Climate Bullies Attempt To Oust Trump Supporter From Natural History Museum
By Paul Homewood The climate bully boys are at it again. From the NYT: Rebekah Mercer, a supporter of President Trump and an influential donor to conservative causes — including groups that deny climate science — is under renewed pressure to step down from the board of New York City’s most prominent science museum, the American Museum of Natural History. This week, more than 200 scientists and other academics who have advocated policy action on climate change endorsed an open letter that calls on the museum to remove Ms. Mercer from its board and “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.” Among those who signed the letter, which warned of “a loss of public trust,” were Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. “The museum deeply respects the work and views of scientists — both those who work as colleagues at the museum and those from the broader scientific community,” the museum said in a statement to The New York Times. “We also respect and understand scientists’ role in society, including adding their voices to political debates that relate to scientific issues. “The museum itself, however, does not make appointment decisions concerning staff or trustees based on political views,” the statement continued. “The museum has long maintained that its funders do not shape its curatorial decisions.” Read the full article here. So, what was the object of the climate mafia’s hysteria? It all stemmed from this Twitter post, by a nonentity called Jonah Busch, who is apparently an environmental economist, whatever one of those is: https://twitter.com/jonahbusch/status/949774167276220416 That prompted this letter from 182 “scientists”: The American Museum of Natural History in New York (AMNH) is a treasured and influential institution. Museums must be protected as sites that build understanding, help the public make meaning, and serve the common good. We are concerned that the vital role of science education institutions will be eroded by a loss of public trust if museums are associated with individuals and organizations known for rejecting climate science, opposing environmental regulation and clean energy initiatives, and blocking efforts to reduce pollutants and greenhouse gases. Rebekah Mercer and the Mercer Family Foundation, political kingmakers and the financiers behind Breitbart News, are major funders of climate science denial projects such as the Heartland Institute, where they have donated nearly $6 million since 2008. The Mercer Family Foundation is also a top donor to the C02 Coalition and the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, institutions that assert that an increase in C02 emissions from fossil fuels will be a great benefit to plant and animal life on Earth. The renewed attention to Mercer Family Foundation chair Rebekah Mercer, who sits on the AMNH Board of Trustees (since 2013), spurs us to reissue a statement that scientists first co-signed in 2015: “When some of the biggest contributors to climate change and funders of misinformation on climate science sponsor exhibitions in museums of science and natural history, they undermine public confidence in the validity of the institutions responsible for transmitting scientific knowledge.” Since that original letter, we have seen welcome changes as many museums updated their policies related to fossil fuel financial interests; the American Museum of Natural History increased its focus on climate change concerns and global sustainability in its investments and business plans. But given the prior AMNH funding and board membership associated with Exxon Corporation and David Koch, the prominence of Rebekah Mercer and the Mercer Family Foundation as current AMNH donors and on the Board of Trustees can prompt skepticism and hunts for signs of corruption, no matter the quality of the museum priorities and exhibits overall. Last week thousands of people shared a Twitter comment by environmental economist Jonah Busch, PhD, who pointed out misleading information on climate science in an Exxon-funded exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. To its credit, the AMNH’s response was swift: it committed to updating the outdated information to reflect the best available science. But the initial online public anger showed that trust in the museum is undermined by the museum’s association with climate science opponents. The most important asset any museum has is its credibility. This can be damaged by ties to donors and board members who are publicly known for investing in climate science obfuscation and opposing environmental solutions. We ask the American Museum of Natural History, and all public science museums, to end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation, and to have Rebekah Mercer leave the American Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees http://thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/open-letter-from-scientists-to-the-american-museum-of-natural-history/ The implication is that Rebekah Mercer, and apparently Exxon, was responsible for writing up this particular exhibit. But there is one slight problem. Although Mercer did not take up her role with the museum till 2013, the exhibit has been in place since at least 2006, as evidenced by this blog about a visit to New York in May 2006: http://www.freecolorado.com/2006/05/nyc.html The visit included a trip to the AMNH, where this picture was taken: In other words, the same display as now. Indeed, as Busch himself reveals, the display probably dates back to 1994, when Exxon funded the renovation of the Fossil Halls. Naturally, our mentally challenged environmental economist blames Exxon for spreading “erroneous texts”: The whole idea that museums would allow their work to be corrupted in this way is patently absurd. But, more to the point, the display is a perfectly factual account of our understanding of ice ages. Busch dredges up one solitary paper, which claims that AGW will delay the next ice age by 100,000 years (which if true will be a huge boon for mankind!), as if to disprove the museum’s display. But Busch’s real objection is that knowledge of ice ages will stop people from worrying about global warming. I presume then that he wants to stop schools from teaching kids about ice ages, ban all books in libraries and shut all museums who dare to display such sacrilegious heresy against the teachings of the Church of Climatology! This attempt by a gang of self appointed, second rate scientists to exclude people from jobs with public bodies, or indeed any sort of association at all, simply because of their politics, is extremely dangerous. It is the sort of behaviour one would normally associate with communist and fascist juntas, and needs to be fought tooth and nail.
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