My point is that it’s not just where the money is coming from, it’s also the scale and the use it’s put to. A $1M grant from the Sierra Club to a climate scientist gets gobbled up in equipment and staff, with very little to actually pay the researcher. A $1M “grant” to a climate denier who may have a degree but doesn’t actually do any research pretty much goes right into their pocket.
Another way of looking at it: many of the research scientists I work with would gladly eat Top Ramen and PB&J sandwiches and live in a tent if they get to work with really high-end equipment and travel to where they can do the best science. They shouldn’t have to, but they make that choice of how to spend their grant money all the time.
