Billionaire Rebekah Mercer , who with her father Robert Mercer has pouredmillions of dollarsinto climate - denying organizations , candidates , and medium , is off the board of the American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH ) .
The New York museum has not in public say why Mercer no longer has a board seat . In an email to Earther , the AMNH merely said that “ Ms. Mercer ’s full term expired in December . ” The museum ’s governance policy throttle each trustee ’s terms to three terms of three twelvemonth each . Having served two term since 2013 , Mercer would have been eligible for re - election for a third , but the museum has yet to clear up why her buns has n’t been renewed .
https://gizmodo.com/largest-bank-in-the-us-will-stop-funding-fossil-fuel-ex-1841907860
Activists protest Rebekah Mercer’s board seat at the American Natural History Museum.Photo: Ivy Arce (Revolting Lesbians)
But we do bonk that over the past several year , clime scientists , themuseum ’s tenured curator , andenvironmental activistshave all require the museum cut tie with the billionaire due to herinvestments in good - offstage causes . Those groups have specifically called out her funding of anti - science propagandists or , as the mathematical group of AMNH scientist called them , the “ ringleaders of climate denial . ”
Whatever the rationality for the discontinued family relationship , this is good : The billionaire who fund climate denial absolutely should n’t be on museum boards . A circuit card of regent is supposed to ensure an mental institution serves the best interests of its stakeholders . In the museum ’s case , that ’s its visitors . Mercer ca n’t be trusted to do that , because by shore up the dodo fuel industry , she ’s directly worked against the interests not just of AMNH visitors but all of manhood .
Recently , institutions in every sphere frombankingtofashionhave take steps to point interest group in climate natural action . AMNH has adopt some stride , too . In 2018 , itunveiled an updated mood change exhibitand also hired maritime geochemistry investigator Nathalie Goodkin , who concentre on climate impact to coral , as a conservator . But if the museum really wants to show it ’s taking the climate crisis seriously , there ’s a few more crucial steps it should be taking .
For one , AMNH should also strip from fossil fuel projects . It got part of the way there in 2016 , when in response to public pressure from environmental organizations such as 350.org and Divest Invest , itreduced its holdings in fogey fuel interestsfrom 4 percent to 2 pct of its $ 650 million talent . But that calculation did not admit the museum ’s fossil fuel investment through the international private fairness business firm Denham Capital , whichNBC News foundpledged $ 5 million to the museum . Denham has gift in fogey - ground push projects , including fracking for shale oil in Ohio and Pennsylvania .
The museum should also stop taking money that ’s tainted by the fogey fuel industry and climate defence . AMNH’smost recent yearly reportshows that together , Rebekah Mercer , her father Robert , and her sister Jennifer donated between $ 125,000 and $ 248,000 to the museum in 2018 . Andaccording to DeSmog , the Mercer Family Foundation donate $ 1.6 million to the museum between 2012 and 2017 . Yet they were pump money into the Heartland Institute , Breitbart , the Trump campaign , all of which press onward clime self-abnegation .
That dissonance does n’t just look back for the museum . Accepting financial backing from masses like the Mercers or dodo fuel interest can touch what goes into a museum ’s display . For example , the Smithsonian Natural History Museum opened a dinosaurexhibitlast year funded by and name after thelate ghoul David Koch , who made his billions in part through the petrochemical industry . Even though Koch had already stepped down from the museum ’s gameboard in apparent response topublic pressure , the Koch exhibit — surprisal , surprise — includednothingabout the need to stop burning fogey fuel . AMNH has never host an exhibit gestate a Mercer ’s name , but as Earther reported , their mood change display isconspicuously quietabout solutions .
Investing in ethnic projects also lets those who ’ve made fortunes off of genocidal industries gettax write - offsandscrub their public images . But no matter how much the Mercers ( or the Kochs , oroil companies themselves ) throw at ethnical mental hospital , they ca n’t set off their tremendous part to planetary demolition . That ’s why activists are stagingmassive interventionsto requirement museums disregard ties with them .
I eff it wo n’t be comfortable for museums to reject funding that ’s tied up in fogy fuel interests . Public nontextual matter funding in the U.S. has decline by16 percentover the past 20 years , adjusted for inflation . The political science should certainlyramp that up .
But at last , the fogy fuel manufacture — propped up by the climate denier that the Mercer Foundation funds — could bring about the oddment of lifelike history as we know it . We ’ve progress to out to AMNH for information about why Rebekah Mercer ’s circuit card seat was n’t renewed and will update this post if we listen back .
Update , February 25 , 6:00 p.m. : In an email to Earther , the AMNH said : “ It ’s not the role of Trustees or donor to make decisiveness about scientific and educational subject matter create by the Museum . At the American Museum of Natural History , those decisions are made by scientists and pedagog . ” They also said that , “ today , the Museum holds no direct investments in fossil fuels . We have decreased our level of indirect investment from less than 2 % in 2016 to approximately 1 % today . ”
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