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Lawmakers Seek Information On Funding For Climate Change Critics

HughPickens.com writes: John Schwartz reports at the NY Times that prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are demanding information from universities, companies and trade groups about funding for scientists who publicly dispute widely held views on the causes and risks of climate change. In letters sent to seven universities, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who is the ranking member of the House committee on natural resources, sent detailed requests to the academic employers of scientists who had testified before Congress about climate change. "My colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships." Grijalva asked for each university's policies on financial disclosure and the amount and sources of outside funding for each scholar, "communications regarding the funding" and "all drafts" of testimony. Meanwhile Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Barbara Boxer of California and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. sent 100 letters to fossil fuel companies, trade groups and other organizations asking about their funding of climate research and advocacy asking for responses by April 3. "Corporate special interests shouldn't be able to secretly peddle the best junk science money can buy," said Senator Markey, denouncing what he called "denial-for-hire operations."

The letters come after evidence emerged over the weekend that Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, had failed to disclose the industry funding for his academic work. The documents also included correspondence between Dr. Soon and the companies who funded his work in which he referred to his papers and testimony as "deliverables." Soon accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work. "What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change," says Kert Davies.

394 comments

  1. Interesing... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    SO, they're only investigating the funding sources of people who disagree with their position.

    Well, that couldn't be biased at all, now could it?

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These are probably the same people who got mad when Prof. Mann was investigated.

    2. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once funding is uncovered for the denier side they will find that 100% of it's funded by the oil industry.

    3. Re:Interesing... by Kvathe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Absolutely, we need to know the facts! Who is funding all 12,000 studies supporting AGW and how the hell did they get $14B to spend buying scientists?!

    4. Re:Interesing... by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Meanwhile in Europe where one party's politicians don't spend as much effort trying to use global warming as a bludgeon against their political enemies (and an excuse to funnel public money to their friends) popular acceptance of "climate change is a real thing to worry about" seems to be higher. How about that, hmm?

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    5. Re:Interesing... by packrat0x · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When Congress also demands "information from universities, companies and trade groups about funding for scientists who publicly [accept or] dispute widely held views on the causes and risks of climate change," then I'll care about what "prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate" think about climate change.

      It's not like members of Congress understand the "research or testimony" anyways. Nor do members of Congress care what others have to say; they use testimony as an opportunity for themselves to give speeches disguised as questions.

      --
      227-3517
    6. Re:Interesing... by ftobin · · Score: 1

      They've investigating the funding sources of people who disagree with scientific consensus.

    7. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely, we need to know the facts! Who is funding all 12,000 studies supporting AGW and how the hell did they get $14B to spend buying scientists?!

      Tax payer dollars?

    8. Re:Interesing... by alen · · Score: 4, Informative

      and the wall street banks were salivating at the thought of trading carbon credits
      your point being?

      a lot of money to be made on "green" crap

    9. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read up first, sir. Seems like you're the type to buy into the balance fallacy, hardcore.

      http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Balance_fallacy

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Communication_and_community

    10. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, Europeans funnel plenty of public money to their private friends "for the environment". Look at the subsidies for R&D programs related to green cars in Germany or the electricity prices many Europeans pay to support solar.

    11. Re:Interesing... by Sique · · Score: 3, Informative

      At one time, most people thought the earth was flat. That didn't make it factual.

      The correct sentence should have been: "At one time, most people thought the people of former times thought the earth was flat. That didn't make it factual."

      There never was a time when people, who were really interested in the actual shape of the earth thought it was flat. There have been models of a flat earth, but they existed solely because no one actually cared about the real shape. It was just assumed in the models to be flat because it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Old Germans believed the world was a tree -- but just in the sense that the World Tree Yggdrasil made for some nice stories. They never tried to map their trips assuming they would be walking along the bark of an actual oak.

      As soon as the necessity arised to know about the real shape, it was pretty clear from the beginning that the earth was round.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    12. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you proposing that there are some organizations with billions of dollars at their disposal who are secretly funneling money to the 99% of the world's scientists who believe anthropogenic climate change is real?

    13. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There never was a time when people, who were really interested in the actual shape of the earth thought it was flat

      That is just nonsense, on par with claiming the prevailing believe in Europeans still believed the earth was flat at the time of Columbus. To quote Wikipedia, since it is accurate and I'm far too lazy to put together a real counterpoint to such a stupid argument:

      Many ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD) and China until the 17th century. It was also typically held in the aboriginal cultures of the Americas, and a flat Earth domed by the firmament in the shape of an inverted bowl is common in pre-scientific societies.[1]

    14. Re:Interesing... by jbdigriz · · Score: 2

      "PKB", I think, is the term you are looking for here.

      Obviously, all private funding for science should be required to be funneled throught Lessig's superpac to be vetted and pasteurized for social responsibility, political correctness, and overall greenness. I nominate Hugh for the job. ;-)

      Funding is less of an issue to me than the allegations of fraud on both sides of this "debate".

    15. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It depends - reputable scientists disclose all of their funding sources when publishing so you usually don't have to investigate it. Given the pretty major snafu with Willie getting caught and his clear position in opposition to a large published majority, it's not unreasonable to check into actual funding sources, not just those he and others like him have reported.

      It's not uncommon to be funded by large industrial groups, even in areas that you would typically not expect - for example, BP funds a lot of non-fossil-fuel energy research at academic institutions which is totally fine, but if you receive money from them then you have to disclose it, regardless of what your results are.

    16. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can find that out by looking at their published work - it's standard practice to disclose your funding sources when publishing or presenting.

    17. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course not, silly. We should always trust the conclusion of reports and studies funded by government grants which support governmental goals and analysis.

      Sauce for the goose.

    18. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually sorry to say, but NO. This is NOT absolutely to know information, it probably could be a good to know, though.
      The only thing that matter SHOULD BE the science and the WAY it is done. Nothing else should matter.
      But of course, for this to be the case, one needs to have a STRONG SCIENTIFIC understanding in the mass media too ( and in the general population respectably) , and this is exactly what is LACKING in US and what actually IS the case, a considerably higher scientific culture in the general population, for wide acceptance in the human impact on the climate change, in Europe.

    19. Re:Interesing... by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      And if they don't list someone... there wasn't any support from said someone. Right. Scientists are just as prone to foibles, including hucksterism, as anyone. To believe otherwise is naive at best.

    20. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the fear is? Science will show who is right. No amount of studies will change the facts. Let them waste money and time on them. Fighting against these studies only fuels the speculation that global warming is just a giant money-making scam itself. (I don't believe it is, but things like this sure don't help the image.)

    21. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not implying...as such. No definitely not an implication, more of an accusation.

      Look at where the funding actually comes from. Most of it comes from a very, very few government sources. The stories in academia are legion concerning how anyone who puts in for a grant that is contrary to the prevailing consensus has less than a snowball's chance in a current climate model of getting any money, except from biased sources that don't believe the current group think.

      This is regardless of the country you focus on.

    22. Re:Interesing... by Bartles · · Score: 2

      Yes. That's a pretty good summation. Those organizations being governments who want to assert more control over their people.

    23. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes they did. Goldman particularly. They are scrambled to set up "trading desks" didn't they.

    24. Re:Interesing... by Oligonicella · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you have any problem with investigating *all* scientists working on climate, or only on one side of the issue?

    25. Re:Interesing... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A two party system practically guarantees that any major issues will devolve into a for and against and then basic tribalism takes over and people choose sides not based on merits or evidence, but simply based on which group they belong to. There are even some scientific studies that suggest presenting strong evidence will do little to actually change these beliefs. A lot of people don't care about global warming all that much and only assume a position based on their party ideology.

      We need to change the voting system to something that breaks up the two party system. That will remove a lot of the idiotic deadlock over some of these things that should be moved to the non-issue category.

    26. Re:Interesing... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We need to change the voting system to something that breaks up the two party system. That will remove a lot of the idiotic deadlock over some of these things that should be moved to the non-issue category.

      Sadly, the only thing both parties agree on is the two party system.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    27. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > There never was a time when people, who were really interested in the actual shape of the earth thought it was flat.
      > That is just nonsense, on par with claiming the prevailing believe in Europeans still believed the earth was flat at the time of Columbus

      You failed to show how the assertion is nonsense, since you're using equally dubious terms like "Europeans" (implying a nonexistent consensus) as if there was a euro-peon population who didn't think the earth was flat. Stay off this forum troll.

    28. Re:Interesing... by gtall · · Score: 1

      Yes, and the free market whackjobs have been telling us for years to let the market rule the green space so that it can investments are made properly. Now that it might actually happen, you are complaining someone might make money off it. Make up your frikken mind.

    29. Re:Interesing... by gtall · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and one side in Europe isn't running around telling everyone they are not scientists but act like ones in front of the camera telling us that man made global warming doesn't exist and if it does, we'll all love the extra warmth.

      Gee, this is fun, two can play this game.

    30. Re:Interesing... by gtall · · Score: 1

      Hmmm...hey you are right, there are still a very tiny minority of scientists who think smoking is good for you. So the science isn't settled, we need 100% toeing to the party line before any public policy can be made.

    31. Re:Interesing... by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      They're investigating the corrupt funding sources that lead to lying about climate change. We can't ignore the total corruption of Republicans forever, and just continue to let them keep lying us over a cliff. They need to be exposed.

    32. Re:Interesing... by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      Buying scientists? You seem like one of the denier lunatics. It's sad that you've been modded up by like-minded consipiracy nuts.

    33. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      >The letters come after evidence emerged over the weekend that Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, had failed to disclose the industry funding for his academic work. The documents also included correspondence between Dr. Soon and the companies who funded his work in which he referred to his papers and testimony as "deliverables." Soon accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers.

      > At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work. "What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change," says Kert Davies.

    34. Re:Interesing... by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      They don't have as high a percentage of foolish reactionaries as we do. It would be a mistake to blame the people who are telling the truth about AGW, rather than the idiot population that listens to hate-radio gasbags, and fills their heads with derp from Fox "News" and wingnut blogs. Do you also blame scientists for the creationist delusion that's so popular with the religious reactionary crowd, which happens to overlap with the AGW deniers?

    35. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well David Blood and Al Gore certainly did

    36. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You realize the actual problem here is that he did not list those sources of funding. How do you and your idiot friends get modded up when the flipping summary tells you your wrong.

    37. Re:Interesing... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      SO, they're only investigating the funding sources of people who disagree with their position.

      Well, that couldn't be biased at all, now could it?

      I guess your bias prevents you from reading. Documenting funding source for research is STANDARD PRACTICE. Hiding those sources and then LYING TO CONGRESS ABOUT IT has a tendency to viewed unfavorably.

      --
      ~X~
    38. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      and 100% of the AGW supporters are funded by government subsidies ... and produce papers which support greater governmental control. What's your point? Your argument is symmetric.

    39. Re:Interesing... by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are demanding information [...] about funding

      "My colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships."

      My fellow voters and I cannot perform our duties if policy decisions or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships. All gifts to our politicians need to be recorded, even, or rather especially, things like being treated to a nice restaurant by a lobbyist. Politicians are adults with their own money, they don't need to get treated.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    40. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many shell accounts do you have to up mod you?

    41. Re:Interesing... by wolfemi1 · · Score: 1

      Yup. Eratosthenes did a pretty good job of calculating its size nearly 2300 years ago.

    42. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      And if they don't list someone... there wasn't any support from said someone. Right. Scientists are just as prone to foibles, including hucksterism, as anyone. To believe otherwise is naive at best.

      Well obviously, that's what the story is about after all, but in general these things don't happen - there's plenty of scrutiny of scientists from all sides as it is, especially in hot-button political topics like atmospheric science.

    43. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Informative

      Do you have any problem with investigating *all* scientists working on climate, or only on one side of the issue?

      No, where did I say that I did?

      Scientists are routinely investigated. Not just climate scientists but all scientists of all disciplines - it's part of the process. Accounting for the money used to fund your research is a major part of modern science and it is carefully tracked and audited, as are the sources used by groups and individuals.

      It is your responsibility to disclose them in your published work, but that doesn't mean that people aren't also going to check if you don't - that's exactly why this story exists and why it is important. He didn't do so and an investigation caught it. This sort of financial scrutiny of scientists is not uncommon, and it happens to *all* scientists, even ones who don't work on climate science.

    44. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that why there are so many medical studies showing that smoking pot does not have short-term harmful effects? Standard? Sure. Ethical? My ass.

    45. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 0

      >The letters come after evidence emerged over the weekend that Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, had failed to disclose the industry funding for his academic work. The documents also included correspondence between Dr. Soon and the companies who funded his work in which he referred to his papers and testimony as "deliverables." Soon accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers.

      > At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work. "What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change," says Kert Davies.

      Err, you're making my point for me? Thanks?

      I assume you didn't understand my comment. You also forgot to log in.

    46. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      You realize the actual problem here is that he did not list those sources of funding. How do you and your idiot friends get modded up when the flipping summary tells you your wrong.

      Reading comprehension. Practice it.

      That is my point.

      My point; that was it.

      Point. Mine. Made.

    47. Re:Interesing... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Is that why there are so many medical studies showing that smoking pot does not have short-term harmful effects? Standard? Sure. Ethical? My ass.

      There are lots of papers that say that, just as there are many that say the opposite. It's not at all settled.

      They all should disclose who is funding them though, as is typical.

    48. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps the most important thing to come out about Soon is that many of the contracts had a "Publicity" clause that required Soon and his nominal employer to NOT mention the funding source i.e., the organization providing the funding did not want their name associated with the "deliverables". If things are above board, the usual case is that the source of the funding wants to take credit. Soon was already on shaky ground because many of his publications that failed to mention sources of the funding turned out to be the "deliverables" of the secret contracts. This is a big NoNo in the scientific world.

    49. Re:Interesing... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      and the wall street banks were salivating at the thought of trading carbon credits your point being?

      a lot of money to be made on "green" crap

      So which climate scientists got funding from Wall Street? As opposed to the non-climate-scientists experts on climate science the oil industry funded?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    50. Re:Interesing... by volmtech · · Score: 1

      Europe is more socialist, people believe any increased cost will be paid for with other people's money. I believe climate change is man-made but nothing can be done to stop it. The Peak Oil people claim the oil will run out soon anyway, then the problem will fix itself.

    51. Re:Interesing... by Chalnoth · · Score: 1

      I doubt it's quite 100%. Probably closer to 98%. There are, sadly, some people who are genuinely fooled into believing this stuff, and a small fraction of those may have the scruples to avoid receiving money from the fossil fuel industry (even if the fossil fuel industry doesn't turn people into climate deniers with its funds, it really really likes to lend as much credence as possible to climate denialism, which means amplifying the voices of any credentialed person they can possibly find who denies climate change).

    52. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look, if it upsets you that much, post your address and I'll be glad to mail you a hankie. A nice pink one to go with your politics.

    53. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deadlock isn't inherent in the two-party system. Britain has a two-party system (at least to the extent that "every prime minister for the past 100 years has been from one of two parties, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future"), and it doesn't have this particular issue. Ditto New Zealand, and France, and Ireland...

      What keeps Congress paralysed is campaign ads - the need to make campaign ads, and the fear of the other side's making them. Every vote is something that will be counted and featured in a campaign ad. That's why the Republicans voted 57 times to repeal Obamacare, even though they knew full well that it wouldn't pass and wouldn't make any difference even if it did.

      The answer is simple: fix campaign ads. My suggestion is: require every media outlet to declare whether it's "political" or "non-political", and require every advertising buyer to declare the same. Then legislate that a non-political outlet isn't allowed to take money from a political buyer, or vice versa - for any reason whatsoever.

    54. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. That's a pretty good summation. Those organizations being governments who want to assert more control over their people.

      Where are these governments? I wish my government would throw billions of dollars at AGW, regardless of their motivation. If AGW was actually a government conspiracy, wouldn't they be taking a little more advantage of it. I mean this seems to be a pretty long game they're playing: funding scientists to invent a global catastrophe and then spending decades saying there's still more science to do before we do anything too rash with our economies. I mean a great many of the people that were in power when this government conspiracy supposedly started aren't going to be around to reap the benefits. That seems like strangely altruistic behavior for a group that is conning the world into giving them more control over their people. I suppose it would make more sense if these governments were still choosing their leaders based on patrimonial DNA (paving the way for your son, as it were) but I don't know why an elected leader in an officially democratic government would be willing to stick his/her neck out by secretly funding scientists to lie to the electorate with the goal of giving their future successor's more control over their people.

      It just doesn't seem very likely, but I guess that's the cornerstone of any good conspiracy.

    55. Re:Interesing... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      then I'll care about what "prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate" think about climate change.

      Take a look at what James Inhofe (R-OK) who is chairman of the fucking Senate Committee on the Environmentthinks of global warming. TRIGGER WARNING: IF STUPIDITY UPSETS YOU DO NOT CLICK.

      http://www.slate.com/blogs/fut...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    56. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      haha so true! In Australia we are seeing a real opportunity to overcome that, last federal election over a third of votes were for minor and independent parties. No surprise that the two major parties are both concerned about this and are trying to change the laws to squish this rather than addressing the reason more people are voting against them.

    57. Re:Interesing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Love your response. I'm tired of seeing that non-factual flat-earth argument. The ancient Greeks actually fairly accurately calculated the size of the earth almost 2500 years ago. http://www.windows2universe.org/citizen_science/myw/w2u_eratosthenes_calc_earth_size.html .

      The people who use the flat-earth argument typically are stuck with the (false) Christopher Columbus story where the people at the time thought Columbus' idea of reaching China by sailing west was impossible because of the flat earth. In reality because of the understanding of the size of the earth they realized (rightly) that the length of the trip was beyond the sailing technology of the time (3 months voyage with supplies range of 1 month).

    58. Re:Interesing... by Amigan · · Score: 1

      The AMS (American Meteorology Society) is concerned about a possible witch hunt. They feel that peer-review is the best way to uncover issues with the research.

      --
      "Software is the difference between hardware and reality"
    59. Re:Interesing... by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Just because someone is ignorant of history does not mean that it didn't exist. Including the history that no-one knows anymore! 8-)
      Any sailor that goes to the horizon (about 12 miles) knows that the world is not flat. They can -see- it.

  2. Honest politicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "My colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships."

    That line from the mouth of a politician is pure gold. Pot, meet Kettle.

    1. Re:Honest politicians by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

      Especially given the fact that the vast majority of government climate funding is to uncover *human* causes to the exclusion of all others. Doesn't government outspend industry in terms of climate research around 40 to 1? The government funded researchers should be required to publish disclaimers.

    2. Re:Honest politicians by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Studies funded by the National Science Foundation, a major source of the funding you're talking about, explicitly require that you note the grant number in your published papers. From that you should have no problem auditing where the money went.

      More money may be spent in climate research but how much of that goes into designing, building, launching and downloading data from satellites? How much of it goes into supercomputers and other hardware? How much goes in to funding expeditions to remote sites? Very little gets spent on that sort of thing by the other side.

  3. Congress needs to butt out of science! by CajunArson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm tired of these evil republicans going on witch-hunts after scientists! Those evil right-wingers hate anyone who disagrees with their religion and [interrupted, whispers]..

    Oh wait, this is a brave Democrat who is uncovering a vast evil conspiracy because some evil slimeball had the gall to say that global warming is real but that the apocalyptic predictions of natural disasters made by the religion of Environmentalism aren't supported by real facts*.

    Carry on, burn him at the stake, expose all of his emails because only those who exercise the faith properly have a right to privacy.

    * Seriously, it's now considered blasphemy to say that Global Warming is real but that the world hasn't ended. You know what's funny? Those wacky Christian radio guys who predict the end of the world at least have the decency to admit the world didn't end the next day. Being in the religion of Environmentalism means you don't even have to exercise that level of introspection.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      It's not a "witch hunt" when you have actual proof that the suspected activities are taking place. All that is being established now is how widespread it is. There has not been a single case of a scientist being paid to deliver "pro" climate change research.

    2. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There has not been a single case of a scientist being paid to deliver "pro" climate change research.
       
      So those guys did their research for free?
       
      The day you start to shrug off ideological witch hunts is the day they won. Just hope you get a chance to age and die before they come and drag you away for something... or even drag you away for no real reason at all.

    3. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      It's not a "witch hunt" when you have actual proof that the suspected activities are taking place.

      Mann, meet hockey-stick graph, meet "fudge factor", meet media response to the exposure of same.

    4. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, that's a straw man for you.

      When did an environmentalist ever proclaim that the world would end or would end at a specific time?

    5. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm tired of these evil republicans going on witch-hunts after scientists! Those evil right-wingers hate anyone who disagrees with their religion and [interrupted, whispers]..

      Me too. Although I'd point out that just like terrorists, religion is more often a cover for cultural or personal beliefs that may be money and power motivated.

      Oh wait, this is a brave Democrat who is uncovering a vast evil conspiracy because some evil slimeball had the gall to say that global warming is real but that the apocalyptic predictions of natural disasters made by the religion of Environmentalism aren't supported by real facts*.

      Really? Because last I checked the "evil conspiracy" had more to do with aspects that would turn long-term investments (like vast oil fields) into greatly depreciated holdings. That a minority of people believe that it's an apocalyptic change isn't the reason a vast majority of non-denialists are for efforts to address climate change. Acid rain wasn't apocalyptic. Neither was segregation. Neither was the Great Depression. That's not the threshold one uses to suggest that long-term subtle change now is much better than much more massive abrupt changes later either through legislative action or a natural consequence of shifting ecological zones.

      Carry on, burn him at the stake, expose all of his emails because only those who exercise the faith properly have a right to privacy.

      Well, obviously no. And as much as I believe this a witch hunt, it being a witch hunt or not doesn't matter to the fact that this action by Congress is wrong on so many levels that "right to privacy" is not really the issue nor really anything most people seem to respect anyways. The simple fact is, the evidence one way or the other over the issue is already public and that's the point to discuss; there's simply no need to look deeper and the attempt to do so is corrosive on this issue like most others.

      In the end, the real problem is Congress' unwillingness to act not only on global warming but a slew of other issues. This is true for Democrats and Republicans alike and honestly a much more worthwhile discussion to have because we can actually change who is elected to Congress. We can't change the fact.

      * Seriously, it's now considered blasphemy to say that Global Warming is real but that the world hasn't ended.

      No, it isn't. That's a pretty horrible strawman. The real blasphemy is to say that Global Warming's market correction will be spread over a sufficiently long time that at a human level it won't cause many short-term problems and the long-term problems it creates will be comparable to the ones likely faced regardless (movement of people away from cities or more inland, relocation of farmland due to dwindling water supplies, a change in the common diet as meat because steadily too expensive for but infrequent meals, etc). To that end, I'd definitely agree honest discussion of the long-term future should be had. Unfortunately, I don't see enough people on the Right who even acknowledge AGW is real, that it violates to some degree their supposed religious tenet about proper upkeep of the world, and that regardless we as humans will just have to deal with problems as they arise and acknowledge the supposedly natural order of the Bible is incompatible to the modern world.

      You know what's funny? Those wacky Christian radio guys who predict the end of the world at least have the decency to admit the world didn't end the next day. Being in the religion of Environmentalism means you don't even have to exercise that level of introspection.

      Uh, yea. Feels like we've had this conversation before. That they admit the world didn't end is great. That they then set a new prediction a few months later? Not so good. And that their predictions have failed dozens of times? At that point, it's as

    6. Re:Congress needs to butt out of science! by andydread · · Score: 2

      Yes politicians need to butt out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... who cares if they poisen us for profits. When oil companies were paying scientists to say lead in gasoline was a good thing politicians shouldn't have done a thing.

  4. Equal Treatment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The funding sources of "pro climate change" researchers should be investigated as well, so we can see all the, uh, corporate institutions that stand to, um, benefit (yeah, thats it) from climate change. Or something.

    1. Re:Equal Treatment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Twenty Four Billion...Federal spending on "Climate Change".

      Fucking moron.

    2. Re:Equal Treatment by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The whole issue with Soon was not that he was funded by a fossil fuel company but that he failed to disclose that he was funded by a fossil fuel company. In most cases a study funded by a government grant is required to disclose the source of the funding in published papers and it's good scientific ethics to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

  5. If only... by JBMcB · · Score: 2

    If only there was some way of detaching politics from science.... Hm....

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:If only... by Kohath · · Score: 1

      Stop trying to use Science as an excuse to have the government bully people. Leave people alone to live their lives the way they choose, regardless of Science and the latest elite "consensus" about The Right Way for everyone to live.

      There are ultimately limits to this, of course. But the people who want to use the government to bully everyone don't seem to recognize any principled limits on their side. So the other side shouldn't preemptively concede any limits either.

      Maybe someday we won't have to deal with so much destructive extremism from so many people.

  6. Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Now the politically correct enforcers are going to jackboot all over anyone who has a different opinion?

    Obviously if they don't agree with us, they must be corrupt or worse.

    That's some Nazi shit right there.

    1. Re:Seriously? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Who is jackbooting anyone? Last time I checked, it was the psuedo-skeptics who were comparing scientists to child molesters.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Seriously? by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Now the politically correct enforcers are going to jackboot all over anyone who has a different opinion?

      Obviously if they don't agree with us, they must be corrupt or worse.

      That's some Nazi shit right there.

      No, the fact that he has been caught not disclosing his funding sources and been caught breaking ethical guidelines is what makes him corrupt.

      Just a thought.

      Disclosing your funding source is standard practice. Not doing so is very sketchy.

    3. Re:Seriously? by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 1

      No, the fact that he has been caught not disclosing his funding sources and been caught breaking ethical guidelines is what makes him corrupt.

      No. The work was unfunded. The publisher required the authors to disclose any funding for the work. Soon disclosed no funding for the work because there was no funding for the work, and disclosing no funding was the proper thing to do. In fact, it would have been dishonest to claim to have been funded by someone if you weren't. (Scarlett Johansson paid me to make that statement.)

      Greenpeace accused Soon of not disclosing his funding. The Boston Globe reported that soon had been accused of not reporting his funding. Someone started a petition to fire Soon based on the (mis-characterized) Globe article.

      I'll tell you who looks corrupt, and it isn't Soon.

      ~Loyal

      --
      I aim to misbehave.
    4. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry that you've been mislead, but you are factually wrong. Try to not be so emotional when making logical arguments, everyone can see it, and will adjust their reaction to you accordingly.

  7. Financial Relationships by sycodon · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Financial Relationships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      that is one fucking huge gravy train. I am sure no one will be influenced by this funding.....

    2. Re:Financial Relationships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So, what is 'activities' in this case?

      There is a pretty big difference between spending that amount on 'research' to support an opinion a.k.a. propaganda and building carbon neutral power plants.
      The planned budget for the Three Gorges Dam was about $ 22 billion and could be considered to be a 'climate change activity'.

      Let that sink in for a moment. The budget used for climate change activities could replace all coal power plants in the US with hydroelectric in one go.
      I wonder how big part of it is used to argue about it or otherwise being wasted.
      Heck, there is probably a nice chunk being used as subsidies to companies specializing in fossil fuels just to compensate them for their market loss when they are replaced by renewable sources.

    3. Re:Financial Relationships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's see, $21.4 billion on the Global Warming side versus $5,678 billion on the oil and gas industry side. I wonder where the largest potential for money influences lies?

    4. Re:Financial Relationships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the linked report,
          NASA 1.427 billion
          NOAA 0.319 billion
          NSF 0.333 billion

    5. Re:Financial Relationships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking of funding, federal highway funding is somewhere around 50 billion, and that's only a portion of the expenditures on transportation.

      How much is that Gravy Train, and what influence does that have?

    6. Re:Financial Relationships by BCtoo · · Score: 0

      Citation please.

    7. Re:Financial Relationships by penguinoid · · Score: 1
      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    8. Re:Financial Relationships by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

      Comparing spending on climate research with revenue is hardly honest.

    9. Re:Financial Relationships by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      that is one fucking huge gravy train. I am sure no one will be influenced by this funding.....

      Whenever I hear anyone compare scientific funding to a gravy train, I burn with contempt.

      Surviving as an academic researcher is difficult. There is a high level of competition for grant money. Typically, only one out of every 5 to 10 proposals gets funded. The dollar amount of a grant can vary significantly from $100k to a few million, depending on whether the grant covers a year-long study, or a larger mission that involves building and/or transporting equipment to remote parts of the earth or to space. But no matter what the funding level, researchers' salaries are capped by the institution they work at. Getting more grant money just allows the researcher to do more projects with larger teams. It doesn't increase their take-home pay.

      And let's not get too excited about the amount of $21.4B. It is comparable to recent yearly budgets of NASA.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  8. A Witch Hunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scientific research is a tool of the devil! All the research you need has already been done in the blockbuster film An Inconvenient Truth.

    Burn them all at the stake for such heresy!

  9. And so the Purge began... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And so the Purge began.

    Some people, regardless of the USA Constitution and its guarantee of rights, do not deserve to speak, to be heard, to be understood or to persuade. "All animals are equals. Some animals are more equal."

  10. Bizarro World by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

    .subject comment seE

  11. The Liars by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, I suppose it's a good thing if it can be demonstrated that the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel interests are behind the vanishingly small number of still-reputable scientists issuing climate change lies. But, really, when you have 98% or 99% consensus, you don't need to wonder if the 1 or 2% are lying or just wrong. There are no areas in life where we find ourselves unable to operate with a consensus of 98% or 99%.

    So the problem is not that a few scientists are wrong, or willing to be bought. The problem is that the people we elect are willing to destroy the planet for the benefit of their reelection. And the problem is that substantial numbers of voters are stupid and so incredibly self-interested that they are willing to trade their children's future for some politician's "promise" of "jobs, jobs, jobs."

    Capitalism as we see it is a complete failure, allowing 85 individuals to control equivalent assets to several billion people, and legally treating the destruction of the planet as just another externality. "Democracy" as it is practiced in the United States is a game played by advertisers and strategists; really, all you need do to understand the depth of the fraud is to realize that advertisers "buy" points with advertising buys. It's not a democracy if you've learned you can predictably alter the point spread with a "buy" of a certain size.

    There is no longer *any* legitimacy to our national-level institutions, and for the Senate or House to "investigate" fraud is a joke.

    1. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You are an obvious victim of propaganda pushing the ol consensus lie.

      Your 98%, 99% or whatever you make it up to be is nothing more than roughly 74 "scientist" running in a closed loop. That same group held complete control over the paper submissions and reviews, academic departments and even wikipedia! Before anyone even had a chance to challenge the hypothesis, they effectively blocked all debate on the subject.

      So if you are that dumb to claim there is any consensus here when there are many scientist that disagree on many points, you are nothing more than a weak minded serf.
       

    2. Re:The Liars by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 2

      The problem is the politicization of science. When the majority look for truth, and base their assessment foremost upon the credentials of men with the title of scientist rather than the evidence and results produced by science, we have already failed. We have done little more than replace religious texts that are only to be read and interpreted by scholars, with scientific journals that are only to be read and interpreted by scholars.

      The entire point and improvement that the scientific method is to bring is removing the reliance on authority and corruptible humans and replacing it with subjective, testable and provable evidence instead.

    3. Re:The Liars by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      You don't need 'legitimacy'. You gotta have faith!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's no surprise that a lot of human beings are willing to condemn their children and yours to global catastrophe and trillions of dollars in damages in exchange for a few thousand temporary jobs.

    5. Re:The Liars by BCtoo · · Score: 1

      Destroy the planet? You have got to be kidding me.
      If we were to engineer any improvement to the global climate, we would warm it and add CO2. Warmer weather increases the range arable land and CO2 enhances the growth of plants. Warmer weather also enhances economic activity.

    6. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Capitalism as we see it is a complete failure...

      It always comes down to this...some wacked out anti-capitalist agenda.

      Compare the AGW agenda with the wacko Left agenda and they match point for point.

    7. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We should question the few who vote against dictators as well, what's up with them? They should join with the other 99%

    8. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know who else is part of the 1%? Galileo

    9. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Democracy" as it is practiced in the United States is a game played by advertisers and strategists;

      You wish. If it were, there would be no need to have separate tallies for the "popular vote" (what people voted for) and the "electoral vote" (what people got instead).

    10. Re:The Liars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Consensus is not science. The overwhelming government money keeps the pseudo-scientists claiming Global Warming or Climate Change or Danger from Carbon Pollution believing in their climate models. Real scientists have shown that the models do not work correctly and do not accurately represent the real world. Yet people keep using the models to forecast rising sea levels or something, then make big noise about the dangers rising sea levels will do. But the models are wrong.

      The idiot making accusations about Dr. Soon's funding used to work for Greenpeace and many other activist groups before that. Where is HIS funding coming from? From the same bunch of pseudo-scientists who claim doom from global warming so they can keep getting research money from the government.

    11. Re:The Liars by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Capitalism's problem as it is currently practiced is it's too easy to externalize costs and foist them off on someone else or society in general. It's a distortion of capitalism when the full cost of something is not included in its price.

    12. Re:The Liars by olivercromwell · · Score: 1

      Remember, one man's oxygen was once another's phlogiston. Einstein was widely criticized before Eddington offered a proof of light being bent during a solar eclipse, thus validating the theory of general relativity. Prior to that, the "consensus" was Newtonian, and alternative theories of gravity were scoffed at. And why are we not criticizing the "scientists" in the so called consensus for their me too me too approach to grants, gladly accepting the "outcome oriented" grants from the likes of Green peace, the Sierra Fund, and others? Look at how much NOAA, NASA NGO's of a wide variety and the IPCC have spent to bolster their position. Why are they anymore trustworthy than say the Koch brothers, or the imaginary 85 people you say "control" capitalism? Why not castigate Michael Mann and his "hockey stick" graph for truncating the tree ring proxies from his calculations from 1966 onwards? Ould the fact that from then on the tree ring data did not jibe with the program? How about the constant "homogenization" of data that is performed with the temps produced by the GHCS sets? Why use on 6 of 66 weather station data sets in the Canadian Arctic when calculating the mean temps in the Arctic? Why include Sierra Club and Greenpeace policy and publicity papers as peer reviewed scientific papers in the citations in the IPCC reports? And why is it the press, governments every where and supporters of AGW constantly ignore Ottmar Edenhofer's (Co-Chair, IPCC Working Committee) comment: "The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated."

  12. Hypocrites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And none of the Congress Clowns accept donations from corporations !

    Looks like their Lover-N-Chief at the IPCC had to skip out after grabbing some "tail". And India doesn't even have Title IX.

    Ha ha. Guess the IPCC Chief was just after ... Human Global Warming ... and got burned.

    Ha ha.

  13. Are you now, or have you ever been... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...a member of an organization that practices real science by questioning the "consensus" in a scientific manner, rather than joining our religion?

    Appeal to populace is not a valid scientific method.

    This is a witch hunt, plain and simple.

  14. The real junk science by andyring · · Score: 0, Troll

    It seems to me that the real "junk science" is among the Global Warming or Climate Change supporters. Hugely significant chunks of data were completely fabricated and faked going back decades, all to show support and "proof" for climate change.

    Of this there can be no argument. It is established fact.

    1. Re:The real junk science by itzly · · Score: 2, Informative

      Of this there can be no argument. It is established fact.

      So you will have no problem proving your claim ?

    2. Re:The real junk science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of this there can be no argument. It is established fact.

      So you will have no problem proving your claim ?

      Well, Fox News said so!.

      And Sean Hannity says so too!.

      Because we all know that Fox News and AM Talk radio entertainers never lie!

    3. Re:The real junk science by andyring · · Score: 1

      Sure.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

      From TFA:

      When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

    4. Re:The real junk science by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Can you link to something, well, academic? A newspaper article is not where rational people go for their scientific information. I can see where you went wrong.

    5. Re:The real junk science by itzly · · Score: 3, Interesting

      All the article does is highlight a few carefully selected weather stations where the temperature records have been adjusted. It doesn't explain why the adjustments were incorrect. It also doesn't show what the unadjusted temperature record would look like if you took all the station data.

      Luckily, somebody else did that: http://judithcurry.com/2015/02...

    6. Re:The real junk science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The telegraph is a tabloid, not a source.

    7. Re:The real junk science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is all the proof. It is up to you whether you actually put in the effort to read it. The climate models in the late 1960s predicted that by 2000 we would be 11 degrees colder globally. In 2001 the climate change crowd said we were in trouble with global warming and predicted that Global temperatures would be up by as much as 1 degree in ten years. In 2011 (that's ten years for those who are bad a math) the temperature was up by about 0.01 degrees or essentially flat. An no, China and Inda have been pumping out more greenhouse gasses than ever, so the conservation efforts of the US and Europe have been completely nullified and pollution is actually up across the board on a global level. The sad fact is that the climate models were off by 10,000% in ten years. A real scientist takes a step back at that point and says "Hmmm, I think we may have a serious problem with our model, we should probably not be spending billions of dollars on this til we can get it right."

      As a person and an engineer, I am all for clean air and clean water, improved efficiency and smart technologies like solar power, but regulating something like CO2, which is a basic molecule required for life on this planet, is way beyond what the reasonable person should tolerate. The science just is not there.

      As a thermal engineer, this is my bread and butter, and I looked hard at the climate models about 15 years ago, and the bottom line is, there are a lot of very strong negative feedback loops keeping the temperature of the earth stable. From all of the plant life on the planet aggressively scrubbing CO2 to the radiation losses being driven by the absolute temperature of the planet to the fourth power, any small change in global temperature increases the heat loss by a massive amount, whereas changing the emissivity of the planet is only a first power change, and it takes a lot more changes than I think we will ever be able to make to actually change the emissivity of the planet in any significant way. Short of a massive asteroid strike, or a series of Krakatoa scale eruptions, the emissivity just doesn't change significantly (and by the way, either of these events would likely wipe us out for other reasons long before the climate changed.

    8. Re:The real junk science by Aardpig · · Score: 1

      Oh, kazam! Andyring is shown up for the lying sack of shit he is!

      --
      Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
    9. Re:The real junk science by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      This isn't the only instance.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

    10. Re:The real junk science by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      You might not use it as a source of scientific information, but it's a good place to learn that what's being passed off as "scientific information" is in fact a fraud. I'm sure that if the OP cited some sort of academic paper, you'd complain that the authors are being funded by the evil Koch brothers or the fossil fuel industry too.

      Global warming is the new religion and questioning it is the new heresy.

    11. Re:The real junk science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watch out, that article is FAR too scientific for any denier. I can hear the gnashing and wailing of teeth already because there is no emotional aspect telling them exactly how to feel!

  15. Government-Funded AGW by pipingguy · · Score: 0

    We already know where the dozens of billions of dollars to "support" AGW is coming from, don't we.

    1. Re:Government-Funded AGW by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Yes, governments.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  16. Who are these people? by deathcloset · · Score: 0

    Do those that fund denial actually believe they aren't doing harm to society and the world?

    Or do they just not care?

    Or is it that they actually wish to cause harm?

    I can't accept that they could actually be ignorant of the effects they cause.

    1. Re:Who are these people? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Or do they just not care?

      They think the problems will be at least decades away. They feel justified in believing this because some people have always been saying the world will end tomorrow.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Who are these people? by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      It's the natural tendency for people to interpret evidence in the way that supports their prejudice. Go to any football match (I'm thinking soccer as I'm a Brit, but I guess USian football is probably the same) and ask two supporters from different sides what they honestly thought of the merits of a referee's decision. 90% of the time they will agree with decisions that went their way and disagree with decisions that went the other way.

      My mum watches a load of those "psychic detectives" TV programmes, and whenever I watch one with her, I steadfastly refuse to accept as credible anything I'm seeing. Why? Because I don't believe in psychic powers. All that evidence, all those police officers saying they would never have solved the case without the psychic's help, I disregard it out of hand. I don't know why it's invalid, I can't prove that any of them are lying and I don't have the statistics to hand about how often "psychics" turn out to be time-wasting frauds that get in the way of investigations, I don't care. I've made my mind up and I ignore any evidence that I am presented with. I guess I'm just as bad as AGW-deniers.

    3. Re:Who are these people? by BoberFett · · Score: 2

      You're referring of course to the billions of people around the world who drive cars, use electricity, burn trees for heat, or any other activity which contributes to climate change, yes?

      Convince the world to go back to a pre-industrial standard of living, and all the industry funded "science" in the world won't make a difference. There won't BE a fossil fuel industry.

    4. Re:Who are these people? by dave420 · · Score: 2

      Burning trees for heat is as close to carbon neutral as you can get (hint: they're made from carbon removed from the atmosphere).

    5. Re:Who are these people? by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's why the EPA just implemented new standards which would ban the production and sale of almost all of the current wood burning stoves in the U.S.

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/la...

      All this environmental alarmist nonsense is just being used as an excuse for more government control.

    6. Re:Who are these people? by BoberFett · · Score: 1

      Then why all the fuss about burning down the Brazilian rain forests?

    7. Re:Who are these people? by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

      You're allowed to keep your old woodburning stove, fucktard. You just can't buy a new one that's as dirty as your 50-year-old one.

    8. Re:Who are these people? by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Which has nothing to do with "carbon".

      Are you really that incredibly stupid to think it would be? Or are you just being intentionally deceitful?

  17. lying to Congress for cash is now FREEDOM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The data is clear to everyone who can add without ideological blinders on. Oh wait ... never mind ... lying to Congress for cash is AS THE FOUNDERS INTENDED. Here's hoping big carbon's endless supply of blog shills is at least getting paid well. Or all you all just useful idiots?

  18. GOOD! by drfred79 · · Score: 1

    University research funding is pretty straightforward, corporations, non-profits, and governments contribute money for research that supports their agenda. What's a little trickier is consulting fees paid to researchers. I think if we were to evenly investigate every climate scientist the climate alarmists would be the dirtier ones.

  19. but FREEDOM ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Truth doesn't matter. MY TEAM HAS TO WIN!!! MORE PEOPLE DIED IN AL GORE'S CAR THAN ...
    I'm just curious how much of the faux engineer /. trolling is unpaid liberal hippie hatred and how much is on the clock. Because why pay for old bitter white males when you can get them for free. The climate thing is now a cartoon libertarian cause so lying to Congress is just taking one (point two mill?) for the team.

  20. Think about it. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If 95%+ of scientists agree with each other ... and are NOT all paid by the same corporations ...

    but the scientists who disagree with them ARE all (100%) paid by the same corporations ...

    I think you're implying bias on the wrong side.

    1. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Why do people keep brining up the 95% thing? Its been a proven lie. I looked it up when I first heard it and it turns out to be like 28 scientists, and the first one interviewed said he didn't agree but was put on the list with agreeing and they refused to take him out of that 95%. There is no 95% of agreement except in a falsified news story.

      By repeating lies over and over it just makes me think nothing supporting AGW is true, or you all know far less about it than you think you do.

    2. Re:Think about it. by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      if its a proven lie, provide us with the citation that "proves it" so we can all be educated.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    3. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I thought that the claim about consensus was based on peer reviewed papers that had been published and not on the public stance of individual climate scientists.

      The following article looked at 12,000 papers and found a 97% consensus regarding human-caused global warming.
      http://skepticalscience.com/97-percent-consensus-cook-et-al-2013.html

      I'm curious as to what data you used to determine that the 95% consensus statement is a proven lie. Care to elaborate?

    4. Re:Think about it. by Oligonicella · · Score: 0

      Here ya go Sparky. Here for a summary article.

      Happy?

    5. Re:Think about it. by cold+fjord · · Score: 0

      That might be insightful if it were true. Unforunately there are plenty of academics that are silenced by threats to their funding if they buck the (forced) "concensus". Witch hunts used to be concerned with brooms and cats, now they are concerned with models and views that don't conform.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    6. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, history has a lot of science that was consensus only to be later disproved. That means nothing. Second, there are many well-documented cases of global warming studies being funded by those that would profit from regulation on fossil fuels. It's a non argument. Third, who cares? Why do we care if they are wasting money on studies that will find nothing? Are you afraid they could be right?

    7. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do we care if they are wasting money on studies that will find nothing?

      The issue is that these funded studies will always find something and time and resources will be wasted arguing whether something = something.

    8. Re:Think about it. by Straif · · Score: 2

      I believe the critiques of all of the 95+% papers (and if you google it you will find many) are based on the fact that their filtering criteria are generally poorly conceived of and executed and the methods used to gauge the pro/con aspects of the paper are highly bias.

      These papers generally start by using limited databases to perform their searches on, then they use poor keyword/phrase filtering to select/eliminate candidates. For at least one paper (possibly Cooks) the blind analysis was also shown to not actually be blind. In other words the reviewers used knowledge of the papers authors as well as a discussions amongst themselves to influence their rating of it.

      So a paper that states at some point that "humans have had some impact on climate" is rated as pro AGW although the paper itself may not give any quantifiable value for that impact or even state the impact was significant. Meanwhile papers that may point toward causes of climate change completely unrelated to human activity were not even included in the counting because of key word filtering.

      It's the same methodology a lot of managers use when they want to give a promotion to their favorite employee but union or corporate rules prevent favoritism. They massage a posting for a new job that is so specific as to eliminate all other candidates, even if those specifics don't actually have any relation to the job being advertised. There is a chance their friend was the best suited for the new position but the methodology used to hire them puts the results in doubt.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    9. Re:Think about it. by ranton · · Score: 1

      Well the moderators are correct in marking this as informative, because it clearly shows where your misinformation is coming from. That paper does two things to manipulate the research done by Cook et al. (where the 98% figure comes from):

      1) It ignores all implicit endorsements that humans are the primary cause of global warming.
      2) It includes all papers giving no position when calculating the consensus. (No position really means no position, there was another column for "expression of uncertainty"
      3) It tries to say that Cook et al incorrectly labeled papers as explicitly and quantifiably endorsing man-made climate change as the primary cause

      So instead of comparing the 3937 papers which at least implicitly endorsed significant man-made climate change with the 78 papers which at least implicitly rejected it, he compared those 3937 papers with all 11,944 papers (including those that took no position, that made up 66% of all papers). This would be laughably ridiculous if not for the fact that some online readers are actually convinced by these arguments.

      To show that his methodology for rating a paper as an endorsement was accurate, Cook et al. also performed a survey of the paper authors to see what they felt about their papers' findings. Of the 1200 responses (which comprised 2142 of the papers), 97% of the selected papers endorsed significant man-made climate change. So regardless of any possibly mislabeling of each paper's endorsements, the survey helps validate the mislabeling did not significantly affect the results.

      This is exactly why citing your sources is so important. Now you don't have to continue to believe this ridiculous study.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    10. Re:Think about it. by ranton · · Score: 1

      Oops, I forgot to cite my sources.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    11. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No actually, that does not help. You like to a denier page which I refuse to visit and to a study NOT conducted by climate scientists, in fact it looks like the lead authors specialty is geography.

      Go get real sources, not biased ones.

    12. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And your evidence of this is? Right, none. Got it.

      I work in a university research lab. We disagree often with other teams' results, and have long arguments. No-one has ever threatened my funding for disagreeing with them, nor have I heard from a single colleague that this has happened to them. It's all just part of that amazing conspiracy I guess.

    13. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought that Cook's study was based on what percentage of papers took a explicit or implicit endorsement or reject of human caused global warming and ignored papers that didn't state a position.

      James Powell also did a study of 14,000 papers looking for explicit rejections of human-caused global warming. He found 24.

      skepticalscience.com seems to have replicated the study (http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-advanced.htm). Based on the methods they describe, I don't see evidence of bias in the way they rated the papers. They obtained similar results to Cook.

    14. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go get real sources, not biased ones.

      Actually I think it is your own considerable bias that is shading the sun at this moment.

    15. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cook's paper started with 11,944 papers and categorized them on a scale of 1 to 7. This categorization was not blind, nor impartial - it was done by volunteers from Cook's acquaintances and forum goers - some of whom later admitted to falsely categorizing papers. Additionally, a number of authors later objected to the categorization of their papers, pointing out that the paper did not make the claims Cook suggested it did. Finally, these 12,000 climate papers actually included hundreds of psychology studies, marketing papers, and surveys of the general public as if they were peer-reviewed and published scientific studies.

      Cook then eliminated all papers from categories 2 through 6. The only categories that remained were the ones that explicitly stated that either Global Warming was happening and mankind was THE cause, or that there was no global warming at all, ever.

      There were exactly 41 papers left that agreed with his position, that Global Warming was happening, and had been caused by Man (at least 50%).
      There was 1 paper that claimed that the climate had never changed, ever.

      There were 11,902 missing or rejected papers.

      Read more in a peer-reviewed, journal published paper that dissects Cook's false claims.
      "Climate Consensus and ‘Misinformation’: A Rejoinder to Agnotology, Scientific Consensus, and the Teaching and Learning of Climate Change"

    16. Re:Think about it. by Straif · · Score: 1

      As I said earlier, both of the studies you list have serious methodoligical issues.

      Powell did a simple search using the terms "global warming" or "global climate change" and got his results from there. Papers not using those terms were rejected outright. It's like doing a study on cars and using the search term "Porches are the best" in your criteria and miraculaously finding that 97% of your results agree with your premise (who else is going to include that phrase?). His definition of rejecting the theory was also very strict to make sure the number of actual papers in the no pile were low.

      “To be classified as rejecting, an article had to clearly and explicitly state that the theory of global warming is false or, as happened in a few cases, that some other process better explains the observed warming. Articles that merely claimed to have found some discrepancy, some minor flaw, some reason for doubt, I did not classify as rejecting global warming.”

      Cook's study had several problems, from selection issue to classification issues. Several researchers had publicly declared that Cooks study mis-characterized their papers. Not all of those researcher are anti-AGW either, some are AGW advocates, but they were honest enough to state the rated papers took no real stand on the issue. Much like Powells study, when the requirements were changed to look for papers that outright claimed climate change was primarily due to human intervention the number of papers in the consensus dropped from the thousands to the hundreds or even the tens.

      Most papers in both study sets simply took no real stand on mans overall impact on climate change. They neither claimed mans impact on climate was significant or completely neutral but in both studies conditions were set so that neutral papers defaulted to pro AGW.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    17. Re:Think about it. by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      When people cite sources, it is customary to cite credible sources. For your future reference.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    18. Re:Think about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately, this soundbite was picked out for you by your propagandists, and is completely untrue. Unfortunately, I've read this exact same quote churned on several forums, so we all literally KNOW it is a manufactured soundbite.

  21. Re:Inquisition by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They just play the denier's game. Attacking AGW folks because of funding was one of the first games the deniers played, as they couldn't come up with enough solid science on their side.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  22. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I see, so pseudo-skeptics can be as shrill and hyperbolic as they please, and that's just fine, but the scientific community is just supposed to endlessly take it up the rear.

    What are you afraid of? That it will turn out most of the shit people like you believe is bullcrap invented by the Koch Brothers?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  23. Who dares speak against the King?! by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    Come out! And accept your punishment, with shall be death by burning at the stake! You're a witch!

    Fuck all this! Make the damn politicians who write the damn laws reveal their sponsors! Then maybe they can complain about other people

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  24. Attack the messenger... by bhlowe · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Soon's paper was fine. No lies, no fabricated data... And he attempts to explain the obvious elephant in the room: Why Climate Models Run Hot, which they obviously do.

    Read more...
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...

    Billions and billions of dollars have been squandered on this boondoggle. No wonder so many people don't accountability.

    1. Re:Attack the messenger... by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Soon's paper was fine. No lies, no fabricated data... And he attempts to explain the obvious elephant in the room: Why Climate Models Run Hot, which they obviously do.

      Read more...

      http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...

      Billions and billions of dollars have been squandered on this boondoggle. No wonder so many people don't accountability.

      Your source is suspect there, I'm afraid.

      If his papers are fine then why did he not disclose his funding source? That's rule one about publishing your work. To not do so is very sketchy.

    2. Re:Attack the messenger... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      AHAHAHAHAHAHA. You're citing Breitbart of all news sources and trying to claim they're... fair and balanced.

    3. Re:Attack the messenger... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      If it's so obvious he wouldn't need to write a paper on the subject. When you use words like that you're showing your bias, which kind of makes people not want to listen to anything else you say, as there are plenty of more reliable sources to learn from. Just a hint.

    4. Re:Attack the messenger... by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      There was no funding source on Dr. Soon's latest paper.

    5. Re:Attack the messenger... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reliable being what you already agree with...

    6. Re:Attack the messenger... by Straif · · Score: 1

      Pretty much every climate model of the past 2 decades has predicted much hotter temperatures that we are currently seeing, that's not a sign of bias, that's a provable fact.

      The paper is not about the easily verifiable preface that most AGW models have been way off on the high side but an explanation as to why.

      The fact that you attack the GP as bias when he is merely stating a know fact is more an indication of your bias on this matter than theirs.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    7. Re:Attack the messenger... by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      If his papers are fine then why did he not disclose his funding source?

      Prove that he didnt. Currently, all there are are claims that he didn't under the premise that sometimes he is funded by X but in some papers he doesnt say that he is funded by X.

      25 years ago I collected unemployment or a few months, which is why I am now disclosing that this post was funded by unemployment insurance. Also, its funded by the lottery administration because once I had a $4 winner. Not to omit anything, my current employer is also funding this post, and lets not forget that my friend paid for dinner the other night.

      Sure, none of that actually funded this post, but then apparently you dont have to prove that they did in order to damn me.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    8. Re:Attack the messenger... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      So he works for free?

      Must be nice.

    9. Re:Attack the messenger... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Prove that he didnt.

      Look at his paper and also at the sup for his paper. Is it in there?

      Proof.

      Next question?

    10. Re:Attack the messenger... by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      He worked, as did his co-authors, on this paper on his own time.

      As was disclosed.

    11. Re:Attack the messenger... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      He worked, as did his co-authors, on this paper on his own time.

      As was disclosed.

      Given the nature of the material in it, that is a very convenient dodge, and is certainly an unusual way to go about it.

      There's obviously nothing wrong with that (assuming that your other funding sources can pay your bills), but it's not typical. Whether it is suspicious or not, it looks suspicious.

    12. Re:Attack the messenger... by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

      What, you think the White House Press Agency (conglomeration of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NY Times, LA Times, etc) is going to print articles pointing out these kinds of inconvenient truths? Dream on. And if you can find inaccuracies in the article cited above, feel free to point them out.

    13. Re:Attack the messenger... by bhlowe · · Score: 1
      Again, you attack the messenger, this time its Breitbart news site. Which fact did Soon get wrong? Which fact did Breitbart get wrong?

      Please cite the law or ethics rule that Soon broke, with citation.

      Soon's paper is ethical and peer reviewed. Attack the science if you can... but I'm guessing you can't. Most global warming "deniers" don't deny the data -- carbon dioxide is rising, but simply the (dire) predictions and proposed solutions.

    14. Re:Attack the messenger... by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      Al Gore quoted the best climate scientists who predicted a hockey stick rise in temperatures that never happened. That isn't in dispute. The paper is about why those models may have been so wrong. Or did you not catch on that they had to change the name of the crisis from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change." ?

    15. Re:Attack the messenger... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you respond to a defense against a genetic fallacy by using another genetic fallacy?

    16. Re:Attack the messenger... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The $1.2M funding over a decade was for other research done prior to this paper. He prepared thi paper without external funding, hence nothing to declare for the paper.

    17. Re:Attack the messenger... by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      Unusual, no.

      The fact that you do not like the answer has nothing to do with the price of tea in China.

      But of course, there is no way for me to stop you trying to spin this into something is not and try as hard as you can to discredit him because you do not like his research.

      And to warp up, what makes money from the fossil fuel industry so dirty when its tied to papers that disagree with AGW but clean as white snow when its given to the AGW camp side? Because I'm sure you know that there is just as much, if not more money given by big energy to the AGW camp, from Shell, to Exxon, Koch and others.

      Its a double standard and it has no bearing on the actual research.

    18. Re:Attack the messenger... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      And to warp up, what makes money from the fossil fuel industry so dirty when its tied to papers that disagree with AGW but clean as white snow when its given to the AGW camp side? Because I'm sure you know that there is just as much, if not more money given by big energy to the AGW camp, from Shell, to Exxon, Koch and others.

      I know - I mentioned this specifically earlier in the comments.

      I have been funded by exactly that sort of money, in fact, in past research, although I am currently funded via a large general programme grant.

      You're inferring that I think "oil money" is dirty. All I'm saying is that not disclosing your funding source *regardless of what your science says* is suspect.

    19. Re:Attack the messenger... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AHAHAHAHAHAHA. You're citing Breitbart of all news sources and trying to claim they're... fair and balanced.

      How about NY Times, Which is the original article refered by Breitbart ?
      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0

      You didnt read much before commenting I guess.

    20. Re:Attack the messenger... by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Look at his paper and also at the sup for his paper. Is it in there?

      Which paper? The one you claim was funded by someone?

      This post is funded by unemployment because at one time I got some money from them.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  25. Gravy Train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Alllllll Aboard!

  26. The Real Lie - faking statistics by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nice trick - pretend you have 98% consensus in order to proclaim all who disagree with you as quacks - all while neglecting to say of course what exactly constitutes "agree"...

    Then when you disagree with anyone in particular who was in the original grouping, you can claim they were part of the wacky 2%.

    When you have people disagreeing with your position on the level of Dyson, you really need to re-think how grounded your position truly is, as opposed to "consensus through fear and intimidation".

    Oh, and Soon being paid for by Koch? That was in studies long ago, not even the current study in question... but there's another fact you'd hate for people to know, because it means that you are lying when you claim the study you don't like is funded by Koch.

    All that matters of course is you discredit anyone who disagrees with you, just like the Scientologists. We all know how trustworthy they are. If I were you I'd think much harder about the intellectual company I keep.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by itzly · · Score: 1

      Dyson contends that since carbon dioxide is good for plants, a warmer planet could be a very good thing.

      That isn't even wrong.

    2. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by dave420 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The old appeal to authority. Nice. Well, Dyson is a physicist and mathematician, so his opinion on this matters exactly the same as yours - not a jot.

      You're doing a great job of discrediting yourself - no one else needs to even bother.

    3. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Relax. One person that you can cite along with a partisan tirade about politics isn't going to convince anyone. And rightly so, there are no convincing facts in your post. No data. No refutation, just a rant. Worse, it is filled with logical fallaices, guaranteeing that no educated person will agree with it while simultaneously claiming the intellectual high ground. Hypocrisy, ignorance of data, fallacies, insults, it is all just so much hot air.

    4. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 1

      The procedures used by the IPCC to gather data and come to consensus are described here: http://www.ipcc.ch/

      I suggest you read them, because it is clear you haven't. I'd also suggest you read the lists of authors of the working group reports. Perhaps you might consider contacting a few of them to find out why they believe what they believe. Until you've done so, you're not worth taking seriously.

      Also, I notice you do not respond to the fact that United States elections may be purchased like any other commodity, according to the persons appointed to the supreme court. There is a clear and accepted correlation between expenditures on advertising buys and ad-market voting results, yet the persons appointed to the supreme court do not believe in preventing the expenditures of millions (or, for that matter, trillions) of dollars on advertising buys by the interested parties who got them appointed. That makes your own interests very clear.

    5. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Before you hold up the IPCC as any kind of standard you might want to do a search on "IPCC discredited reports". In the results you will find references to authors who not only disagreed with the reports but quit over it. You'll also find references to IPCC positions being purchased. Also references to some of those "sources".

    6. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 1

      This is fairly hopeless, I see.

      I'm sure the IPCC, like any other bureaucracy, has problems. But you cannot take a situation where there is no consensus and fool everyone into believing that there is a 98% or 99% consensus. The consensus may be wrong, but I do believe in playing the odds.

      I'm sure there are occasional credible people who disagree with it; we are not machines. I'm sure there are people agreeing just because there is a consensus; again, we are not machines. But to suggest that the vast majority of those who have the ability to study the subject have not reached consensus about certain issues is simply to deny reality.

      You can easily see the effect of propaganda when you compare public opinion of the IPCC in countries like the UK with public opinion of the IPCC in countries like the United States. The GOP and Tea Party have succeeded in destroying belief in any neutral organizations because, as Ronald Reagan explained to us, "facts are stupid things," and, as Upton Sinclair wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

    7. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing is people have framed it wrong.

      Pollution (which is what GW boils down to) is bad.

      Pollution is waste. Waste costs money you money because by definition you are wasting your materials.

      Frame it in that way and people will jump on it by the bucketloads. Instead 'you fucking wacky 1% are liars' basically makes people say 'like I care anything about what you have to say'.

      I really do not care one way or another if it is warmer or colder. Pollution is never a good idea in pretty much any form.

    8. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dyson has turned into a bit of a crank in his old age. He also thinks we'll have a new ecosystem where genes mix freely between all species, which would make a good scifi novel but is idiotic science.

      It's a shame his name is getting tossed around by anti AGW folks. Hint to those people: Dyson doesn't publish peer-reviewed papers on climate. (He's right that increased CO2 will be good for *some* plants: poison ivy apparently likes it. But most food crops will only benefit very marginally). So his opinions aren't worth more or less in the public debate than the average person in the street. By the way, any grad student in math anywhere can tell you as much about chaos theory as Dyson: he doesn't publish in that area either.

    9. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 2

      The old appeal to authority. Nice. Well, Dyson is a physicist and mathematician, so his opinion on this matters exactly the same as yours - not a jot.

      You're doing a great job of discrediting yourself - no one else needs to even bother.

      You are grossly overstepping in your zeal to disprove your opponent. Unless of course you really do think physics and math aren't relevant to computer modelling of... statistical estimates for changes in radiation absorption based on multiple variables. You know, the very heart and soul most important component of the greenhouse effect.

      Dyson's opinions as portrayed in the linked article include:
      Question: ...was that article substantially accurate about your views?
      Dyson:
      He had his agenda. Obviously he wanted to write a piece about global warming and I was just the instrument for that, and I am not so much interested in global warming. He portrayed me as sort of obsessed with the subject, which I am definitely not. To me it is a very small part of my life. I don’t claim to be an expert. I never did.

      Later he makes his position on various items known:

      I was involved in climate studies seriously about 30 years ago. That’s how I got interested. There was an outfit called the Institute for Energy Analysis at Oak Ridge. I visited Oak Ridge many times, and worked with those people, and I thought they were excellent. And the beauty of it was that it was multi-disciplinary. There were experts not just on hydrodynamics of the atmosphere, which of course is important, but also experts on vegetation, on soil, on trees, and so it was sort of half biological and half physics. And I felt that was a very good balance.

      After describing the work at Oak Ridge and a general assessment by everyone about the interconnectedness of the climate across disciplines:

      It’s a problem of very complicated ecology, and to isolate the atmosphere and the ocean just as a hydrodynamics problem makes no sense.

      Thirty years ago, there was a sort of a political split between the Oak Ridge community, which included biology, and people who were doing these fluid dynamics models, which don’t include biology. They got the lion’s share of money and attention. And since then, this group of pure modeling experts has become dominant. I got out of the field then. I didn’t like the way it was going. It left me with a bad taste.


      What’s wrong with the models. I mean, I haven’t examined them in detail, (but) I know roughly what’s in them. And the basic problem is that in the case of climate, very small structures, like clouds, dominate. And you cannot model them in any realistic way. They are far too small and too diverse.

      So they say, ‘We represent cloudiness by a parameter,’ but I call it a fudge factor. So then you have a formula, which tells you if you have so much cloudiness and so much humidity, and so much temperature, and so much pressure, what will be the result... But if you are using it for a different climate, when you have twice as much carbon dioxide, there is no guarantee that that’s right. There is no way to test it.

      Dyson doesn't seem particularly overstepping his knowledge. He doesn't seem to be 'denying' things. He's just putting forward some pretty reasonable skepticism. Notably, the IPCC repeatedly observes as well that the impact of clouds is the single biggest unknown in current modelling, largely because it's so very, very hard to model accurately.

    10. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

      By no stretch of imagination can CO2 be considered pollution.

    11. Re:The Real Lie - faking statistics by radtea · · Score: 1

      Dyson is a physicist and mathematician, so his opinion on this matters exactly the same as yours - not a jot

      So will you take my word as a computational physicist that climate models--which are nothing but computational physics done by climate scientists rather than computational physicists--are far too uncertain to be robust guides to public policy?

      Because that is my professional opinion, and it happens that my profession is the one that matters when judging computational physics, whether it's done by climate scientists, Freeman Dyson, or anyone else.

      I've read climate modelling papers. I've looked at climate modelling codes and there documentation (mostly AR4, which is somewhat out of date now.) I was appalled by what I saw: it's all a good attempt to work things out, there's nothing wrong with it as science at all, but I'd rather use Wall Street financial models to guide public spending policy than climate models to guide climate policy. They have a much greater chance of being accurate.

      This is not to say that climate models aren't useful inputs to the policy debate, but their accuracy if fantastically over-estimated by policymakers. GCMs have gotten Arctic warming badly wrong (the Arctic has warmed much faster than anyone anticipated) and missed the current--likely temporary--flattening of "global average temperature" increase. This is no surprise you a) look at the models and b) have the professional competency of a computational physicist to judge them. They just don't do the things that accurate models integrated over long timescales have to do, like conserve mass and energy natively.

      Models before around 2005 were especially bad with energy conservation, fixing it up by redistributing energy across cells after each time step. Climate scientists were apparently OK with that, because they didn't know enough computational physics. Anyone who has spent a career building models that eventually get checked against reality knows that that is a virtual guarantee that the result will be unphysical nonsense. This is not a political statement: it is simply a fact.

      So by all means dis Dyson for not being a climate scientist. But since GCMs are computational physics, you must take my word as a computational physicist over climate scientists, or admit you really don't care who is saying what so long as they say what you agree with.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  27. Politics, science & religion by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If only there was some way of detaching politics from science.... Hm....

    Easy: make sure to elect only religious people as politicians. So they won't need to bother with science, and can base laws & regulations on holy books alone. While in the meantime, the rest of society can use actual science to discover how the world around us works (and improve our lives in the process).

    Oh wait...

    1. Re:Politics, science & religion by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Apparently you don't understand two things. One: the *bulk* of scientists are religious. Two: the *bulk* of religious people support scientific inquiry.

      I find myself correcting atheists as many times as I do religious people. Neither side is bereft of people spouting inane generalizations.

    2. Re:Politics, science & religion by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Sadly, our political climate seems to favor politicians with religious views courting the fringes of the religious public - the ones who deny science and who would love to turn our country into a Theocracy. These folks will usually claim that the US was "based on Christianity" so they're not really making it a theocracy - it always was one. Of course, all evidence against their assertion is ignored.

      The sooner we change the political climate so that these fringes are ignored instead of courted, the better.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Politics, science & religion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bulk of scientists are religious? I would hope you can back up that assertion.

    4. Re:Politics, science & religion by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

      Maybe you could point out all the atheists in congress? I think there might be one. It would be fair to characterize your particular system of belief (religion) as "science".

    5. Re:Politics, science & religion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the *bulk* of scientists are religious.

      Bullshit.

  28. This is good. by grimmjeeper · · Score: 1

    We should uncover funding sources of people and organizations that are using that money to lie to us. It is a good thing to uncover the fact that big oil is funding the climate change deniers. But why stop there? Let's start calling upon our representatives to disclose who is funding their campaigns when they draft and vote for legislation that's only in a corporation's benefit. Since they seem interested in uncovering the money trail that leads to lies, perhaps Grijalva, Markey, Boxer, and Whitehouse can lead by example and disclose who funded their campaigns.

    1. Re:This is good. by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      "We should uncover funding sources of people and organizations that are using that money to lie to us."

      The biggest liars are getting their funding by confiscating the income and profits from working people and businesses.

    2. Re:This is good. by grimmjeeper · · Score: 1

      I disagree. Congress is getting their funding from corporations donating through 501(c)(3) corporations.

  29. bad at their jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly they are not very good at their jobs because the source of funding is irrelevant. Unless you are accusing them of outright fraud, what matters is the research itself, it's replication and peer review.

    1. Re:bad at their jobs by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Clearly they are not very good at their jobs because the source of funding is irrelevant. Unless you are accusing them of outright fraud, what matters is the research itself, it's replication and peer review.

      Right, but the rule for publishing is that you disclose who paid for your research. If you don't do that then people aren't going to take the research seriously. Your funding source is most certainly not irrelevant at all. It doesn't mean that you automatically dismiss any work that us funded by an organisation you don't like, or who you assume has an agenda - you look at the research itself - but if you don't disclose then you're nowhere.

  30. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Same as we did on the "lead in gasoline isn't harmful", "asbestos is safe to breathe" and "smoking tobacco doesn't cause cancer" instances, yes.

    Industry runs the same playbook over and over, and reasonable people counter it the same way each time...

  31. Seems to Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That shutting down funding of a contrary point of view is not exactly scientific best practice.

    1. Re:Seems to Me by jo_ham · · Score: 2

      That shutting down funding of a contrary point of view is not exactly scientific best practice.

      Who said anything about shutting it down?

      All they want is for him to disclose who is funding him, as is standard practice in science.

    2. Re:Seems to Me by Straif · · Score: 1

      For the paper that was the target of this witch hunt Soon and all his coauthors have repeatedly stated that they received no outside funding for their work.

      Greenpeace started this as a way to discredit a paper without actually taking on any of the aspects discussed in the paper itself.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    3. Re:Seems to Me by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      In which case their funding source is the program grant that keeps them employed and pays his rent.

  32. I'm aghast... by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 1

    Very interesting view from one of the authors.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  33. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It smells like fascism. That's what I'm afraid of. A lot of things lately have smelled like fascism.

  34. Steps to winning a failed argument: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Step 1: Appeal based on popularity "All the scientists believe in man made global warming." When tens of thousands of scientists come out and prove this to be false move to step 2.
    Step 2: Damn the source. Try to impune the reputation of the people who tore your argument to shreds. If they are worse than Hitler, no one will listen to them.
    Step 3: Start having your opponents kicked out of academia because they don't agree with your "science" rather than actually proving your case. When there is only one point of view, it isn't too hard to win the argument, even if you have no case.

    Note that this is what you do when the actual science (i.e. global temperature trends) and everyone's empirical experiences both disagree with your argument (the seasons and weather is no better or worse than it has been since we have been recording weather). The truth is that the scientists pushing climate change are dependent on grants they won't get if climate change is bogus, and the politicians who have bought into it either see it as a noble cause with no real understanding of the science or they see it as a way to control vast amounts of tax dollars and invade privacy and piss all over property rights.

    1. Re:Steps to winning a failed argument: by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      The Koch Brigade is out in force today.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Steps to winning a failed argument: by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

      As it almost always is when this place covers AGW, thanks to Dunning-Kruger victims thinking that their knowledge of computers directly translates into knowledge of climate science.

    3. Re:Steps to winning a failed argument: by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      I think the Salem Hypothesis can be extended to computer science types. They, like other kinds of engineers, mistake their mechanistic approach to their fields for science, and thus feel they have some special capacity to make judgments on fields they have little or no knowledge of.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Steps to winning a failed argument: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you implying that ALL CS is engineering, and not an ounce of science, not even in computing technologies, exists? (if so, citation needed much, if not, then it's my misinterpretation, but that's what, at face value, I interpreted your post as implying.)

  35. avoiding undue influence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a relevant funny

    Let's also insist on total accountability for where our representatives get their money from while we're at it. /snrk

  36. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    I'm not clear as to what you are referring to. What "smells like fascism"?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  37. Re:Inquisition by Oligonicella · · Score: 0

    Any kind of cite at all? I remember the first attempts at fund tarnishing coming from the AGW crowd.

  38. Re:Inquisition by dave420 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So you are claiming that transparency is fascism. O...K...

  39. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 0, Troll

    It isn't the "scientific community" that is making this demand, it is the people that fund the "scientific community" producing the claims regarding global warming ^H^H "climate change." You know, the "global warming" ^H^H "climate change" studies that are used to justify calls for the government to seize all control of the economy and society to "prevent" "climate change." They want to protect their investment.

    I wonder how much funding George Soros and his cronies have into this now?

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  40. Re: Inquisition by dywolf · · Score: 0

    mod up

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  41. Re:Inquisition by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The standard argument is that climate scientist have to claim the existence of AGW, otherwise they would lose their tenure, their grants or whatever their finance support is.

    Now this just uses the same argument: Climate sceptics have to doubt AGW, because otherwise they would lose their financial founding. And to support that, the lawmakers want to actually know who founds the climate sceptics.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  42. Attacking messengers - what about the IPCC? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    If we are questioning Soon because in the PAST he had funding from sources disliked by the left, why shouldn't we question all the original IPCC reports since the head of the IPCC (Rajendra Pachauri) was using his position of power as a sexual predator?

    I mean, it could well be he didn't care about the environment, he was just there to gather power and hypnotize potential prey with his positions (a pretty well known technique to get laid in college is to proclaim you are an environmentalist regardless of your actual leanings).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Attacking messengers - what about the IPCC? by davydagger · · Score: 1
      This is purely an "ad hominem". The fact that the man is a crappy person in his personal life has no bearing on his scientific research. Science has no bearing on the character of the person doing it. Only if the experiments where performed in a way that proves the hypothesis. Not that all Science is ethical, or all scientists are ethical, but science is nothing more than what can be proved by deductive reasoning. Something that this man has done. The fact a man is a scumbag does

      This is what most people do not understand science is that it is not the worship of men in labcoats.

      Also, if he really wanted to just get laid, hard science is the worst place to do it. Communications majors is most likely going to do it for you. That litterally is a field where substance of work is directly related to the character of those who perform it.

    2. Re:Attacking messengers - what about the IPCC? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      If we are questioning Soon because in the PAST he had funding from sources disliked by the left,

      The issue isn't who Soon was funded by but the fact that he failed to disclose who he was funded by.

  43. Re:Inquisition by MrHanky · · Score: 1

    Financial disclosure is standard procedure in scientific publishing. Problem is, of course, that few AGW denialists ever publish anything in scientific journals.

  44. Guys, stop it by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

    my poor killfile is so full of deniers that it's not able to fit one more wafer-thin mint.

  45. Re:Inquisition by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hey, Liberals are nazis now, so transparency being fascism is perfectly cromulent in this worldview.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  46. You forgot to note by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You forgot to note that DEMOCRAT lawmakers on the witch hunt. Just thought I'd clarify. Climate change is a fraud. The most corrupt branch of 'science' in history.

  47. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Powerful people in government going after citizens who are critical of the party line. That's what smells.

  48. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Sure, if you want to argue that an inquisition is just an attempt to achieve transparency. Then yes, I will argue that it is fascism.

  49. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1, Informative

    No, Progressives are authoritarian and in some cases totalitarian fascists, not NAZI's. Liberals always have been and always will be liberal.

  50. Freeman Dyson. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Freeman Dyson is not qualified. He is a theoretical physicist; not a Climatologist.

    It is a logical fallacy to consider one competent in a field outside of their own just because you hold their field in high regard.

    Yes, I will say the same about Bill Nye who is a mechanical engineer who goes off and pontificates on AGW, evolution and God.

    Anyway, this fighting - it's not even arguments - here on Slashdot are pointless. Very very few folks here are qualified and knowledgeable about AGW and considering the emotional edge everyone seems to have, a rational discourse is all but impossible.

    Also, there is very little anyone of us can do about it - and one way or another we are going to pay: tax payer money and higher insurance costs because the insurance industry is taking AGW quite seriously. p/Now, I have to shower to get the stench off of myself for participating in this nonsense.

  51. Re:Inquisition by davydagger · · Score: 2
    Lets be be fair, and that 90% of everything you see on TV is bought and paid for by someone with an agenda. What I'm affraid of is muck raking turning into a one side politically oriented witch hunt that is "only right when I do it". Anti-capitalist "exposes" will be done by one group of capitalists against another, while feverntly blocking their own funding sources.

    We can't get the same standards for police brutality that exist in Fergeson to be applies in LA, Chicago, or New York City. We can't get the same standards of ethics you have on the oil industry to apply to Big Media, Big Pharma, and of course the Globalization cartel.

    Muck Raking has been turned into an extortion racket. I'm not taking part.

  52. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The first acknowledgement of fund tarnishing would come through tobacco and leaded gasoline lobbies.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Institute

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe#Advocacy_of_lead_in_gasoline

    This is just continuing the same.

  53. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So investigating a conflict of interest is now "going after citizens"?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  54. Re:Inquisition by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What are you afraid of? That it will turn out most of the shit people like you believe is bullcrap invented by the Koch Brothers?

    I'm afraid that people like you are absolutely certain of what you believe, and that one of the things you believe is that none of your beliefs were influenced by anyone with a motive.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  55. Raúl M. Grijalva by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has anyone checked this joker's papers?

  56. Re:Inquisition by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's some grade A word salad there.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  57. That was my point by SuperKendall · · Score: 0

    This is purely an "ad hominem".

    No different from Soon, where he is being attacked NOT because the current funding is from Koch, but because he had the audacity to EVER take money fro them. No different, except Soon is not groping women (if you want to rank offenses).

    if he really wanted to just get laid, hard science is the worst place to do it.

    Exactly, which is why he's in climate science, which at this point has more akin to astrology in terms of accuracy and actual "science". Just because his chicken bones come in the form of heavily doctored data does not make his prognosis any less Scienthy.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That was my point by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      No, Soon was attacked for not disclosing his funding in relevant papers.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    2. Re:That was my point by davydagger · · Score: 1

      No different from Soon, where he is being attacked NOT because the current funding is from Koch, but because he had the audacity to EVER take money fro them. No different, except Soon is not groping women (if you want to rank offenses).

      groping women and doing bad science are completely unrelated. You can be a terrible person, but still a good scientist. You can be an unethical scientist(doing things like torture), and still be a good scientist.

      You can be a good person, and still be a shitty scientist. You also seem to be mixing up correlation and casuation. Again, its probably because you don't understand science.

      Exactly, which is why he's in climate science, which at this point has more akin to astrology in terms of accuracy and actual "science". Just because his chicken bones come in the form of heavily doctored data does not make his prognosis any less Scienthy.

      Um not really. you have nothing to back up your claim that his work was heavily doctored except you disagree with it, and are simply making counter arguments to take the heat off a scientist who has been caught red handed.

    3. Re:That was my point by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 0

      No, Soon was attacked for not disclosing his funding in relevant papers.

      No, Soon was attacked for not disclosing his funding in irrelevant papers. Actually, that's not strictly true. Soon was attacked because he opposed the narrative. His funding is just a red herring.

      ~Loyal

      --
      I aim to misbehave.
    4. Re:That was my point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are 100% incorrect. Many scientists have been funded by questionable sources, and it's fine as long as it's disclosed, as EVERY OTHER SCIENTIST DOES. This has been mentioned many, many times in this thread, you must have skipped those posts. It also doesn't help that he used the term "deliverables" for his papers, which implies a paid-for solution (I offer deliverables to my clients daily. They pay me for exact results.).

  58. Re:Inquisition by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    What "smells like fascism"?

    Doom is barreling down on us at an unprecedented rate. We have to turn over huge new powers to government to avoid this doom. Government will create huge new bureaucracies to combat the doom. The huge new bureaucracies will be financed by huge new taxes. The bureaucracies will control huge new swaths of business. Businesses will fund huge new lobbyists. Bureaucracies will create huge new regulations. Huge new regulations and huge new lobbyists will be funded through price increases. Huge new portions of subject populations' income will be devoted to governments, bureaucracies, and business. That smells like fascism.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  59. Re:Inquisition by itzly · · Score: 2

    Funny. Very few governments seem to be willing to do anything except sit on their asses.

  60. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Great. So you come up with a solution to AGW...

    But let me guess, you conveniently reject the science.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  61. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When the transparency applies to only one side of the argument...yes it is. Notice how eager the GW religion attacks and attacks but magically can never be questioned scientifically without fear of being targeted. Go ahead and pretend this is still about science.

  62. Re:Inquisition by itzly · · Score: 3, Insightful

    one of the things you believe is that none of your beliefs were influenced by anyone with a motive.

    Of course they were. Just like your beliefs. That in itself doesn't help us determine which are true, though.

  63. The point is he understands real science by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    The old appeal to authority. Nice.

    No different than your appealing to "climatologists" who can't get ANY predictions right over many decades of trying.

    Why do you distrust a physicist / mathematician, who is far more apt at understanding statistics, chaotic systems, and the pure physics involved in atmospheric changes than a climatologist (with a much more shallow education in any of those areas) can possibly be?

    That's the really puzzling aspect of people like you who believe deeply in people specializing in what is essentially a nascent filed; you are putting more stock in people who have less hard science training, and the results of their predictions based on what amounts to faith dressed up as science are telling.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:The point is he understands real science by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Why do you put so much trust in a person whose field of expertise is not atmospheric sciences?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:The point is he understands real science by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 2

      Because they're on the same team, silly. Dyson says things he agrees with and that's all that matters.

    3. Re:The point is he understands real science by Flaming+Foobar · · Score: 1

      No different than your appealing to "climatologists" who can't get ANY predictions right over many decades of trying.

      Yes they can. The models actually work beautifully. Just because you say they don't doesn't make it true.

      Why do you distrust a physicist / mathematician, who is far more apt at understanding statistics, chaotic systems, and the pure physics involved in atmospheric changes than a climatologist (with a much more shallow education in any of those areas) can possibly be?

      Because he isn't. Just because you say so dosn't make it true.

      That's the really puzzling aspect of people like you who believe deeply in people specializing in what is essentially a nascent filed; you are putting more stock in people who have less hard science training, and the results of their predictions based on what amounts to faith dressed up as science are telling.

      What's really puzzling is how idiots like you, who have absolutely zero knowledge of the kind of education and expertice climate scientists have, can spout that sort of bullshit so confidently.

      --
      while true;do echo -e -n "\033[s\n\033[u\134_\033[B";done
    4. Re:The point is he understands real science by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      I have to wonder what Freeman Dyson would say if he sat down for a day with someone like James Hansen who could speak with him on his level about the issues. I suspect he might change his tune.

    5. Re:The point is he understands real science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No different than your appealing to "climatologists" who can't get ANY predictions right over many decades of trying.

      There are two ways you can come to that conclusion. You have not read anything at all on your own, and have taken the talking points of others as pure fact, or you have read and cherry picked out the results you want, much like the people who make the talking points. Either way, you are completely incorrect, and should probably go back to high school science class, as your teacher dismally failed with you, kiddo.

  64. Re:Inquisition by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

    Well I suppose you would support an equal amount of investigation into the funding of those that might be considered GW activists, you know, to make sure they are not funded by the renewables industry, or their lobby or other activist organizations?

    Personally, I think when science allows itself to get into witch hunt mode, it is damning itself to staying there. Scientist should stand up and say "we got this, politicians, please stay out of it".

  65. Legal Precedent? by PPH · · Score: 1

    Didn't we go though just this sort of thing when some lawmakers tried to subpoena Micheal Mann's communications regarding the backing for his research? And were these demands for information eventually blocked?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Legal Precedent? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Mann did disclose the source of his funding. That's the issue here, Soon didn't. Anything you need to know about his research is in his published work and that's what he should be judged on. Anything else is irrelevant.

  66. Really? by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    Anyone else see the irony of a CONGRESSMAN complaining about 'undisclosed financial contributions'?

    Seriously, I don't care which party he's from; they're all idiot scum.

    --
    -Styopa
  67. Re: Inquisition by thePicket · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have no idea what you're talking about. The principle is called full disclosure, has nothing to do with the inquisition, and is required by every respectable scientific journal and research institution. Willie Soon's problem is not that he had received money for research (all kinds of industries finance all kinds of research all the time), but that he failed to disclose the fact (well, bragging to his sponsors about his papers as "deliverables" certainly didn't help his reputation either). A wider disclosure check is not inappropriate in this context.

  68. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1, Funny

    Pretty soon the FCC won't allow you to say that.

  69. Buying the Line by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If his papers are fine then why did he not disclose his funding source?

    If you are intelligent why is it that you buy into the implied lie that Soon's funding is Koch? That's just what the left is implying, they aren't saying it outright because it's not at all the case - only that Soon a while ago did accept some funding from Koch, not involved at all in this study.

    Yet you bought that line, you made the leap they wanted you to make because you want to believe SO BADLY.

    Think for yourself man and shrug off the nose ring!

    1. Re:Buying the Line by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      If his papers are fine then why did he not disclose his funding source?

      If you are intelligent why is it that you buy into the implied lie that Soon's funding is Koch? That's just what the left is implying, they aren't saying it outright because it's not at all the case - only that Soon a while ago did accept some funding from Koch, not involved at all in this study.

      Yet you bought that line, you made the leap they wanted you to make because you want to believe SO BADLY.

      Think for yourself man and shrug off the nose ring!

      Where did I say that I thought his funding was from Koch?

      I said that he did not disclose his funding source and that makes it suspect.

      Given the level of your argument though, it seems you're not interested in discussing it. You also forgot to log in. If you forgot your password then you can reset it by email.

  70. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean such as this example, where the Soon info came from the former director of Greenpeace US research?
    Somehow the director of Greenpeace research thinks that research funding affects the results of research.

  71. You can try by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    But you cannot take a situation where there is no consensus and fool everyone into believing that there is a 98% or 99% consensus.

    Yes, that is what we have been trying to tell you

    You and others are trying your damnedest to prove it is possible. I give you an 'A' for effort in that regard, but I'm afraid at this point the sample selection of people who are buying that fabrication is too low to be able to claim you can in fact fool everyone.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  72. Funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny, the more the science looks doubtful, the more the political pressure builds. Sieg Heil!

  73. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go back to your tea party and leave the science to the adults. Climate change deniers are the minority for a reason.

  74. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bull-fucking-shit. AGW is about the observation that increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere lead to increased energy in atmospheric systems, increased surface temperature, increased ocean temperatures, and increased absorption of CO2 into the oceans leading to acidification.

    This idea that the laws of the fucking universe somehow have to abide by YOUR political ideology is so ludicrous as to make me believe you either a fucking moron or a religious fanatic.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  75. Re:Inquisition by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

    Exposing frauds is the inquisition now? You sound like one of the people who's been crazed by the far-right-wing propaganda that turned too many American Conservatives into clueless, angry, totally deranged extremists who will support any corruption that is supported by wingnut media.

  76. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    What the fuck do I care about "activists"? I don't care what Al Gore says. I don't care even the tiniest bit. Quit dodging the issue, which is the science itself.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  77. Dyson Vs. "Climatologist" by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Dyson: "theoretical physicist" who understands the movement of air well enough to make a portable cyclone you can move about your house.

    Climatologist: Understands the entire workings of the climate so well that they have been unable to form a single model that correctly predicts future behavior of the Earths climate in two decades of trying; constantly claims it's because of some new factor they seemed to have overlooked, claims they know everything THIS TIME.

    In practice, Dyson is far less theoretical than any climatologist.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Dyson Vs. "Climatologist" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Different Dysons

      James Dyson: Vacuum cleaners. Engineer.

      Freeman Dyson: Physics.

    2. Re:Dyson Vs. "Climatologist" by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      Dyson: "theoretical physicist" who understands the movement of air well enough to make a portable cyclone you can move about your house.

      Reading this I find myself wondering how well-researched are your other arguments, because it looks to me like you've conflated Freeman Dyson with a the British inventor of a vacuum-cleaner. :)

      Not trying to be rude but this is something of a glaring error, unless I'm missing something myself?

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    3. Re:Dyson Vs. "Climatologist" by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Great point; ruins my joke but not the main point, which is that a "theoretical physicist" does in fact understand more of the components of climate (and the statistics needed to think about them properly) than do "climatologists".

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    4. Re:Dyson Vs. "Climatologist" by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      Oops. Looks like I just levelled-up in Joke Whooshology again, my apologies.

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  78. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Are you now or have you ever been associated with a climate change non-alarmist organization?"

  79. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    During the McCarthy era it was. What's different here?

  80. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

    You're comparing asking a researcher why they received large amounts of cash from groups with obvious and well known biases to AGW research to McCarthyism?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  81. Re:Inquisition by moonlandingchap · · Score: 1

    Funny. Very few governments seem to be willing to do anything except sit on their asses.

    that and green taxes

  82. Re:Inquisition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    Sure, because that's how Common Carrier works...

    Educate yourself and stop listening to Rush.

  83. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The climate deniers will dig up/manufacture/fake any evidence they can to try and cast doubt on actual scientists. The deniers love to claim the science has all been bought. They must think that because thats how they get all their science. I vote we shine that bright light and see what scurries away.

    What are you afraid of Cold Fjord?

  84. Re:Gub'mnt warmist pimps by moeinvt · · Score: 1

    Exactly.

    "Climate Change" is to the political left as "Terrorism" is to the political right. Frighten the public into demanding that the government do more to allay their fears. Government is always happy to grant itself all sorts of new powers in order to oblige.
    Funny. I thought that the left might not be so gullible, especially after the government so recently completed such a major power grab in the wake of 9/11.
    Before this "climate change" nonsense is over, we'll all be limited in the number of cubic feet of living space we're allowed to inhabit and our food, gasoline, home heating fuel and electricity will be stringently rationed. To protect us from "climate change" of course.

  85. Kert Davies is a shill douchebag. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because an individual or institution receives funds doesn't prove a conflict; only a potential conflict. His diatribe is simply more baseless rhetoric attempting to undermine the science proving there is not a climate change problem and substantiating his bad science.

    If he proceeds with his witch hunt then I propose every learning institution that receive any public, private or corporate funds be force disclose their relationships in complete detail. Oh wait; that would be everyone, lol.

    Kert Davies is truly a shill douchebag. Period.
     

  86. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean rooting out corruption? I actually think allowing bought and paid for scientists to spout unsupported beliefs because they have been purchased by a powerful private entity sounds more like fascism. I have no problem with them being advocates for a belief, I just don't like seeing scientific results being warped because it lines someones pockets.

  87. Re:Inquisition by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    His socks.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  88. The bigger picture by whitroth · · Score: 1

    Let's see, it *is* a crime to lie under oath, esp. to Congress.

    Next, it's a "witch hunt" or McCarthyism, when it's discovered that someone testified under oath to Congress and didn't tell them that his "deliverables" were funded by the climate-change deniers whose wealth - oil, coal - needs it denied.

    So the anti-global warming crowd here is defending biased results based on income... oh, that's right, the Invisible Hand of the Free Market (tm) will show that global warming's not happening, and so it's hunky-dory to build new oil and coal-fired power plants, and prevent solar, wind etc technologies from helping change the field... and take money away from the companies. Presumably, they're investors in those companies, too.

    Too bad the Real World doesn't see that Invisible Hand. And how many of them live right next to coal-fired power plants?

                      mark

    1. Re:The bigger picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been clicking various links above.

      It turns out all this fuss is over a one year grant that the Smithsonian received in 2008 for solar research. The deliverables were progress reports.

      Going in to this, I was tempted to believe the allegations. Now I'm not so sure. I see a 2015 paper that's over my head, accusations of it being funded by climate change deniers, a freedom of information request showing a one year grant from 2008, and a lot of woo.

      This all sort of reminds me of gamergate in a way. Two "sides" having a political hissy fit with very few actual facts being involved. I think perhaps the most annoying is watching the anti-AGW crowd here spout off nonsense about data being fudged. I don't think anybody's actually looked at the paper. It uses the so-called "fudged" data to show a warming trend (that much at least isn't over my head). It just wasn't as large or as hockey-stick shaped as Greenpeace had hoped.

  89. Consensus OR Science by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid this is just a sad statement on society. People are either unable or unwilling to rely upon the scientific method, evidence and testable, provable facts. Instead an appeal to experts and human authority are still the order of the day. We are all taught in modern education about the dark ages when secret religious texts were a central source of wisdom, and only a select few well educated scholars were deemed worthy of accurately interpreting those texts. We are taught about how terrible the impact of human corruption was on that time.

    Fast forward to today though, and we now have advanced to holding scientific journals as a central source of wisdom, and only a select few well educated scholars are deemed worthy of accurately interpreting them. Is nobody else disturbed by how little difference we have made between the priesthood of old and the scientific consensus today?

  90. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me repeat the question: What's different here?

  91. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think fascism means what you think it means.

  92. The Inquisition (Let's begin) by burtosis · · Score: 1

    The Inquisition (Look out sin)!

  93. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So pointing out their vested interests is McCarthyism? You do realize the deniers use the same argument against real scientists don't you?

  94. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The difference is that no one is going to go to jail, and the worst repercussions are likely to be the researcher in question is taken to task for not reporting his funding sources.

    Are you fucking retarded?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  95. Re:Inquisition by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

    Actually, it is the "science itself" that I was saying should be what matters. If you don't care about "activists", then you shouldn't care about the 'deniers" this article is focused on.

  96. Re:Inquisition by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n...

    No the left likes to forget they laid the groundwork for Nazism, Italian Fascism and Communism.

  97. Meanwhile in Reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coldest year on record here.

  98. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Oh fuck off. Jesus you're irrational.

    Nobody questioning this guy is demanding he be jailed.

    Fuck you're an idiot.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  99. Consensus is NOT Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Consensus is the exact opposite of science. If we went with the consensus, the Earth would be flat, the sun would revolve around the Earth, the moon would be made of cheese, etc. Science is questioning *everything*. Anybody who says there is a consensus in AGW and opposition is to be silenced or downplayed is anti-science.

    What are *you* afraid of?

    1. Re:Consensus is NOT Science by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      I see. So the fact that the overwhelming majority of linguists believe French, English and Urdu all descend from a common mother tongue mean that the consensus proves Proto-Indo-European studies are false?

      You're talking bullshit, and sounding like a simpering moron.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Consensus is NOT Science by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      Consensus is the exact opposite of science. If we went with the consensus, the Earth would be flat, the sun would revolve around the Earth, the moon would be made of cheese, etc. Science is questioning *everything*. Anybody who says there is a consensus in AGW and opposition is to be silenced or downplayed is anti-science.

      What are *you* afraid of?

      You don't understand what a scientific consensus is. In science a consensus exists when there are no longer arguments among the practitioners of a science about a particular point in that science. It's not something they vote on, it just happens organically.

    3. Re: Consensus is NOT Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You only need one counter example to disproof a theory, never mind the number of people who think the theory holds. So one counter study that shows how AGW errs is enough, scientifically speaking, to make any consesus moot. And there are more than one.

    4. Re: Consensus is NOT Science by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      That's simplifying the concept of falsification to the point of inaccuracy, or more appropriately in your case, an outright lie.

      As to counter-studies, some fraud paper published in a Mexican pseudo-journal does not constitute the destruction of AGW.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  100. Re: Inquisition by Kohath · · Score: 0

    On the other hand:

    - Dietary cholesterol is bad for you.
    - Coffee is bad for you.
    - Eggs are bad for you.
    - Margarine is good for you.
    - Eat 9-11 servings of carbs per day.
    - Vaccines cause autism.
    - GMOs are frankenfoods.
    - Stomach ulcers are caused by stress.
    - Dietary sodium is bad for you.
    - Reefer madness
    - Prohibition
    - 55 Saves Lives
    - Repressed memories
    - Rule of thumb
    - One in five women on college campuses are sexually assaulted

  101. Re:Inquisition by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

    Maybe you noticed the CRU leaks mentioning how AGW alarmists work with publishers to black ball skeptics.

  102. Re:Inquisition by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 1

    Manufacturing evidence. You mean like "adjusting" all the raw data to make it look like temperatures are rising when the raw data show no such thing?

  103. Re:Inquisition by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 2

    I wonder how much funding George Soros and his cronies have into this now?

    We could look into that. But according to you (here) it would be a witch hunt. So I guess we can't look into conflicts of interest.

  104. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What percentage of people hurt during the McCarthy era actually went to jail? Are you saying that this is exactly like the McCarthy era except no one has gone to jail yet?

  105. Re:Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    It smells like fascism. That's what I'm afraid of. A lot of things lately have smelled like fascism.

    He who smelt it...

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  106. your little corner of the northeast... by tekrat · · Score: 1

    Is not the entire world.
    Globally, it's the warmest year on record.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    1. Re:your little corner of the northeast... by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

      However, there is no such thing as a global temperature.

      Averaging of all local temperatures is a completely meaningless tool for evaluating if climates are being affected by rising CO2.

      Climates are regional, they are NOT global.

      Besides, 0.02C +/- 0.09C does not make a year the WARMEST on record. It makes it pretty much flat with the rest of the last 18 years.

  107. Re:Inquisition by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The denier in question is a scientist, who has taken large amounts of money from the fossil fuel industry without reporting it in his papers.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  108. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That should be left up to the Journals he published in. WHY does the government need to get involved in the funding of 'scientific works'. It's the Journals that should be held accountable for not doing their due diligence. Nothing wrong with wanting 'full disclosure' of funding, but what does the origin of the funding have to do with the value of the scholarly work? Who were the referees on his published works? What work did they do to determine if the observations made valid/reproducible and any conclusions drawn consistent with the data? What is it that even passes for a Journal these days? What value are they supposed to bring? Anyone, anywhere can publish anything they want on the Web, doesnt' make it worth more then the bits needed to transmit it though.

    Having said that, if you're going to appear in front of Congress & testify then the Congressional members are acting as 'referees' and get to ask any damn question they want in order to determine the 'validity' and accuracy of the testimony, if they think knowing who funded the research matters I guess that's up to them. But they might ask more pertinent questions about the validity of the science.

  109. The sad state of climate science by burtosis · · Score: 1
    For a problem that is going to impact everything from rising ocean levels to farming - people should want to know exactly what is going to happen - if humans are responsible or not.

    If oceans rise just 5 feet it's going to take tens to hundeds of trillions dollars to do things like move entire cities or create flood barriers. Increases In salinity and changes in rainfall can lead to completely redoing the water supply for entire regions which in turn can completely alter the manner of agriculture in each region. Increased storm activity can take a toll also.

    It may look like the US spent 22B in climate research but actual research dollars were only 2.5B of that amount. The global women's shoe market is 80B whereas the global soccer (football) market is much larger. I have done some research and found we spend more yearly on the two than all of climate research ever done since the beginning of science. For a problem with such a high likelihood of being plausible its pretty damn insane more hasn't been done to understand and map the problem. I would not be suprised if the cost of dealing with a changing climate exceeded one quadrillion usd dollars within only 150 years.

    We need more satellites that map various temperatures (including ocean), land use, cloud cover, and co2 distributions. We need more studies and data on glaciers - autonomous sensors everywhere. Same goes for ocean currents - also temperatures from deeper that you may not get from satellite. We need better climate models that let us accurately predict the changes that are likely - region by region - something current models struggle with. We cant feed those better models with better data, or more accurately check predictions because we lack the means of acquiring better data. Ultimately, in 100years or so, there may be serious wars fought over the redistribution of wealth that a changing climate will force on us all.

  110. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait a minute! Are you saying that most of shit is bullcrap? Do you have a peer-reviewed study to cite?

  111. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The funny thing is, I can't tell which side you're talking about.

  112. Re: Inquisition by maxlybbert · · Score: 1

    I would feel a lot better about the disclosure if it were even handed. Instead of saying "those questioning whether climate change will lead to a catastrophe must disclose their sources of income before appearing before this committee" say "anyone appearing before this committee must disclose their sources of income." Full disclosure's a good policy, but it shouldn't be used as some kind of weapon to intimidate people from testifying.

  113. Re: Inquisition by BCGlorfindel · · Score: 1

    Same as we did on the "lead in gasoline isn't harmful", "asbestos is safe to breathe" and "smoking tobacco doesn't cause cancer" instances, yes.

    Industry runs the same playbook over and over, and reasonable people counter it the same way each time...

    Make rats breath asbestos for 10 years, witness proof it's a problem.
    Make rats breath tobacco smoke for 10 years, witness proof it's a problem.

    With climate, what's the equivalent metric to make the degree of danger clear?

    We have instrumental temperature records that are only about 100 years old. Those records show clear and steady warming.
    We have records showing CO2 increasing drastically over that same time frame. We have easy and clear physics to show that CO2 traps radiation and contributes to warming.
    The consensus though tapers off hard after these basic facts. The overwhelming majority of the remaining evidence is computer models of processes that act over centuries and millenia. How much confidence and weight should our policy decisions place on modelling of long term processes, when we lack really good long term data to even calibrate against?

    My point isn't we should be filled with doubt and uncertainty, but merely to observe that claiming climate change is as scientifically proven to be deadly as smoking is just, false. You shouldn't be doing it, as the science doesn't support it, which if I recall is the entire basis of the concern and complaint in the first place.

  114. Re:Inquisition by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 0

    So, this is focused on investigating just one person? That's even more of a witch hunt than I thought.

    I believe we should use science to deal with the claims of scientists. Funding source investigations may bolster suspicions or give some people an excuse to ignore, but they do nothing to prove if the claims have a basis or not.

  115. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1

    No, that's how fascism works. Pretty soon they'll come for you.

  116. Re: Inquisition by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    Using the force of the United States government vie senate commity is the McCarthy connection. You and I can debate or ignore based on funding sources all day long. We are not the government.

  117. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any time a paper is published, or even presented at a conference, it can be referred to as a 'deliverable' to the agency that funded the work. Deliverable is a technical term. In standard academic usage it does not imply that a particular result in the study was 'delivered', but rather that the funded work resulted in a tangible thing (i.e., a published paper).

  118. Re:Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 2

    It isn't the "scientific community" that is making this demand, it is the people that fund the "scientific community"

    Nope, its the people who have to listen to the same "experts" (who mostly aren't climate scientists) repeating the same arguments that disagree with the vast majority of actual climate scientists. And they want to know if there is something going on here - like the experts being paid by the same people as those who insist that they know more about climate science than actual climate scientists. You know, Senators like James M. Inhofe and people like the Koch brothers.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  119. No, to find corruption by Baki · · Score: 1

    n/t

  120. Re:Inquisition by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    What "smells like fascism"?

    Doom is barreling down on us at an unprecedented rate. We have to turn over huge new powers to government to avoid this doom. Government will create huge new bureaucracies to combat the doom. The huge new bureaucracies will be financed by huge new taxes. The bureaucracies will control huge new swaths of business. Businesses will fund huge new lobbyists. Bureaucracies will create huge new regulations. Huge new regulations and huge new lobbyists will be funded through price increases. Huge new portions of subject populations' income will be devoted to governments, bureaucracies, and business. That smells like fascism.

    ~Loyal

    One thing's for sure. If we don't do something about AGW all of those things will come to pass as the effects become more and more evident and people start demanding action.

    On the other hand we could just impose a gradually increasing carbon tax* that would require a relatively small bureaucracy to administer and have the effect of making non-carbon energy sources more attractive as time goes on.

    *The carbon tax should be imposed at the well/mine head or point of import of fossil fuels and possibly a tariff on imports from high carbon emitting countries. The carbon tax's proceeds should be distributed as an equal dividend to all legal US residents. The would have the effect of easing the tax's burden on low income residents and penalizing high carbon producers. The existing IRS could handle the dividend part of it.

  121. Re: Inquisition by maxlybbert · · Score: 1

    Thinking about it: the committee is based on the assumption that avoiding a climate disaster will require a lot of government intervention. Unless the policy is applied to everybody it will essentially become "people who don't support government intervention or increased government spending must disclose their sources of income before appearing before this committee." I think the result of that approach is pretty obvious.

  122. Re:Inquisition by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    That's a pretty twisted interpretation of what happened.

  123. Re:Inquisition by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    It isn't the "scientific community" that is making this demand, it is the people that fund the "scientific community" producing the claims regarding global warming ^H^H "climate change." You know, the "global warming" ^H^H "climate change" studies that are used to justify calls for the government to seize all control of the economy and society to "prevent" "climate change." They want to protect their investment.

    I wonder how much funding George Soros and his cronies have into this now?

    Where are the "Funny" mods? I laughed so hard at that I had to explain to my coworkers what I was laughing at.

  124. Let's get all the cards on the table by khelms · · Score: 1

    I often see postings by climate deniers, skeptics, critics, whatever you want to call them claiming that the 97% of scientists who supposedly believe in AGW do so because their pay is based on them supporting it. Somebody should put together the stats on who is funding the scientists in the field, whether they are pro or con on the issue and what are the terms of their "contract". Do they have a grant to specifically study the issue of AGW, are they just studying climate in general, or are they just on salary and don't have a grant to do anything in particular? Also, where are the people located? Are they mostly in the US, or spread out among many countries?

    I want more info than just a single "97%" statistic.

  125. No problem really, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't have a problem with needing to expose "funding for scientists who publicly dispute widely held views on the causes and risks of climate change", as long as we *ALSO* expose funding for those who *don't* publicly dispute those views as well. Honestly, I think the funding for every researcher should be publicly stated. Period. Not because they are "for" or "against" some POV... just "because" it's the right thing to do from a scientific standpoint to share who provided funding for the research (and thus any potential bias).

  126. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The standard argument is that climate scientist have to claim the existence of AGW, otherwise they would lose their tenure, their grants or whatever their finance support is.

    That's been the case since at least 1992 and why many scientists look for funding elsewhere such as other governments, DoD, etc. rather than try the contortions necessary to tie their work to "global climate change".

  127. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, how else would you know who the heretics are?

  128. Re:Inquisition by neoritter · · Score: 1

    Tell us how you really feel.

  129. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no AGW.

  130. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is transparent and has already been subject to a Congress enquiry a couple of years ago, which revealed no hidden funding for the scientists who reject the climate hysteria.
    https://theclimatefix.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/i-am-under-investigation/

  131. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many of the adjustments to the data are actually downward i.e. it reduces the warming trend. Here you can read about some of the adjustments and actually test it yourself using the provided data: http://www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=255

  132. Re:Inquisition by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 1

    One thing's for sure. If we don't do something about AGW all of those things will come to pass as the effects become more and more evident and people start demanding action.

    Perhaps not. Perhaps global warming has a net beneficial effect where fewer people freeze to death in the winter, more land becomes arable in the northern latitudes, and plants produce more foodstuffs and fibers from the increase in carbon dioxide. Or perhaps Mt. Pinatubo will blow throwing particulates into the air dropping world average temperatures by one degree for years.

    On the other hand we could just impose a gradually increasing carbon tax* that would require a relatively small bureaucracy to administer and have the effect of making non-carbon energy sources more attractive as time goes on.

    A small bureaucracy? Isn't that something like a temporary tax increase? Do you know how many people were employed by the US government to set gasoline prices? That should have been a small bureaucracy, right? Price per gallon? Has to be less than 85 cents? It took 10,000 people to do that. You are one hundred miles further from the refinery? You get to charge two cents more. You sell gasoline in California, using the California formulations? You get ten cents more. You live in Utah, and no one from your state is on the Ways and Means Committee? You get eight cents less.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  133. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps the most important thing to come out about Soon is that many of the contracts had a "Publicity" clause that required Soon and his nominal employer to NOT mention the funding source i.e., the organization providing the funding did not want their name associated with the "deliverables". If things are above board, the usual case is that the source of the funding wants to take credit. Soon was already on shaky ground because many of his publications that failed to mention sources of the funding turned out to be the "deliverables" of the secret contracts. This is a big NoNo in the scientific world - if you are in a conflict of interest situation, it should be known. Here it is obvious that the people providing the funding knew he would be in a conflict of interest situation and wanted this fact to be hidden.

  134. Re:Inquisition by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

    Why would you want a solution to a warmer and better world? Can we currently grow food on tundra? No. But with AGW, all of Canada and Siberia come on board as farm land. So skying gets replaced by warm weather sports. Big deal.

    Pure comedy gold, thanks for the laugh!

    --
    ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  135. Re:Inquisition by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

    No, it is accurate. Check out a paper by David H. Douglass posted at wattsupwiththat entitled "How IPCC Scientists interfere with publication of inconvenient scientific results"

  136. Re: Inquisition by thePicket · · Score: 1

    Full disclosure is the general rule, and in most cases you will easily find information on funding for particular research. But in this case (it's not just about Willie Soon) you have a long-running, well organised campaign of financing climate change denial. AEI (Big Oil money) used to pay 10k plus travel and expenses for conference papers questioning IPCC reports. Go ask your scientist friends when was the last time they were paid ten grand for a conference paper, take note of their dropping jaws.

  137. Re:Inquisition by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Well, clearly *SOME* hidden funding has been revealed, as mentioned even in the summary. Possibly not by that enquiry, but perhaps they just didn't look very closely.

    OTOH, I *do* think that the sources for funding for *all* those who testify before congress should be revealed. And for any other favors or promissed favors also. There's nothing wrong with taking money from somebody who agrees with your findings, but there is wrong in hiding that you did so if they are used as a guide for public policy (or even the policy of some private group that isn't the one paying you).

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  138. Re: Inquisition by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

    Wrong, a change is needed in science, where scientists disclose the agenda they are working to, and by who approves the agenda that is funded.

    I see what you did there. You are implying that (climate) scientists have an agenda. And that makes it okay for AGW-deniers to have one, doesn't it?

    If scientists aspire to any agenda, it is to advance the understanding of nature through observation of it. Of course, scientists are human, and some may have hidden agendas. That is why scientists are obliged to reveal their observations and their methods that they use to arrive at their conclusions, so their peers can examine it. Revealing their sources of funding is part of that process.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  139. That's rich given what you've done to Mann. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh noes! They're asking for all comments and information on what the scientists are doing behind closed doors! THAT'S SO UNFAIR!

    Unless, of course, the witchhunt is to hound climate scientists who think we need to do something to stop AGW getting too bad to fix, then it's SOOO UNFAIR that they get to keep anything private, 'cos science must be all open and available, right?

    But not when it's Willie and your pals. Oh, no, they're being held by the inquisition if they even ask!

  140. Lawmakers want WAR, UN wants eugenics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    even the Peanut Gallery knows
    It's why they keep this oath breaking horseshit up. Problem, Reaction and Solution.

    These fuckers embrace spying, domestic blacksites, kill lists, theft of wealth, banksters, and lawlessness

    Here's some of these commie motherfuckers....

    ICLEI USA Members — ICLEI Local Governments for ...
    www.icleiusa.org/about-iclei/member
    ICLEI | Member List | Agenda 21 Implementation
    www.procinctu.info/iclei-list-members-agenda-21-implementation/
    Agenda 21 - ICLEI Update: 138 ICLEI Members Quit
    www.varight.com/ news/ agenda-21-iclei-update-138-iclei-members-quit-iclei-in-18-months-we-g ot-em-on-the-run/
    Members - ICLEI Canada
    www.icleicanada.org/members
    ICLEI IS HIDING ITS LIST OF USA MEMBERS - DEMOCRATS AGAINST U ...
    www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/ 1/ post/ 2013/ 08/ iclei-is-hiding-its-list-of-usa-members.html
    About a month ago ICLEI removed the membership list for the USA from their icleiusa.org website. On their international website they still list USA members but NOT BY CITY--just by state.

  141. Re:Inquisition by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 1

    Well, clearly *SOME* hidden funding has been revealed, as mentioned even in the summary.

    No, no hidden funding has been revealed. Soon and three others wrote an unfunded paper. They did the research on their own time, and no one paid them to do it, and no one paid them for it. The publisher required authors to disclose funding for the work being submitted. The work being submitted had no funding, so that's what they disclosed. Greenpeace started digging into the authors' histories and found that Soon had received funding for previous work. They told reporters that Soon should have disclosed funding for previous work as though it had been for this work. The Boston Globe reported that Soon had been accused of non-disclosure. Someone started a petition to get Soon fired based on a mis-characterization of the Boston Globe story. No hidden funding has been revealed, but enough slanders have been spread to instill doubt about the work, which, one presumes, was their intent.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  142. Re:Inquisition by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 1

    Of course they were. Just like your beliefs. That in itself doesn't help us determine which are true, though.

    I'm glad you agree. Now you and I just have to convince MightyMartian.

    ~Loyal

    --
    I aim to misbehave.
  143. Oh, gee. Wanting to know who's financing it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...what a conceot! Maybe they'll get even MORE innovative AND TRY APPLYING IT TO THE CLIMATE-CHANGE BELIEVER'S SIDE, TOO! Gore got rich from climate hysteria, and he's far from the only one, or even the most successful at it.

  144. Re:Inquisition by PatHMV · · Score: 1

    Bull-fucking-shit yourself. Opposition to the global climate control movement is NOT based on denying that, in general, increased CO2 concentrations can have warming impacts. It's based on, among other things, questioning the level of impact, actual historical baselines, other potential causal factors (over many of which humans have no control), and feedback and self-correction mechanisms that may exist to moderate warming caused by increased CO2 (and other gases) concentration in the atmosphere.

    The idea that any debate over these very serious issues is tantamount to a denial of the fundamental laws of the fucking universe is so ludicrous as to make me believe you are either a fucking moron or a religious fanatic. You seem to consider the IPCC reports as holy writ, revealed by the higher power of "science," and thus unassailably accurate and unquestionable.

  145. Re:Inquisition by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    It's the AGW side that keeps claiming that every opponent is a shill for Big Something, while their own funding comes from pennies dropped in their charity boxes by pandas and polar bears.

  146. Greenpeace at it again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From what I've read about it, Greenpeace fed this information to friendly reporters at the NY times.

    The documentation actually shows it is a 1.2million donation to the Smithsonian Institute.

    This is not like 2011 when Dr James Hansen (director of GISS @ NASA at the time) collecting over $1.6million US in speaking and event appearance fees.

    The moral to this story is if you say 'doom is nigh' you can collect income from AGW. If you try to disprove the sky is falling, expect to be lynched ala Galileo.

  147. Re:Inquisition by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    And as a bonus, Florida would disappear completely.

  148. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not true.

    They work very hard at listening to everything you have to say.

    At the NSA.

  149. Re:Inquisition by Chalnoth · · Score: 1

    This doesn't mean that the $1.2 million that Soon received from the fossil-fuel industry had no impact on Soon's outlook.

    It doesn't help that it is a ridiculously terrible paper. His argument boils down to: "Using a small, cherry-picked subset of the data that has known errors that we aren't going to correct for, we can see that incoming solar energy is correlated with temperature, and therefore CO2 doesn't cause climate change." This argument is equivalent to say that because sugar intake is correlated with weight, exercise has no impact on weight, in addition to the horrible treatment of the data.

    Either Soon is utterly incompetent, or he's a cynical shill for the fossil fuel industry. I'm not sure which is worse.

  150. Re:Inquisition by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 1

    You're comparing asking a researcher why they received large amounts of cash from groups with obvious and well known biases to AGW research to McCarthyism?

    Receiving large amounts of money is actually fine. Receiving large amounts of money and not disclosing it is a problem.

  151. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they were interested in "conflicts of interest", they should investigate funding for all the researchers in the field. People are just as likely to tailor their research topics the other way, if that's where the real money is....

  152. Re:Inquisition by camg188 · · Score: 1

    Who are you quoting in your comment? Mr. AdHominem?

    I don't think you have read the article or you don't understand what they were investigating. So let's stop being juvenile with the attacks and discuss the science.

  153. bias much? by samantha · · Score: 1

    Since when does one (roughly) side of a controversy deserve much more examination and aspersions as to whether they are "bought" or not than another? Does anyone seriously believe the pro-AGW folks all are totally un-invested scholars speaking only pure objective truth as they best see it? Give me a break.

    Everyone that has some doubt about the official AGW story or claims has been roundly vilified for quite some time now. They have been compared to flat earthers or young earth folks for bothering to voice an opinion. This is not the stance of any sort of enlightened discourse or inquiry. It is a concerted effort to silence and shame critics of a politically aligned position. It has almost nothing to do with real science.

  154. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    There are many catalysts for laughter, ignorance being one of them. I expect you are quite easily amused.

    The idea of bread mold curing infections is probably going to keep you giggling for hours.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  155. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    Nope, its the people who have to listen to the same "experts" (who mostly aren't climate scientists) repeating the same arguments that disagree with the vast majority of actual climate scientists.

    "Nope" ??? "Nope"?? I would call that a failure of comprehension. You do realize that the US government funds a great deal of climate research, right? And who approves the funding?? Who is it that is demanding the information?

    ... the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are demanding information from universities, companies and trade groups about funding for scientists who publicly dispute widely held views on the causes and risks of climate change. In letters sent to seven universities, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who is the ranking member of the House committee on natural resources, sent detailed requests to the academic employers of scientists who had testified before Congress about climate change.

    I'm glad you managed to work the "Koch brothers" in there. It shows you're "serious." (eyes rolling)

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  156. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    So you are claiming that George Soros is a climate scientiest producing climate models and studies that dispute various aspects of climate change in addition to being a currency manipulator, business man, one of the richest men in the world, and a left wing activist and financier? That is fascinating. I don't suppose you have any documentation to back that up, do you?

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  157. Re:Inquisition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    Only if people like you get their way. The governemnt has checks and balances, not so in the private sector. I can't vote comcast out and I probably don't have another option.

  158. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > The funny thing is, I can't tell which side you're talking about.

    That's good. It's good to be fair to all sides, because lies wither under an even playing field.

    So yes, everybody should disclose their sources and funding and reputable folks already do so.

    Frankly, politics hurts, rather than helping this, as it divides us along tribalistic lines for silly reasons.

  159. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Ha. Do you really still think that? How's that IRS investigation going? Did you like the public comment period before the FCC vote today?

  160. Re:Inquisition by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Well, first of all "climate change" is a far older term than "global warming". Gilbert Plass published a paper titled "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change" in 1958. The terms are used interchangeably.

    The rest of your post is just hyperbolic.

    I imagine you're giggling a lot more about the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels are a major factor in Earth's climate than I am about penicillin.

  161. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't the standard academic usage be paper? Deliverable is more of a business term, in my experience.

  162. Re: Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They had their public comments..so many that their systems fell over a couple of times. Then they got millions more.

  163. Re:Inquisition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    The IRS investigation went well and had a proper outcome, unless you have your own agenda.

  164. Re:Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Nope, its the people who have to listen to the same "experts" (who mostly aren't climate scientists) repeating the same arguments that disagree with the vast majority of actual climate scientists.

    "Nope" ??? "Nope"?? I would call that a failure of comprehension.

    Yeah. On your part. Poor downtrodden denialist.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  165. Re: Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Ignorant comments, because the regulation has not been released.

  166. Re:Inquisition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    Please elaborate on what part of this is a non-functioning check/balance? Looks like things are progressing properly.

  167. Re:Inquisition by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Oh? I thought the investigation was complete, and you were satisfied with the outcome. I don't think you really know anything about it.

  168. Re: Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Using the force of the United States government vie senate commity is the McCarthy connection.

    Odd you didn't complain about Senator McInhofe, who did exactly what you claim now happens. Only he actually did it for real.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  169. Hide The Decline by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Hide the Decline

    You can live in purposeful ignorance if you like; I choose not to, because I can understand better what will or may happen.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  170. Wisdom of crowds by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Does Wisdom of crowds bring out the TRUTH in this case?

  171. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    And yet you still haven't successfully identified either the topic of the story or who the story is centered on. If you can't comprehend something that simple it's a safe bet that you don't have a meaningful understanding of the science of climate change, which leaves you in the cargo cult enthusiast category.

    Maybe you should be planting trees, it would be more useful than your post, and it would keep you out of trouble.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  172. Re:Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    The story is about denialists not being able to handle facts. Stop proving it.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  173. Re:Inquisition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    I know that I'm not worried about it, because every time I am bothered to check on it, it is progressing in a meaningful manner. I'm certainly not obsessed with it and I'd rank it's importance somewhere under whether my turd was brown or brownish green during my last bowel movement.

  174. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    Lawmakers Seek Information On Funding For Climate Change Critics

    John Schwartz reports at the NY Times that prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are demanding information from universities ...

    Its simple to get right. You didn't, and still haven't.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  175. Re:Inquisition by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Adolf McInhofe ring a bell, Nazi scum?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  176. Re:Inquisition by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 0

    This is really kind of a moot point, isn't it? Only a moron would believe that correlation can prove causation. Especially when the entire data set is a blink of the eye in terms of geologic time. Even if our records back to 1900 were perfect for every square inch of the planet, and included an observation for every minute of every day (how meaningful are averages anyway?), that would represent about two ten thousands of a percent of geologic time, at least going back to the beginning of the Cambrian period, where incidentally, CO2 levels were 16X higher than "pre-industrial" levels. Who knows how long there was an atmosphere before that? The point is that our piddly data sets are utterly incapable of the task of proving AGW. Sorry.

  177. Re:Inquisition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a good thing there are mountains of facts and evidence to support one "belief" though, while there is absolutely none for yours that hasn't been acquired through shady means.

    But those trillionaire scientists and their agenda...

  178. Re:Inquisition by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    I can see you're trying, but you're not making much progress in getting it right. Is there somebody you know that could coach or tutor you? Maybe all you need to succeed is just a little nudge at the right time or place.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  179. Re: Inquisition by romons · · Score: 1

    They could be like Olympic athletes, and wear jerseys that have the logos of their corporate sponsors while testifying.

    --
    Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company -- Mark Twain