The Golden Rule

An old Wizard of Id cartoon defined the golden rule as "He who has the gold makes the rules." A report released by the Marshall Institute shows how this relates to global warming. Here is a summary of their findings:

• Private foundations distribute a minimum of $35-50 million annually to non-profit organizations and universities to comment on or study various elements of the climate change debate.
• Climate change-related projects accounted for over 25% of the 3-year total reported grants and contributions received by 10 of the top-20 institutions receiving support from foundations. For 6 organizations, climate change grants accounted for 50% of their reported grants and contributions received.
• The federal government spent nearly $2 billion to support climate change science programs in FY 2004.
• In 28 of the top-30 R&D performing academic institutions, federal financing accounts for more than 50% of the institution’s expenditures on atmospheric R&D.

An analysis of the report on TechCentralStation points out:

While the distribution of these funds to universities and private companies might be expected to be policy-neutral, the real situation isn't quite so simple. Government agencies that disperse research funds have an infrastructure that depends upon congressional support for their existence. Their level of continued support depends upon the level of the threat perceived by the public, which then justifies the expenditure of tax dollars.

In other words, you don't get grants unless you start crying that the end of the world is coming.

This ties in with the problem of ideologically polarized campuses. Most of the grants for climate research are going to universities. Skepticism on global warming is turning into a partisan issue with the left too busy being hysterical to allow rational examination of the issue. If research grants are given to politically polarized institutions then the results are likely to be biased.

The full Marshall Institute report lists the recipients of grants. It turns out that the University of Colorado, home of Ward Churchill, is the clear winner of grants for climate research.

The point is that the current funding structure makes it unlikely that many researchers will be given grants to disprove global warming.

Champions of human-induced warming theories dismiss skeptics on the basis of numbers. Since most scientists are believers, then the skeptics much be cranks, grasping at straws. As we can see, the system has biases built in rewarding researchers whose models support the scariest futures. ad penalizing anyone whose research does not conform to the accepted view.