Smithsonian Toned Down Exhibit on Arctic

Source: N.Y. Times/Associated Press

Smithsonian Toned Down Exhibit on Arctic
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 21, 2007
Filed at 2:58 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration, says a former administrator at the museum.

Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year's exhibit was rewritten to minimize and inject more uncertainty into the relationship between global warming and humans, said Robert Sullivan, who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Also, officials omitted scientists' interpretation of some research and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the data, he said. In addition, graphs were altered ''to show that global warming could go either way,'' Sullivan said.
(snip)

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has been accused of taking politics into consideration.

The congressionally chartered institution scaled down a 1995 exhibit of the restored Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, after veterans complained it focused too much on the damage and deaths. Amid the oil-drilling debate in 2003, a photo exhibit of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was moved to a less prominent space.





Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Smithsonian-Climate-Change.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It was totally inept, secretive, corrupt, mean-spirited, and cared nothing about the fate of its citizens. The media was a fucking joke....non-stop propaganda.

We're there now, and it will no doubt get worse before it gets better.

Idiots!

the old USSR was the butt of a lot of jokes, and the source of pride, because WE WERE THE USA AND NOTHING LIKE THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN HERE!

lol

how things have changed

... ''Just as I would hope that the Smithsonian would stand firmly behind the science of evolution, it would also be my hope that they would stand firmly behind the science that supports influence on climate. Politically, they may be controversial, but scientifically they are not.''

Some curators and scientists involved in the project said they believed nothing important was omitted. But they also said it was apparent that science was not the only concern.

''I remember them telling me there was an attempt to make sure there was nothing in there that would be upsetting to any politicians, ... ''They're not stupid. They don't want to upset the people who pay them.''

...would have been less cautious. ''I've been going to the Arctic since 1963, and I find some of the changes alarming,'' ...


The "dumbing-down" of America is obviously working well...seems just about anything can now trump science. :banghead:

They have these great museums and artifacts (especially the new American Indian museum) but they get so political! They are "low-counters" on Indian population in pre-contact America too...this is often used to justify treatment of natives and white land-grabs.

What else was there? Good for the brave guys who flew the plane but aside from that it was all about horror.

are those ordinary civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who survived that atrocity and kept on living with dignity and hope.

The one which seemed to have been written by the oil companies, designed to whip up investment in the tar sands. There was a huge tar sands truck parked outside the Smithsonian, and not a word about the environmental damage caused by the extraction and burning of that petroleum. (Alberta's ecosystems will be paying the price for centuries, but you wouldn't know that, from the exhibit materials.)

Unbelievable!



http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/41258000/jpg/_41258346_bigtruck_bbc203.jpg http://www.pastpeak.com.nyud.net:8090/clips/peaktires.jpg http://www.thewebvideo.com.nyud.net:8090/OilSands/Truck.jpg

It was bad enough when he was fooling around with a Caterpillar tractor!

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/incidents.phtml

I wonder how large the donation to the Smithsonian was?
:think:

so is it any wonder that they would have tailored an exhibit not to piss off the r-wingers?

In effort not to offend Cardinal Bellarmine, offers "the other side" that the sun revolves around the earth. :eyes: