Re: [Phys-l] Money creates truth.

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Of course we should question any scientific claims, but research funds
should not be offered for a particular result, except in the case where the
result is engineering.  Notice that the ads are not offering money for
impartial research, but for specific results.  Indeed the ad is not even
asking for research, but for biased reviews of existing research.  This is
precisely the type of thing that the tobacco companies did for years.  They
are asking for celebrity endorsements.

Does anyone remember how the Soviet Union supported Lysenko research?  How
about the governments that tried to debunk Jewish science by Einstein?  
It was not long ago that these same people were trying to say that there is
no evidence for global warming, but no they have just changed the tone, and
they wish to deny human influence.

If the review is "thoughtful" and comes down on the side of large human
influence will the author still be paid for it???  Why can't these critics
write their own articles???

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> Bravo! If anyone has the audacity to question the nearly religious
> claims made in reports over the past few days that the "global warming"
> measure over the past 50 years has purportedly been entirely human
> induced, they certainly are not going to get funding to do research from
> the traditional sources. Thank goodness there are these few small grants
> still available from those who are not true believers - even if they
> have a vested interest in debunking the accepted dogma and articles of
> faith of the day.
>
> Bob at PC
>
> > SCIENTISTS OFFERED CASH TO CHALLENGE CLIMATE REPORT
> >
> > IAN SAMPLE, GUARDIAN, UK -  Scientists and economists have been
> > offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's
> > largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due
> > to be published today. Letters sent by the American Enterprise
> > Institute an ExxonMobil-funded think tank with close links to the Bush
> > administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasize the
> > shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on
> > Climate Change. The AEI has received more than $1.6m from Exxon Mobil
> > and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush
> > administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of Exxon Mobil, is the
> > vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees. The letters, sent to
> > scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN's panel as
> > "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary
> > conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and ask
> > for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model
> > outputs".
> >
> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2004399,00.html