Editorial: Smithsonian’s bad call

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 | 1:14 a.m.

Government scientists are criticizing Smithsonian Institution officials who they say bowed to political pressure from the Bush administration and downplayed global warming's effects in a 2006 Arctic exhibition.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Cristian Samper, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, postponed the Arctic exhibit's display in 2005 because he wanted to make changes to the script. Those alterations included saying the effects of climate change are a "scientific uncertainty."

One of the scientists, who is with NASA, wrote to his superiors in June saying "something strange" had happened to the exhibit and he "found it disturbing for a museum" to shift an exhibit's focus "from scientific content to political content."

"A museum can't do an honest exhibit about what is happening in the Arctic without causing people some serious concern," the scientist added.

In trying to defend the exhibit's changes, Samper told the Post scientists are supposed to "present the information, but we let people draw their own conclusions."

Really? We expect scientists to carefully research phenomena and then present informed conclusions that rely on scientific evidence rather than political pressure. The Bush administration has been reluctant to accept the existence of global warming's effects. It is especially troubling that the president's ignorance on the matter has tainted even what is supposed to be our nation's premier natural science museum.