Guardian:Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study

[cal04]

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 (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.

The UN report was written by international experts and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science. It will underpin international negotiations on new emissions targets to succeed the Kyoto agreement, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments were given a draft last year and invited to comment.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2004397,00.html

[Miss Chybil]

1. At least we're a rich third world country.

/sarcasm

[blondie58]

2. what an outrage

This makes me sick. I would hope that most scientists really care about the truth and resist that 'easy' cash. You would think with the huge profits that the oil companies have right now, that they could do something productive to help Mother Earth. Maybe they don't plan on living here in a few years?

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Anyone that would sell out the truth for a buck

is not a scientist to begin with in my book.

[Windy]

4. AEI is a menace to the world...

Not only are they a neocon organization that has aborbed the now defunct PNAC, they are the mouthpeices for corporatists...

A bunch of facists..pure and simple.

[Lisa]

5. but if the climate researchers are as well-funded as Michael Crichton says ...

... that is a puny amount for a bribe! We are all wallowing in our luxury swimming pools and scarfing down caviar, and would turn our noses up at a mere 10 grand. They must try harder to tempt us!

I have been researching global warming issues since the mid-1980s, and the vast majority of the people I work with and see at conferences are earning very modest incomes -- even for those who are tenured profs and at the top of their professions, research grant money is not for personal indulgences (as folks like Crichton would know, if they paid any attention to how real academics are). If you get $500k for your research from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, you do NOT rush out and buy a Ferrari -- you get a (used) mass spectrometer and start running samples.

I can think of way more lucrative careers to be in (and most of them are legal!), if money were the prime consideration.

[seafan]

6. Greenpeace: "The AEI is more than a thinktank, it functions as the Bush Adm's Cosa Nostra."

This is an outrage.

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study


More from this article:

.....

The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, 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".


Climate scientists described the move yesterday as an attempt to cast doubt over the "overwhelming scientific evidence" on global warming. "It's a desperate attempt by an organisation who wants to distort science for their own political aims," said David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

snip


"The IPCC process (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is probably the most thorough and open review undertaken in any discipline. This undermines the confidence of the public in the scientific community and the ability of governments to take on sound scientific advice," he said.
The letters were sent by Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar at AEI, who confirmed that the organisation had approached scientists, economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC report.

snip


Ben Stewart of Greenpeace said: "The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they've got left is a suitcase full of cash."


On Monday, another Exxon-funded organisation based in Canada will launch a review in London which casts doubt on the IPCC report. Among its authors are Tad Murty, a former scientist who believes human activity makes no contribution to global warming. Confirmed VIPs attending include Nigel Lawson and David Bellamy, who believes there is no link between burning fossil fuels and global warming.

(Emphasis added)

[Harper_is_Bush]

7. that's f'n amazing. EXXON deserves severe punishment.

I hope they get it someday.

[chknltl]

8. Global Warming is a myth

...so where's my 10 grand? Hell, tell ya what, I'll say it again for half price. Is it OK if I use the $$ to support those who would recruit Al Gore for President? I would DEARLY love the honor to vote for him AGAIN!
sincerely:
your friend chknltl

[redacted]

9. Bribery?