smoke stacks 2

Denise Robbins wrote an excellent post for Media Matters about how industry-funded climate-change deniers accuse other scientists of being corrupted.  Here’s a sample:

 Right-wing media are promoting the myth that scientists who agree with the consensus of human-caused climate change have been “corrupt[ed]” by “massive amounts of money.” Most recently, National Review published an op-ed from the Cato Institute’s science director, Patrick Michaels, who wrote that the U.S. government disburses “tens of billions of dollars” to climate scientists “who would not have received those funds had their research shown climate change to be beneficial or even modest in its effects.”

Here’s the bizarre thing: After arguing that money “corrupts” science that supports the consensus on man-made climate change, Michaels then tried to defend the industry funding behind the research that’s used to deny climate change. Michaels wrote: “Are the very, very few climate scientists whose research is supported by [the fossil fuel] industry somehow less virtuous?”

Entire post here.