It sounds pretentious to call oneself a "Scientist", but I do science in the sense that I do experiments and write up the results in peer reviewed journals, so....
I don't really know squat about climatology. It is on the other side of the world of science from what I do for a living. What really bothers me about the whole AGW/Climate Change controversy is what it is doing to the perception of how science is done. I've read some of the e-mails that are being used to make the case that AGW is a hoax, and they mainly show how people talk when they think they are in private. You probably don't want to know what the surgeon digging around in your chest is saying while you're out for lunch. Will he really pull your ticker out and smack that scrub nurse with it if she hands him the wrong hemostat again? Scientists are just people you know. They gossip and carp about people they think are FOS just like everyone else. I've many times commented that it sure would be nice if I didn't have to explain an anomalous piece of data which clearly didn't match the model I was working on, but I go ahead and explain it to the best of my ability anyway. Turns out there is a really big mess being uncovered right now in my area in which an investigator just made up data that was then published. It is a really, really big mess, and it is really, really big because it is also really, really rare. Scientists who make up data usually get caught. Not always, but almost always the truth comes out.
There may well be some falsified data on the side of the AGW proponents, but the vast bulk of the data still seems to support the idea. It is too bad that in this country at least, the whole topic has become a Liberal vs Conservative argument. I'm not sure what the preponderance of non-American scientists who support AGW says about this....is America truly the last bastion of conservative thought in the world?
Science can be bought. Medical and pharmaceutical research, especially, has seen a number of questionable practices due to the enormous amount of money involved. I'd be willing to bet, however, that few scientists whose work supports the reality of AGW are getting rich from their efforts. For the most part, these folks are just doing what they learned to do. Make the measurements and report the results. There is just no real mechanism in place that lets them profit from falsifying their data, even if they had that intent. At least no mechanism that spans international borders and multiple political changes here in the U.S. and elsewhere. Conspiracy theories sure are fun, though, aren't they? Roy Spencer does a good job promoting an AGW conspiracy when he is on Rush's show. He does make money by denying AGW, and no doubt there are some AGW supporters other than Al Gore who make money on that side. However, the great majority of scientists who are reporting the data and doing the calculations probably won't be buying new Mercedes this year.
Chuck
