Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study

[lobster]

This article
really shows how desperate big business really is and how scared there are in that it could have effect on there business if the governments are forced to use alternative energy .

 

[cyberfairy]

This is sadly very common. My brother is a scientist and was 'sponsered' (sp?) through his education at Cambridge Uni as parents could not afford it, by major drug companies. When he was testing their drugs and had reservations about their safety, was told in polite words, that his sponsership would end if he made a fuss. Despite his PHD, he is now retraining as a plumber as feels he is not a scientist but a trained seal employed and not sponsered to say things which he feels are wrong and potentially dangerous.

 

[lobster]

This is sadly very common. My brother is a scientist and was 'sponsered' (sp?) through his education at Cambridge Uni as parents could not afford it, by major drug companies. When he was testing their drugs and had reservations about their safety, was told in polite words, that his sponsership would end if he made a fuss. Despite his PHD, he is now retraining as a plumber as feels he is not a scientist but a trained seal employed and not sponsered to say things which he feels are wrong and potentially dangerous.

Thats interesting, i had a lecture on legal issues and one of the scenarios was similar to what you just described, if i was in a team that was creating a safety critical system and i knew something was wrong, and that it would put peoples lives at risk but the boss disagreed, what should i do, suggestions were to tell higher management, resign, keep quiet. How that under a contract you are paid to do a job, not think about "ethics". Its all hypothetical , but interesting nether less. Its strange how 25 marks in the exam in may will be given to a question of this nature on a computer science course.

 

[laptop]

What got me was... £10k?! They think scientist are cheap?

 

[DrRingDing]

Liberals won't like this but anyone paying money to twist public opinion should be murdered.

 

[trashpony]

What got me was... £10k?! They think scientist are cheap?

it's 10k dollars. Which is even less. Plus travel expenses though

 

[DrRingDing]

Liberals won't like this but anyone paying money to twist public opinion should be murdered.

Car bombs, kidnappings and punishment beatings are all small acts compared to the evil commited by this filth.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

That's probably just a taster to get them interested.

Exxon pays big bucks for lies about climate change.

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.

source

 

[laptop]

Liberals won't like this but anyone paying money to twist public opinion should be murdered.

 

[DrRingDing]

Murdoch would be at the top of my list.

 

[golightly]

That's probably just a taster to get them interested.

Exxon pays big bucks for lies about climate change.

source

Members of the tobacco industry were successfully sued in the US in the 90's. This is a far worse crime committed by the oil companies, but I wonder if anyone will really be held to account; they've been pretty good at wriggling out of paying damages in the past. Has not the payment for the Exxon Valdez disaster been recently cut?

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Yep, Exxon's lawyers have resisted paying out for years and have recently got a big chunk of the compensation knocked off. I can't remember the exact figure but it's very very large.

One nice thing about the tobacco companies eventually losing though is that a lot of the most damning documents that came out in court are online, and what do you know, a whole bunch of climate change disinformation specialists like Fred Seitz are clearly implicated in those documents. See e.g. The Heidelberg Appeal: a case study in climate change disinformation

 

[rekil]

I have this image of Exxon goons picking their way through a ghetto and waving a few notes under the noses of all these hardup buckfast swigging scientists.