Today there was much coverage of how a well known meteorologist has called for all American Meteorological Society (AMS) certified meteorologist that deny Global Warming is caused by humans, have their credentials revoked…
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2165452.eceNow we can, and will, debate this for sometime and it is a key topic of the “Pelosi 100 hour agenda” but here is the interesting part that few of the scientific community will discuss. Another well known meteorologist responded with this:
“*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.” http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=3a9bc8a4-802a-23ad-4065-7dc37ec39adfFollow the crisis, find the money…
Back when I lived in the Florida Keys I worked on a Sportfishing boat that took daily charters both offshore and into the Gulf looking for gamefish. There are many “Tricks & Tactics” to finding game fish and one of the most common and reliable is finding and following birds. The Great Frigate bird is very good at following large individual game fish as well as schools of fish to locate the baitfish they feed on. Once the game fish locate abd begin to feed on the baitfish it is common to find several Frigate Birds feeding on wounded baitfish and scraps.
Follow the bird, find the fish…
While living in the Keys I took several Marine biology courses at the local college and spent some extra discussion time with the department head talking about the local fishing industry and conditions. Many times during class breaks we would talk about the days fishing and what the conditions were that day. After awhile the Professor suggested that I apply for a grant to study a fishing related topic for there was a considerable amount of grant money not being utilized. At first I was surprised that he suggested that I should apply for a grant and I questioned what I could do a study on. He advised me that it was not hard to receive a grant as long as the paperwork was written correctly and supported. He told me that there were grants for thousands of dollars available and that many were not being used at that time and I should take advantage of this money.
At first I did not take this offer seriously and threw out some odd ideas for grants just to keep the conversations going. The Professor played along but yet continued that I look at the idea and give it some thought. Now living and working in the Florida Keys is a unique opportunity and I am grateful for the time I spent there but it is expensive to live in “Paradise”. When the tourism season slowed so did my charters and income. I came up with a proposal to identify, track, and record the Great Frigate birds I saw during our Sportfishing charters for we encountered them most every trip. This idea was accepted and encouraged by the Professor, which I admired and enjoyed his classes, as a very possible grant topic.
I later decided that I could not justify receiving money for something as simple as “Watching Birds” to get grant money. This was nothing new or secret and there are many articles written by senior fishermen about this subject. In fact the Captain that I worked with at the time was very well known in the Sportfishing community for his knowledge of identifying birds and what game fish they were following at the time.
I doubt very seriously that I would have discovered any additional secret to the habits of the Frigate birds and my research would have been filed away with other grant topics. But it did show me that with many studies or research projects, one must look for the money to find the true reason for a “Research topic”…
