Subverting Science

Paul Krugman has this great column in Friday's NYT looking at how the right wing got business and others to fund organized efforts to undermine science.
...Irving Kristol, the neoconservative former editor of The Public Interest...is the father of the political strategy that lies behind the intelligent design movement - a strategy that has been used with great success by the economic right and has now been adopted by the religious right.

Back in 1978 Mr. Kristol urged corporations to make "philanthropic contributions to scholars and institutions who are likely to advocate preservation of a strong private sector." That was delicately worded, but the clear implication was that corporations that didn't like the results of academic research, however valid, should support people willing to say something more to their liking.
The principle of operation is simple:
Corporations followed his lead, pouring a steady stream of money into think tanks that created a sort of parallel intellectual universe, a world of "scholars" whose careers are based on toeing an ideological line, rather than on doing research that stands up to scrutiny by their peers.
I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that the world's biggest corporation, with a huge stake in the pollution industry, has taken a leading role.
The most spectacular example is the campaign to discredit research on global warming. Despite an overwhelming scientific consensus, many people have the impression that the issue is still unresolved. This impression reflects the assiduous work of conservative think tanks, which produce and promote skeptical reports that look like peer-reviewed research, but aren't. And behind it all lies lavish financing from the energy industry, especially ExxonMobil.
Enjoy your retirement Lee Raymond, but enjoy it soon - your grandchildren might not thank you for wrecking the planet.

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