Reply #3: I laugh myself sick whenever I hear about the "big cabal of scientists" [View All]

[Lisa]

Any accusation that researchers are raking in tons of money on global warming is hilarious ... I know a lot of these people, and they are certainly not rolling in cash. They'd make much higher salaries in the private sector, than they do teaching environmental science. Grants are spent on equipment and lab assistants, not hot tubs and Ferraris -- and even then, they often end up chipping in their own money (as I did when I had to go up to the NWT to do my graduate research). I just finished sending a care package of groceries up to a guy who is finishing his PhD research up north ... he literally can't afford to feed himself properly.

One of my profs used to work for an oil company (they bankroll some paleogeography research, but only enough to find out where the Carboniferous swamps were, so they can look for petroleum!). He commented that it's really evident who has the money -- now that he's an academic, he has to spend a lot of time trying to find research money or facilities, and his financial accountability is way tighter than in the private sector.