No more dinosaurs for you, Mr. Koch!
You just can't make this stuff up!
Science Museums Urged to Cut Ties With Kochs
So David Koch, he of the oil and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries and the Lord Voldemort to all that is good and lush and thriving on God's green Earth, sits on the Board of Directors at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History, all while bankrolling groups that deny climate science to the tune of $67 million since 1997.
Sign the Petition to Kick Koch Off the Board
I don't know what the correct analogy is here — wolf guarding the henhouse? too many rotten eggs in one basket? — but it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost.
41 scientists signed and sent an open letter to Museums of Science and Natural History, demanding they cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry and funders of climate science obfuscation.
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. This corporate philanthropy comes at too high a cost.
Drawing on both our scientific expertise and personal care for our planet and people, we believe that the only ethical way forward for our museums is to cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry and funders of climate science obfuscation.
Not only that, but the Natural History Museum
published the letter on its website and is promoting a
petition to get science deniers out of science museums and kick Koch off its Board, specifically calling out David Koch, a major donor, exhibit sponsor and trustee on the Board of Directors at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and the American Museum of Natural History.
Holy cow! That's a full-fledged mutiny and it couldn't happen to a nicer captain!
And guess what? The petition is co-sponsored by Daily Kos, so even more fun to support the mothership in some good old fashioned house cleaning.
I call that "Evolution Strikes Back!"
Michael Mann, climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, fellow Kossack and signer of the letter, sums up the utter sham that is greedy, science-despising oilmen sitting at the controls of leading scientific educational institutions:
Cloaked in the garb of civic-mindedness, they launder their image while simultaneously and covertly influencing the content offered by those institutions.
Now go
sign the petition to kick the Koch to the curb.
And because this is so much fun and going nicely viral, here's another version by the Sierra Club.
