Just remember that there is far, far, far, far, far, far more money avalanching into the pockets of those who are constantly ringing the alarm bell from the government. It isn't even close. Do they have a vested interest in making sure things sound as catastrophic as possible? You bet they do. For all the reasons that some folks question scientists like Richard Lindzen, Roger Pielke, etc and accuse them as being shills for "Big Oil"...except in this case, it actually does happen, and on a scale that absolutely dwarfs accusations against so-called skeptics. Take for example, Jagadish Shukla of George Mason University, of the recent flap about wanting to charge anyone who questions conclusions within climate science that he agrees with RICO statutes (HT: Warren Meyer at CoyoteBlog):
Several months ago, a lot of folks where shocked to find that the Clinton Foundation only spent $9 million in direct aid out of a total budget of $150 million, with the rest going to salaries and bonuses and luxury travel for family and friends and other members of the Clinton posse.
None of this surprised me. From my time at Ivy League schools, I know any number of kids from rich families that work for some sort of trust or non-profit that has nominally charitable goals, but most of whose budget seems to go to lavish parties, first-class travel, and sinecures for various wealthy family scions.
But this week comes a story from the climate world that demonstrates that making a fortune from your non-profit is not just for the old money any more -- it appears to be a great way for activists to build new fortunes.
The story starts with the abhorrent letter by 20 university professors urging President Obama to use the RICO statute (usually thought of as a tool to fight organized crime) to jail people who disagree with them in a scientific debate. The letter was authored by Jagadish Shukla of George Mason University, and seems to take the position that all climate skeptics are part of an organized coordinated gang that are actively promoting ideas they know to be wrong solely for financial enrichment. (I will give the near-universal skeptic reply to this: "So where is my Exxon check?!"
Anyway, a couple of folks, including Roger Pielke, Jr. and Steve McIntyre, both folks who get accused of being oil industry funded but who in fact get little or no funding from any such source, wondered where Shukla's funding comes from. Shukla gets what looks like a very generous salary from George Mason University of $314,000 a year. Power to him on that score. However, the more interesting part is where he makes the rest of his money, because it turns out his university salary is well under half his total income. The "non-profits" he controls pays him, his family, and his friends over $800,000 a year in compensation, all paid out of government grants that supposedly are to support science.
A number of years ago Shukla created a couple of non-profits called the Institute for Global Environment and Security (IGES) and the Center for Ocean Land Atmosphere Interactions (COLA). Both were founded by Shukla and are essentially controlled by him, though both now have some sort of institutional relationship with George Mason University as well. Steve McIntyre has the whole story in its various details.
COLA and IGES both seem to have gotten most of their revenues from NSF, NASA, and NOAA grants. Over the years, the IGES appears to have collected over $75 million in grants. As an aside, this single set of grants to one tiny, you-never-even-heard-of-it climate non-profit is very likely way higher than the cumulative sum total of all money ever paid to skeptics. I have always thought that warmists freaking out over the trivial sums of money going to skeptics is a bit like a football coach who is winning 97-0 freaking out in anger over the other team finally picking up a first down.
Apparently a LOT of this non-profit grant money ends up in the Shukla family bank accounts.
In 2001, the earliest year thus far publicly available, in 2001, in addition to his university salary (not yet available, but presumably about $125,000), Shukla and his wife received a further $214,496 in compensation from IGES (Shukla -$128,796; Anne Shukla – $85,700). Their combined compensation from IGES doubled over the next two years to approximately $400,000 (additional to Shukla’s university salary of say $130,000), for combined compensation of about $530,000 by 2004.
Shukla’s university salary increased dramatically over the decade reaching $250,866 by 2013 and $314,000 by 2014. (In this latter year, Shukla was paid much more than Ed Wegman, a George Mason professor of similar seniority). Meanwhile, despite the apparent transition of IGES to George Mason, the income of the Shuklas from IGES continued to increase, reaching $547,000 by 2013.
Grant records are a real mess but it looks like from George Mason University press releases that IGES and its successor recently got a $10 million five-year grant, or $2 million a year from the government. Of that money:
Progressives always like to point out examples of corruption in for-profit companies, and certainly those exist. But there are numerous market and legal checks that bring accountability for such corruption. But nothing of the sort exists in the non-profit world. Not only are there few accountability mechanisms, but most of these non-profits are very good at using their stated good intentions as a shield from scrutiny -- "How can you accuse us of corruption, we are doing such important work!"
I am not making any claims in this thread about the science itself (I have gone round and round about that too many times on here), just pointing out that the narrative of altruistic, aloof, objective scientists vs greedy, jaded, paid-for skeptics is not even remotely accurate...in fact it is often completely the other way around. Remember that the next time you hear these folks talking about how disaster is imminent, and how evil our consumption is and how we should be happy to surrender our freedoms and live on much less...for the good of the planet.None of this surprised me. From my time at Ivy League schools, I know any number of kids from rich families that work for some sort of trust or non-profit that has nominally charitable goals, but most of whose budget seems to go to lavish parties, first-class travel, and sinecures for various wealthy family scions.
But this week comes a story from the climate world that demonstrates that making a fortune from your non-profit is not just for the old money any more -- it appears to be a great way for activists to build new fortunes.
The story starts with the abhorrent letter by 20 university professors urging President Obama to use the RICO statute (usually thought of as a tool to fight organized crime) to jail people who disagree with them in a scientific debate. The letter was authored by Jagadish Shukla of George Mason University, and seems to take the position that all climate skeptics are part of an organized coordinated gang that are actively promoting ideas they know to be wrong solely for financial enrichment. (I will give the near-universal skeptic reply to this: "So where is my Exxon check?!"
Anyway, a couple of folks, including Roger Pielke, Jr. and Steve McIntyre, both folks who get accused of being oil industry funded but who in fact get little or no funding from any such source, wondered where Shukla's funding comes from. Shukla gets what looks like a very generous salary from George Mason University of $314,000 a year. Power to him on that score. However, the more interesting part is where he makes the rest of his money, because it turns out his university salary is well under half his total income. The "non-profits" he controls pays him, his family, and his friends over $800,000 a year in compensation, all paid out of government grants that supposedly are to support science.
A number of years ago Shukla created a couple of non-profits called the Institute for Global Environment and Security (IGES) and the Center for Ocean Land Atmosphere Interactions (COLA). Both were founded by Shukla and are essentially controlled by him, though both now have some sort of institutional relationship with George Mason University as well. Steve McIntyre has the whole story in its various details.
COLA and IGES both seem to have gotten most of their revenues from NSF, NASA, and NOAA grants. Over the years, the IGES appears to have collected over $75 million in grants. As an aside, this single set of grants to one tiny, you-never-even-heard-of-it climate non-profit is very likely way higher than the cumulative sum total of all money ever paid to skeptics. I have always thought that warmists freaking out over the trivial sums of money going to skeptics is a bit like a football coach who is winning 97-0 freaking out in anger over the other team finally picking up a first down.
Apparently a LOT of this non-profit grant money ends up in the Shukla family bank accounts.
In 2001, the earliest year thus far publicly available, in 2001, in addition to his university salary (not yet available, but presumably about $125,000), Shukla and his wife received a further $214,496 in compensation from IGES (Shukla -$128,796; Anne Shukla – $85,700). Their combined compensation from IGES doubled over the next two years to approximately $400,000 (additional to Shukla’s university salary of say $130,000), for combined compensation of about $530,000 by 2004.
Shukla’s university salary increased dramatically over the decade reaching $250,866 by 2013 and $314,000 by 2014. (In this latter year, Shukla was paid much more than Ed Wegman, a George Mason professor of similar seniority). Meanwhile, despite the apparent transition of IGES to George Mason, the income of the Shuklas from IGES continued to increase, reaching $547,000 by 2013.
Grant records are a real mess but it looks like from George Mason University press releases that IGES and its successor recently got a $10 million five-year grant, or $2 million a year from the government. Of that money:
- approximately $550,000 a year goes to Shukla and his wife as salaries
- some amount, perhaps $90,000 a year, goes to Shukla's daughter as salary
- $171,000 a year goes as salary to James Kinter, an associate of Shukla at George Mason
- An unknown amount goes for Shukla's expenses, for example travel. When was the last time you ever heard of a climate conference, or any NGO conference, being held at, say, the Dallas-Ft Worth Airport Marriott? No, because these conferences are really meant as paid vacation opportunities as taxpayer expense for non-profit executives.
Progressives always like to point out examples of corruption in for-profit companies, and certainly those exist. But there are numerous market and legal checks that bring accountability for such corruption. But nothing of the sort exists in the non-profit world. Not only are there few accountability mechanisms, but most of these non-profits are very good at using their stated good intentions as a shield from scrutiny -- "How can you accuse us of corruption, we are doing such important work!"
