15 NGOs Launch Petition Drive To Dump David Koch From Smithsonian, AMNH Boards

A new campaign urging science museums to cut ties with David Koch has thrown a spotlight on the billionaire Koch brothers' enormous philanthropic footprint and their oil interests, as they continue to undercut climate science, environmental regulations and clean energy.

Fifteen non-profits, including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Daily Kos, launched a petition calling on the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York to remove David Koch from their boards of directors, because "he bankrolls groups that deny climate science." The non-profits cite a letter to museums, also sent Tuesday, by more than 30 scientists asking for a severing of ties to all fossil fuel interests.

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At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins details the evolution of humankind through the use of video, sculpture, skeletons and interactive media that, for example, let you see yourself as a Neanderthal. David Koch donated $15 million for the exhibit. Just past the entrance, a video about global climate change runs in an endless loop. The video's text explains that the Earth's climate has been changing for millions of years and that while the shifts posed challenges for early humans, they adapted over time to survive. Beneath the video screen, a timeline shows the spikes and dips in the Earth’s average temperature over millions of years––including the steep increase of the last 100 years. Yet the climate display says nothing about the cause of the current era's higher temperatures: the enormous use of fossil fuels, the kind that form a core business of Koch Industries. Instead, the exhibit leaves visitors with the impression that climate change is part of the Earth's natural cycle and that humans can adapt to it.

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Yet as David Koch lavishly funded cancer research, his company fought hard to limit regulation of formaldehyde, a human carcinogen, according to a 2010 article in The New Yorker magazine. Koch Industries became a major producer of formaldehyde with its acquisition of the wood, chemical and paper products manufacturer Georgia Pacific, maker of Dixie cups and Brawny paper towels. The EPA has tried for years to tighten limits on formaldehyde. But its efforts have been stalled in large part because of resistance from members of Congress backed by industry, including the Koch brothers.

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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/24032015/groups-want-david-koch-unseated-smithsonian-amnh-boards