Prompted by posts by bigblueinsanity and trying to learn and understand a little more, I did some googling and spent some time reading links like the ones I included above. I stumbled on another, not directly related to the "Climategate" issue, but I found it informative. I am sharing it for anyone who might be interested in the claim about scientists being paid and that shapes their research results. It is an
older fact-checking piece on the issue, but very interesting nonetheless, in my opinion:
Here is an excerpt that made some sense to me:
"What really leads to more funding and a higher salary is a scientist’s ability to produce groundbreaking research, not confirming the consensus," Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist,
wrote in his book “The Madhouse Effect.”
And contrary to Mr. Santorum’s suggestion, Exxon Mobil and other fossil fuel companies do fund research. From 1977 to 2014, 83 percent of the company’s peer-reviewed studies and 80 percent of its internal communications acknowledged that climate change is real and caused by humans, according to
a 2017 study that reviewed Exxon’s documents.
For me, it is very difficult to consider this issue and not think about the years of harmful health claims about smoking and how the tobacco companies and lobby tried to argue against them.
