Media release, 24 March 2015
 

Climate scientists and other professionals - including Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, Dr Stuart Parkinson - have called on US national history and science museums to cut their ties to the fossil fuel industry, especially those interests which fund hardline climate change sceptics.

“We are concerned that the integrity of these institutions is compromised by association with special interests who obfuscate climate science, fight environmental regulation, oppose clean energy legislation, and seek to ease limits on industrial pollution,” said the letter signed by over 30 scientists and museum professionals.

The full text of the letter and list of signatories can be found at:
http://thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/open-letter-to-museums-from-scientists/

A petition calling on US science museums to remove oil mogul David Koch, who funds organisations that undermine climate science, from their board:
http://kickkochofftheboard.com/?code=NHM

More background to these issues can be found in this article:
ttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/23/3637313/smithsonian-climate-change-koch/

Examples of media coverage of the letter:
US museums asked to sever ties with fossil fuel industry (The Guardian)
Science Museums Urged to Cut Ties With Kochs (New York Times)
Science Museums Urged to Cut Ties With Fossil Fuel Donors (Inside Climate News)
Scientists Urge Museums to Cut Koch Ties (The Scientist)
Scientists to Smithsonian: Cut ties with Koch brothers (Washington Post)