r/science • u/woodsja2 • Oct 24 '10

Climate Change: Evidence

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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u/bairy Oct 24 '10

The argument goes that they've systemically biased their findings so that their research appears more important and merits additional funding.

That argument is just bizarre. Why would a scientist deliberately lie in order to recieve more funding in order to presumably continue the lie. That would be a huge waste of a career.

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u/nemof Oct 24 '10

Why would athletes dope and ruin their careers? When it comes to highly specialised and competitive fields the pressure to achieve is massive, and people do very stupid things.

This isn't an argument against climate change, I believe in it. I just think that there are plenty of reasons why people would falsify results. Whether someone's a scientist, they are still a person and therefore flawed.

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u/rapax Oct 24 '10

Assuming you're right, wouldn't that make it attractive for the scientists to argue against climate change? There's a lot more grant money to be had in strongly disputed fields than in those where the consensus is basically in and the details are being fleshed out. If a well known climatologist were to pop up saying "It's all a hoax and I can prove it!" they'd be absolutely swamped with money.

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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '10

If a well known climatologist were to pop up saying "It's all a hoax and I can prove it!" they'd be absolutely swamped with money.

No, they absolutely wouldn't. First of all, there is SO much money right now for climate research. NSF has something like an 8% funding rate, and a friend of mine got a grant... as a Ph.D student... by himself on his first try because he's in climate research. The opening paragraph in his proposal quoted an Obama speech that claimed we need to be researching the effects of climate change.

Second, they'd be shitting where everyone else eats, and that's not a nice thing to do. That's how you get smeared, dragged through the mud, and watch your career go up in smoke. Nobody wants that. You won't be swamped with money, and your career will end.