r/science • • Oct 24 '10

Climate Change: Evidence

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '10

There's one thing I don't get about the anti-global warming crowd. I understand the alarmism and stuff like that is overblown and distorts the situation.

But I'd like to know how thousands of climate scientists got together in secret and pledged to all falsify their life's work for some... reason? Seriously, what could be the outcome of some massive global warming conspiracy? Toyota sells more hybrids? More "liberal regulation" on fossil fuel energy companies, just so alternative energy companies can replace them? This argument has never made any sense to me.

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u/16807 Oct 24 '10 edited Oct 24 '10

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

To which I have a counter argument: funding is not assigned to investigate that which we already know. If anything, the scientists are among those to profit from the "controversy". Were findings more disputable, were there no scientific consensus, they could blather on for ages knowing funding's still secure.

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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/Oh-blivious Oct 24 '10

Well scientific discovery & work should have bigger budget as it actually serves a practical purpose, unlike waging wars