Rebekah Mercer, a supporter of President Trump and an influential donor to conservative causes — including groups that deny climate science — is under renewed pressure to step down from the board of New York City’s most prominent science museum, the American Museum of Natural History.
This week, more than 200 scientists and other academics who have advocated policy action on climate change endorsed an open letter that calls on the museum to remove Ms. Mercer from its board and “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.”
Among those who signed the letter, which warned of “a loss of public trust,” were Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University.
“The museum deeply respects the work and views of scientists — both those who work as colleagues at the museum and those from the broader scientific community,” the museum said in a statement to The New York Times. “We also respect and understand scientists’ role in society, including adding their voices to political debates that relate to scientific issues.
“The museum itself, however, does not make appointment decisions concerning staff or trustees based on political views,” the statement continued. “The museum has long maintained that its funders do not shape its curatorial decisions.”
