From the Calgary Herald via the Chronicle:
A pair of "research" accounts at the University of Calgary, funded mainly by the oil and gas industry, were used for a sophisticated international political campaign that involved high-priced consultants, lobbying, wining, dining, and travel with the goal of casting doubt on climate change science, newly-released accounting records have revealed. ...
"There was a debate going on at the time about (whether humans were causing global warming) and it was not being discussed outside a tiny cadre of climatologists," [University of Calgary political science professor Barry] Cooper said in an email. "Happily, that is no longer the case. Moreover, I viewed this issue and I still view this issue as a public policy matter more than a scientific one. How else would a political scientist be expected to view such matters?" ...The university paid nearly $250,000 to APCO Worldwide, Morten Paulsen Consulting and Fleishman-Hillard Canada, where Paulsen also worked as a senior vice-president, before shutting down the accounts in 2007 in the wake of an audit that determined some activities were political in nature.
Weird this: climate science is a "public policy matter more than a scientific one"?
I've said this before and I'm sure I'll feel forced to say it again. If you are a social scientist, your primary job is to consider the social science aspects of climate change. If you are an economist you should investigate the benefits and costs of climate policy. An economist doesn't know much more (or less) about the science of climate change than the Governor of Texas.
