Museum Of Natural History Trustee - Rebekah Mercer - Shovels Millions To Climate Liars

[hatrack]

The American Museum of Natural History has long been on the front lines of the climate change discussion, as its scientists study the potential damage and its educators try to alert new generations to the dangers of global warming. The depth of that mission is evident in the numerous exhibitions at this Manhattan museum, like the film “Wonders of the Arctic,” which is on view through March 2. “The polar bear has always been the symbol of the Arctic,” the narrator intones. “Now it’s become the face of climate change and the threat it poses.”

But one of the museum’s leaders, a trustee who is also an important donor to the institution, Rebekah Mercer, has been using her family’s millions to fund organizations that question climate change, a cornerstone of the conservative agenda she is advancing as an influential member of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team.

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Told of Ms. Mercer’s role on the museum board, several scientists and environmental organizations said that she should resign or be removed from her position because, they said, she was working at cross purposes with its mission. “There is no room for promoters of anti-science on the board of a science museum, let alone arguably the greatest science museum in the world,” said Michael E. Mann, a leader in the climate field who directs the Earth System Science Center at Penn State. He added that Ms. Mercer “has actively funded the climate change denial and disinformation campaign.”

The climate change positions of people surrounding Mr. Trump are being closely scrutinized as he takes office, partly because the president-elect has described climate change as a hoax, and vowed to “cancel” the Paris climate accord and to undo President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. During the campaign, Ms. Mercer was one of Mr. Trump’s biggest donors, eventually joining his 16-person transition team, in which she played a significant part in pushing forward one climate change skeptic for the cabinet: Jeff Sessions, the nominee for attorney general.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/arts/design/natural-history-museum-trump-climate-change.html?_r=0

[Tanuki]

1. Thanks for this info. We will have to watch this closely,

as when Dick Cheney and William Rehnquist were on the board of the Smithsonian.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2001/05/07/us/smithsonian-s-leader-withdraws-plan-to-close-conservation-center.html

....."After an uproar among scientists and politicians over a proposal to close a wildlife conservation center in Front Royal, Va., the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution said today that he was withdrawing the plan ''rather than continue a controversy that was harmful to the institution.''

The proposed closure of the Conservation and Research Center, a 3,200-acre field station devoted to preserving endangered species like the golden lion tamarin and black-footed ferret, was by far the most controversial element of a plan by Lawrence M. Small, the secretary of the Smithsonian, to reorganize research at the 155-year-old institution.

''The proposal was interpreted by many as indicating that the Smithsonian was backing away from its commitment to science in general and the biological sciences in particular,'' said Mr. Small, in a brief statement issued after he met privately with the Smithsonian's board. ''Nothing could be further from the truth, but clearly this action is necessary to correct that false perception.''

The board, whose 17 members include Vice President Dick Cheney and whose chancellor is William H. Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, are to meet again Monday morning, also in private, to hear about the rest of Mr. Small's plan. It includes closing a conservation laboratory in Suitland, Md., ....."