Heath Ferguson. Com

Last November, a group of climate researchers got themselves in hot water over their snide remarks and comments made in approximately 1,000 emails regarding global warming and climate change. This happened just before the U. N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and created a stir around the globe. Now the investigation into the incident has basically vindicated the scientist and academic institute they worked for. The biggest finding in the investigation is that the University was rather unhelpful during the Freedom of Information request and that the scientists were less then forthcoming with their research and notes.

Now the other article of interest in a review of the U.N. Climate Change report had a few discrepancies but was otherwise sound. The reports final outcome was that global warming was and is happening and that human beings were to blame, is in fact, not wrong.

Now I’m not going to wade into the whole debate as to whether global warming is happening or not (I believe it is, but that is just my opinion), what I want to discuss is the outcome vs. openness argument. A lot of companies I have been employed in (i.e. contracted to do a project) have had scientists on one sort or another working for them. Archaeologists, palaeontologists, engineers, etc., and they all had one thing in common, they were all secretive about their work.  It was a lifetime calling for them. It was countless days, weeks, years out in the wilds looking of that elusive (?). It was scientific papers and Journal entries, and sometimes scorn for  what they were proposing. It was writing proposals for research grants and trying to find publishers for books about the elusive (?).  It was a never ending battle of academia versus field work versus the powers that be (a.k.a.employers (museums, petroleum or mining firms, Governments)). They were always afraid someone would scoop them, steal their life’s work, ridicule them before they had all the pieces of the puzzle, ensuring they would never be taken seriously.

It was hard for them to let go of their work for fear they would lose control over their “life’s work”.  They had a passion for what they were working on, unlike anything I have seen elsewhere.  Unlike artists that live for the feedback, scientists worked for the idea that they could bring truth to the world.

The one problem with that thought process is that others don’t understand it. Most modern bosses can’t grasp the higher calling that a lifetime of research call lead to. Most managers today are focused solely on how the next move will afford them more money and prestige. The other issue at play is the grants and bequeathments being made by corporations and pharmaceutical companies. For most scientists, they are so tied to the grants to continue their research they are afraid to speak too soon. They know full well that in the end, the research they have spent their whole life collecting may never see the light of day or may be used by big business to make a profit. They understand, that, to keep their passion alive, they need all the sponsorship they can get.

That thought process is what I think is behind all of this, not the science itself. These scientists and universities live and work in a world where secrecy is a way of life, it is how they get ahead in their fields and it’s how they live their lives and make their money.

We condemn these people for not being wholly truthful, and some could say secretive, but at the same time some of the information they are gathering takes decades to compile.

We have a need in the world (especially with the advent of the internet) to require instanteous confirmation or dismissal of all information. If we can’t get a definitive  answer from Google, it doesn’t exist. Whether you believe in global warming or not, we are poor caretakers of our world and are not learning from our destructive history on this planet. One way or the other, we will know whether global warming is or isn’t happening over the next 50 years, as for the scientists and universities, we need to cut them some slack and support their cause as much as possible, because they just may be right.

At the same time, it has also been my experience that, if they shared a little more, they might all get farther ahead in their research by pooling their combined money and knowledge and expertise to get to their final goal faster.  In the end that is just my opinion and I’m not the most secretive person in the world, but I have seen it in action and know it can work.

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