Wednesday, April 18, 2007

In the service of oil companies

Whenever one utters some inconvenient truth about the mistakes in some pet theories of some people (usually about global warming) they jump on you: "you are a servant of Big Oil, you're on their payroll, your research is bankrolled by them".

Doesn't matter that Big Oil is one of the biggest investors in "green" research... they would just love to find some green, profit producing energy... (who wouldn't ?).

Being on the payroll of Big Oil is no mortal sin, I wish I were...

But those shouters work usually in academia, or in some government agency, or government financed research. And they use their theories for advocating more government controls (carbon taxes, carbon permits, etc.). Shouldn't their research be suspect, in that they have ulterior motives in promoting the welbeing of the organization that finances them ?

I believe that research should be appraised according to it's contents, and not to the identity of it's financial supporter.

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