The oldest trick in the book.
I am an environmental scientist and generally like working with data, modelling, and forecasting. I want to research the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica and gather data in an expedition to improve my glacier calving model.
Researcher: Dear government, I would like a 5-million-dollar grant for a research expedition to Antarctica to study the Pine Island Glacier. It is one of the biggest and fasted glaciers of the continent. If we can successfully forecast, it’s future behaviour it would further prove our capabilities in understanding our planet. The models however need accurate bedrock data, water currents and temperature to work.
Government: The glacier is 8000 miles away from our nation. Unfortunately, we decided to fund research closer to our home impacting our people.
2nd proposal.
Dear government, I would like a 5-million-dollar grant for a research expedition to Antarctica to study the Pine Island Glacier. It is one of the biggest and fasted glaciers of the continent. If it were to melt out completely it would destabilize the West Antarctic ice sheet and potentially raise global sea levels by 5 meter and flood all our coastal cities endangering millions of people.
Government: You say all our coastal cities are in danger? OK, we fund your research to protect our citizens
Now did we lie in our second proposal. Yes and no. The potential sea level rise is true and if all the ice suddenly melted our coastal cities would be flooded. However, the glacier and the ice sheet cannot melt out in one year. At current mass loss rates, it would take 20,000 years. This is twice as long as humanity has known agriculture. Over such a long time period coastal cities will change completely. Long term infrastructure investments are just 20-30 years before they need major restoration work. Compared to the speed of human lives the glacier melting is irrelevant.