Just Who Has the Conflict of Interest?

It was noble of Newsweek to allow a climate change denier, climate scientist Richard Lindzen, to write a column in their global-warming scare issue.  But they wanted you to know that Lindzen “receives no funding from any energy companies.”

Oh really.  So we are to believe, writes Jeff Jacoby, that

Apparently Lindzen’s scientific and professional credentials aren’t sufficient to lend authority to his views; readers must be explicitly reassured that "energy companies" haven’t paid him off.

The cluelessness of Newsweek’s clarification is this.  Don’t they realize, and don’t Newsweek’s readers realize, that the “conflicts of interest” are all on the scare side of the global warming debate?

To begin with, staggering sums of money are channeled to researchers who emphasize the human role in global warming.

You know: grants.  Research money.  Not to mention promotion and advancement.

And then there are the prizes.  Big ones.

ASA’s James Hansen, a prominent global-warming Cassandra, won a $250,000 Heinz Award in 2001. Last month he was a co-winner of the Dan David Prize and its $1 million purse. Other awards and other purses have frequently gone to other prophets of doom. And the potential rewards don’t stop there. For those who toe the politically correct line on global warming, there have been big book contracts, hefty speaking fees, worshipful magazine profiles, softball TV interviews — even an Academy award.

Yeah.  Let’s talk about conflicts of interest.