially by grants from the oil industry.
It helps when you get rid of those pesky peer reviews.
Private funding of science will promote private interests. Cheap, throwaway crap does not always advance civilization.
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### Author:  [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/12 "2011-07-13T19:14:10Z")
> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Fuck that.\*\* Government can be impartial\*\*. Companies can’t.
You made me laugh out loud! Thank you!
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/13 "2011-07-13T19:15:10Z")
Do you have an actual explanation as to why it would be better to eliminate government science funding?
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/14 "2011-07-13T19:16:09Z")
> [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#):
>
> You made me laugh out loud! Thank you!
Can be, I said. Blindly ideological much?
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### Author:  [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/15 "2011-07-13T19:19:33Z")
Why yes Diany, I do. While some believe that lack of government funding would defund all scientific research, we have a long history in this country (and in others) of privately funded research. Donors you know.
I guess if you believe that the government is utterly non-biased then you might think no private donor would be. That would be pretty silly, but I that some think this.
Small snippet to sum up my feelings:
> [@](#):
>
> Consequently, the quality of industrial science is remarkable. “Current Contents” magazine recently reviewed the institutions that produced the largest number of cited papers in biology, and two of the top seven were private companies: Genentech and Chiron. The others were charitable foundations. One, the Howard Hughes Foundation, is totally private, while the others three (the Salk and Whitehead Institutes and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) do accept some government money.
>
> That destroys another myth: that only governments will fund scholarship. The rich, as Nietzsche wrote, have a need to give. Only last year David Packard, of Hewlett Packard, left $4 billion to his research foundation. His thousands of philanthropic predecessors include Howard Hughes (whose foundation spent $332 million on research in 1991); W. M. Keck ($95 million); John D. Rockefeller (whose foundation funded both the discovery of DNA as the genetic messenger and the development of penicillin); and Andrew Carnegie.
>
> Ordinary people, too, will fund academic research. Witness the great charities such as the American Heart Association ($105 million in 1991) and the American Cancer Society ($94 million).
Which comes from [here](http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6168).
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/16 "2011-07-13T19:23:22Z")
> [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#):
>
> I’m curious. If you are say, a company that relies on burning wood to create your product, and you want to do an analysis of how your production would impact local and national weather patterns or air quality - how do you hire a specialist to do that research without paying them?
>
> Where you are paid from does not = you always come up with data in favor of the payor.
>
> That said, get government funding out of science. The sooner the better.
YES! +1
It makes so much more sense to do have corporations research their own products. It’s not that I think that the government is dishonest, it’s just that they are incompetent. And anyway, if the research is faulty, the market can always correct the problems.
Take a look at the drug Rofecoxib, one of the most promising pain-killers released on the market in decades. The drug maker set up clinical trials and funded research on this drug and did everything they needed to do without government involvement. It’s a model of corporate citizenship and science done right!
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/17 "2011-07-13T19:23:26Z")
Aw, CATO. You’re adorable.
Never mind, I’m guessing you’re one of those “government shouldn’t pay because it’s **MY** 37 cents and **I WANTS IT!!11!!1!!eleventy** ” people. Going forward, I’ll give your opinions the consideration they merit.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/18 "2011-07-13T19:52:05Z")
> [@DianaG](#):
>
> Aw, CATO. You’re adorable.
>
> Never mind, I’m guessing you’re one of those “government shouldn’t pay because it’s **MY** 37 cents and **I WANTS IT!!11!!1!!eleventy** ” people. Going forward, I’ll give your opinions the consideration they merit.
Are you replying to me?
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/19 "2011-07-13T20:02:00Z")
> [@L. G. Butts](#):
>
> YES! +1
>
> It makes so much more sense to do have corporations research their own products. It’s not that I think that the government is dishonest, it’s just that they are incompetent. And anyway, if the research is faulty, the market can always correct the problems.
>
> Take a look at the drug Rofecoxib, one of the most promising pain-killers released on the market in decades. The drug maker set up clinical trials and funded research on this drug and did everything they needed to do without government involvement. It’s a model of corporate citizenship and science done right!
Wow, you pulled it off twice in one thread. My hat’s off to you. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-the-climate-scientists-are-greedy-liars/588903/20 "2011-07-13T20:04:42Z")
> [@Bloodless\_Turnip](#):
>
> You made me laugh out loud! Thank you!
Ever been anywhere close to the research funding process?
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