Maggie's Farm

I am a forester by trade and worked in the field for 43 years. As part of that profession I was deeply involved in reading and understanding current research. About 25 years ago I noticed that more and more, every paper and study contained a reference to global warming as a variable, however tenuous, in whatever the subject matter was. This gradually became more and more strident as time went on. Now there are whole departments at universities and government research facilities devoted to “global warming” and the research is less and less useful. It is not a coincidence that much, if not most, of this research is conducted under the funding of government grants and appropriations.
It is common to hear people support an argument on defense spending with reference to Eisenhower’s reference to a “military/industrial complex”. It is less common to hear a reference to the next section of that farewell address referring to the dangers of government funded research:
“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
The old saw is still valid. “Who pays the piper calls the tune”