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Viliam_Bur comments on [QUESTION]: What are your views on climate change, and how did you form them? - Less Wrong
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Climate skeptics can also get money for their opinions by being employed at some "think tank". In a politically charged debate, anyone can be paid for having strong opinions. Perhaps one side has more money, but then it also has more competition for that money. Or you could try to make most money by first becoming a respected scientists, and then changing side.
tl;dr: Let's focus on technical arguments, not on "they can make money", because that's true for everyone.
Unfortunately it's a bit more complicated than how much an individual can earn.
Science, especially hard science, needs funding. Grants are what makes contemporary science happen.
If you throw a couple of hundred millions at people who are actively working to prove X and only a couple of hundred thousands at people who are trying to disprove X, a couple of things will happen. First there will be lots of "statistically significant" results in favor of X and very few not in its favor. Second, people will quickly learn what kind of proposals do get grants and what kind do not. Stir and let stew for a few years and hey! you got yourself a consensus :-/
However, industry funds research as well as academia (indeed, sometimes in far greater degree.) Industry backed think tanks are quite well funded; although one could certainly posit political factors, it's not for a lack of money that they've failed to produce research that has swayed much of the scientific community.