While last week’s United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was widely circulated and discussed, The American Enterprise Institute’s offer to scientists of $10,000 to critique this global warming report was a blip in the news. In fact, when I heard about the report – casting little doubt that current global warming is a serious threat caused by human actions – the fact that a powerful think tank, funded in part by Exxon-Mobil, was offering cash to scientists to critique the report seemed to me to be the real news. Yet, what was real news to me did not seem to register in the media very much. That day, my family happened to be heading to New York from Maine – an 8-hour drive with Sirius satellite radio to fill me in on details. I channel-surfed for hours, yet not a single news station, other than a brief mention on NPR, reported on what to me is blatant corporate bribery of scientists. The Fox channel spent quite a lot of time debunking the panel’s report, but I never heard them mention the American Enterprise Institute’s cash offer. Here is a brief clip I found online today:

“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A think tank partly funded by Exxon Mobil sent letters to scientists offering them up to $10,000 to critique findings in a major global warming study released Friday which found that global warming was real and likely caused by burning fossil fuels.

The American Enterprise Institute sent the letters to scientists offering them $10,000, plus travel and other expenses, to highlight the shortcomings in a report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group widely considered to be the authority on climate change science.”

I’m imagining those scientists tempted by the American Enterprise Institute. I like to think there are not many of them who would sell their integrity for $10,000. If they disagree with the panel’s conclusion that humans are causing global warming, and we have much to worry about in the future if we don’t curtail it (and a very small percentage of scientists feel this way), then they should speak up, not for cash, but for truth. But the vast majority of scientists in the field have not come to such a conclusion. Let’s hope that none would sell their soul for cash. Let’s hope they would do the most good, and the least harm, and speak up not only about global warming, but also about the danger of bribery – how it makes people wonder if what is most good for themselves (a big chunk of change for their own pocketbook) outweighs what is most good for the planet and all who reside here.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | American Enterprise Institute, Bribery, global warming, Panel on Climate Change