Polluter-Funded Evolution & Climate Exhibit at the Smithsonian

A "scientific" exhibit ignoring the threat of global warming at the taxpayer-funded Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC? Reports The New Yorker:

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, is a multimedia exploration of the theory that mankind evolved in response to climate change. At the main entrance, viewers are confronted with a giant graph charting the Earth’s temperature over the past ten million years, which notes that it is far cooler now than it was ten thousand years ago. Overhead, the text reads, “HUMANS EVOLVED IN RESPONSE TO A CHANGING WORLD.” The message, as amplified by the exhibit’s Web site, is that “key human adaptations evolved in response to environmental instability.” Only at the end of the exhibit, under the headline “OUR SURVIVAL CHALLENGE,” is it noted that levels of carbon dioxide are higher now than they have ever been, and that they are projected to increase dramatically in the next century. No cause is given for this development; no mention is made of any possible role played by fossil fuels. The exhibit makes it seem part of a natural continuum. The accompanying text says, “During the period in which humans evolved, Earth’s temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere fluctuated together.” An interactive game in the exhibit suggests that humans will continue to adapt to climate change in the future. People may build “underground cities,” developing “short, compact bodies” or “curved spines,” so that “moving around in tight spaces will be no problem.”

Such ideas uncannily echo the Koch message. The company’s January newsletter to employees, for instance, argues that “fluctuations in the earth’s climate predate humanity,” and concludes, “Since we can’t control Mother Nature, let’s figure out how to get along with her changes.” Joseph Romm, a physicist who runs the Web site ClimateProgress.org, is infuriated by the Smithsonian’s presentation. “The whole exhibit whitewashes the modern climate issue,” he said. “I think the Kochs wanted to be seen as some sort of high-minded company, associated with the greatest natural-history and science museum in the country. But the truth is, the exhibit is underwritten by big-time polluters, who are underground funders of action to stop efforts to deal with this threat to humanity. I think the Smithsonian should have drawn the line.”

Cristián Samper, the museum’s director, said that the exhibit is not about climate change, and described Koch as “one of the best donors we’ve had, in my tenure here, because he’s very interested in the content, but completely hands off.” He noted, “I don’t know all the details of his involvement in other issues.”

We visited the exhibit recently to film the National Wildlife Federation Climate Capsule (it'll be released on Monday). It's stunning that the museum's director would try to claim the Koch-sponsored exhibit "is not about climate change." The exhibit is about how climate change helped influenced evolution. I mean, the first thing you see after you walk through a tunnel of pictures of early man is a temperature graph. I can't imagine how anyone would try to claim otherwise.

Watch ClimateProgress.org's Joseph Romm tour the exhibit:

And yes, this is the same Koch (sounds like Coke) family that recently gave at least $1 million to fight California's landmark climate law.

Photo via Flickr's Ryan Somma

Oil Pipeline Breaks Keep Coming

UPDATE 4:41pm: Reuters now reports the pipeline hasn't stopped spilling & that the rate could be up to 25,000 gallons (600 barrels) of oil per hour.

An oil pipeline owned by Enbridge Inc. broke on Thursday in a suburb of Chicago. The spill is one of hundreds reported by Enbridge in the last few years. The pipeline break spilled about 50 gallons of crude oil per minute.

The Canadian tar sands pipeline giant is still cleaning up it’s last spill that sent 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River, coating wetlands and shoreline in Marshal, Michigan.

Yesterday’s pipeline break is a reminder of how frequently oil disasters occur, and the huge risks of dirty tar sands pipelines.

Take action to keep dangerous tar sands pipelines out of America's heartland!

"Astroturf Is A Petroleum Product"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Night of Watching & A Day Of Hope

If you haven't already, you should check out the blog of the National Wildlife Federation's John Hammond, one of our front-line responders to the Gulf oil disaster. Here's an excerpt from a recent post on a night watching for sea turtles:

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the waves rush up the beach, and then retreat -- however, there was part of the wave that remained. Just like that. Out of the sea emerged a hulking, silent mass -- almost imperceptible, but for changes in her position relative to object I knew to be stationary, I would have missed her being there altogether. I watched in silence as she slowly made her way to where the grass on the dunes begin.

Read & subscribe to John's Gulf oil disaster blog, Gallons of Grief.

Daphne Miller, MD on America's Great Outdoors as a Health Resource

Daphne Miller, M.D., is a family physician with the University of California - San Francisco. Dr. Miller was in Chicago for the America's Great Outdoors listening session, which focused on health and conservation.

Leaders from across the country met in late August to discuss how our country can use the great outdoors to improve the health and wellness of Americans, and bring wellness as a resource from nature back into the community.

To learn more about President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative, visit nwf.org/greatoutdoors.

Video by NWF's Danielle Moodie and Julia Liljegren.

NWF's Larry Schweiger: BP "Report" Just More Spin

BP has issued the results of its self-evaluation in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion. That disaster led to more than 200 million gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. As Mother Jones reports:

While investigation into what happened on the rig on April 20 is far from complete, the company's initial report attempts to shift some of the blame to the other companies involved in the disaster: Transocean (the owner of the Deepwater Horizon), Halliburton (the company charged with cementing the well) and Cameron (the manufacturer of the failed blowout preventer). BP has so far received the bulk of the criticism for the disaster, with its partners claiming that it was cutting corners to save time and money.

Here's what Larry Schweiger, president & CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, had to say in response to the report:

BP has done three things consistently since the day of the explosion: Spin the story to protect the guilty, burden the innocent and trash the environment. And more than four months into the Gulf oil disaster, the Senate has done literally nothing to hold BP accountable or stop future oil disasters from happening.

For all the latest news on how the Gulf oil disaster is impacting communities & wildlife and to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Big Oil Cuts Jobs Again, Even as They Sponsor Bogus Job Rallies

No lie is too big for Big Oil.  Their tired refrain of late is that they're job makers. On TV, radio, in print and at bogus Astroturf rallies happening this week.

We should give them a pass on all their sins: spilling, spewing, hoarding profits and tax breaks, and doling out political contributions. It's the price we pay for jobs they say implicitly.

Here's the problem.  They are job killers. So says the Bureau of Labor Statistics anyway. The truth is employment in the industry was cut in August to the lowest point this year and they’ve cut jobs by nearly 11,000 jobs since 2000.

North Dakota: The Spills Keep Coming (Video)

NWF's Tim Warman made the point in a guest column in this week's Newsweek Magazine, the BP spill is not an isolated incident. 

Last week a mix of crude and water spilled at an oil well near Killdeer, N.D., dumped more than 2,400 barrels of crude and water before the leak was stopped.  It's just the latest.

The BP disaster has reminded the broader public that fossil fuel extraction, refining and transportation is an inherently risky business, and the problem is exacerbated by an industry that too often puts profit motive ahead of safety.

North Dakota's stunningly all to common, and avoidable. A report we published looking back over the last decade found on average there’s an incident about once every 34 hours and someone dies about once every three weeks. We found that from 2000 to 2009, there were 2,554 significant pipeline accidents, causing 161 fatalities and 576 injuries. (Here's a snapshot of a map from the report laying out incidents from the last decade).

The incidents seem to be happening so fast, our five week old report already starting to look dated.

33,000 Gallons In Utah. Utahans got a reminder themselves recently when, as the nation focused its attention on clumsy efforts to plug the gulf gusher, a major pipeline disaster 1,300 miles to the north dumped more than 33,000 gallons of crude oil into a creek near the University of Utah campus. Investigators later found a hole in the top of the pipeline, which transports crude from Colorado to feed Salt Lake City’s oil and gas refineries. 

Industry's Spill and Evade Strategy. This last decade makes one thing clear – the industry has evaded prevention in favor of a strategy to lobby and litigate its way out of responsibility after the fact. That’s a strategy that runs counter to the public’s interest. Because our nation is addicted to oil and gas, there is no quick fix, but the no-brainer should be to remove the legal liability cap that drives polluters to focus on the short term rather than safety and prevention.

NWF continues to blow the whistle on the industry and pushing Congress to hold polluters accountable. Warman recently did a nationwide satellite media tour to discuss the report with TV stations. 

 

Protecting Loggerhead Sea Turtles for Generations to Come

It's hard protecting animals, as I've tried once myself.

In July 2002, on Cocoa Beach, Florida, a morning workout with my mom turned into being crossing guards for a line of newly hatched sea turtles. My mom and I simply watched in silence as the tiny creatures waddled out of their nest, scurrying across the sand, and into the low tide. It took all my strength not to run after their five-inch shells and place the reptiles safely into the water.

Even if I wanted to, I can't sit on the beaches and wait for every clutch to hatch, but in a matter of seconds today, I was able to take action to help strengthen the level of protection for one particular species of sea turtles.

The Current Conditions for Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Loggerhead sea turtles are found primarily in the United States along the beaches and coastlines of Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. But sadly, their numbers all around the globe are declining – from the Mediterranean and Arabian Sea, back to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. In Florida alone, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported in 2009 that loggerhead sea turtles represented the fourth lowest count since the Index Survey Beach Index began in 1989--with a 38 percent decline from 1998 to 2009.

Even though all seven classifications of sea turtles that reside in U.S. waters are currently protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), there are still outstanding reasons for the decline of loggerhead sea turtles.  Furthermore, the conditions of their nesting habitat have also gone from bad to worse, as the numbers of stranded turtles went six-fold over the past decade from a variety of development on beaches; such as stores and hotels.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), 1070 sea turtles were displaced or killed from the oil spill, with 21 loggerhead sea turtles found alive and 53 dead. But it is the next set of numbers that took me back to the morning on the beach in Florida: 13,473 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings and 273 nests were trans-located from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean because of the oil spill. Luckily, these baby sea turtles had help, but the sad reality is not all turtles will receive this type of care.

How You Can Help Make a Difference

Right now, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are in the process of determining whether to re-classify loggerhead sea turtles from "threatened" to "endangered," under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA)--a move which would help guarantee stronger protections for our country's most well known species of sea turtles.

More protection today equals more loggerhead sea turtles in the future, so what we can do for them now without becoming crossing guards is urge the NMFS to strengthen protections for loggerhead sea turtles.

By treating loggerhead sea turtles as a priority, we can preserve one of the earth's oldest creatures for future generations; and even though being a turtle crossing guard does sound like fun, we can keep our day jobs too!

by Megan Blevins, National Wildlife Federation

Climate Denial Billionaires Bankroll Efforts to Stop Progress in California

It's no secret that global warming deniers rely on Big Oil's deep pockets to fund their work, but few are as brazen as the billionaire Koch brothers.

Charles and David Koch, owners of Koch Industries, is the second largest private company in the U.S., with estimated 2008 revenues of $100 billion. Started as a petroleum business by their father Fred Koch, Koch Industries has become a diversified enterprise that funds large-scale lobbying and a range of activist groups that play a significant role in the global warming denial machine.

While David Koch is a frequent funder of PBS programming, Washingtonians and tourists can watch his handiwork on display in a bizarre exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum that attempts to claim climate change has helped humanity thrive. The exhibit conveniently leaves out the role of his industry in causing global warming, and the negative toll rapid climate change is expected to have on humans and the planet.

Our own NWF Climate Capsule will pay a visit to Koch's federally backed fairyland in next week's episode. 

Now in recent days, Los Angeles Times broke the story that the Koch's have jumped on board an effort to suspend California's global warming law.

The purported multimillion dollar handout would fund Proposition 23, which tries to suspend California's 2006 law and essentially short circuit clean energy development.

AB 32, California's 2006 climate change law, would slash the state's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases down to 1990 levels by 2020 -- a cut amounting to about 15% below today's levels. The law, which would curb emissions from industry and transportation, is strongly backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and environmental groups.

(PHOTO - "Most Wanted" image by Greenpeace.)