By Julia Conley. Cross-posted from Common Dreams,ย CC BY–SA 3.0 US
More than 200 scientists have called on the American Museum of Natural History to cut ties with board member Rebekah Mercer, theย billionaire backer ofย President Donald Trump who has alsoย funded โclimate denialโ groups in order to protectย the fossil fuel industry’s pollution-causing extraction of oil andย gas.
โWe 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,โย wroteย the group, which includes James Hansen, who first brought climate change to the U.S. government’s attention in 1988, and other prominentย researchers.
Mercerย has held her position on the museum’s board since 2013. Along with her billionaire father, Robert Mercer, she oversees the Mercer Family Foundation. The group has donated more than $2 million to organizations that deny theย consensusย that the earth is in aย state of climate crisis driven by humanย activity.
The foundation’s contributions include $800,000 to the Heartland Institute, which holds regularย meetingsย promoting the denial of the climate crisis, and $500,000 to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank which, as recently as this month, has published articlesย claimingย that cold weather proves that the Earth is notย warming.
โThe most important asset any museum has is its credibility,โ wrote the scientists. โThis can be damaged by ties to donors and board members who are publicly known for investing in climate science obfuscation and opposing environmentalย solutions.โ
Mercer has also sought to directly impact the Trump administration’s climate policy. She reportedly suggested to the president that Arthur Robinson, who has called scientists’ belief in climate crisisย โa false religionโย and distributed a widely-discreditedย petitionย signed by supposed experts which stated that global warming is not harmful, should be named the administration’s chief scienceย advisor.
Along with calling for Mercer’s dismissal, the letter took issue with โmisleading information on climate science in an Exxon-funded exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History,โ which environmental economist Jonah Busch drew attention to in a tweet earlier thisย month.
I am shocked and saddened to see the American Museum of Natural History @amnh promoting misinformation on climate change in its David M. Koch-funded Dinosaur Wing 1/ pic.twitter.com/mUkx6PDEml
โ Jonah Busch (@jonahbusch) January 6, 2018
โTo its credit, the AMNH‘s response was swift: it committed to updating the outdated information to reflect the best available science,โ the scientists noted. โBut the initial online public anger showed that trust in the museum is undermined by the museum’s association with climate scienceย opponents.โ
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Main image: Rebekah Mercer (left) and her father Robertย Mercer.
