Its funny how if a company sponsors research people are often so skeptical (rightly so) but people are often so trusting of government sponsored research.
This report helps illustrate why we should also be skeptical of government funded research. Funding is being withdrawn from a study into childhood obesity, a study which is producing results which contradict the government’s answers.
When Exxon sponsor research we naturally look at their motives (although the habit of rejecting research because it might be sponsored by Exxon is not good- check the work in a skeptical, scientific manner). We should do the same for government research. We should do the same when Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth produce research, or Oxfam or any group be they company or charity.
All these groups have one thing in common - they have aims which they are trying to further by publishing research. They may not deliberately suppress contradictory research, but they will give out summaries and press releases which justify their position, they will often have preconceptions when commissioning research.
That is why peer review is so necessary and why the current consensus on climate change and the vitriolic defense of the status quo is harmful.
