Scientists Fault Climate Exhibit Changes

The project was also scrutinized by politically appointed officials in the administration, records show.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

In mid-August 2005, an interagency group that included NOAA, NASA, the National Science Foundation and former interior secretary Gale Norton's science adviser "talked through the script and recommended changes," Abdalati, a top climate-change expert at NASA, wrote later in his e-mail. "There was some discussion of the political sensitivities of the exhibit."

On Oct. 15, 2005, the exhibit was scheduled to open but was delayed at the request of Samper.

Three days later, NOAA climate scientist John Calder wrote to his boss, Spinrad, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research administrator.

"The issue of climate variability and change in the Arctic is a key part of the exhibit and everybody wants to ensure that the exhibit is 'fair and balanced' and not likely to cause excessive feedback from the politicos," Calder wrote, adding that the reviewers were to meet "at the Smithsonian with senior officials of the museum and go over any contentious issues."

In his e-mail reply, Spinrad said he wanted "one or two who are connected to the political side of life (e.g. Stephanie Bailenson)," who at the time was a senior policy adviser to the under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and who shortly thereafter went to work for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's environmental protection agency.

A few days later, Samper drafted a memo to Calder saying that the museum would be unable to "replicate" work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "or any other science document oriented towards general public. Our main audience is school groups and family visitors, which impacts formats and graphics and restricts the complexity of what we can produce."

In his interview with The Post, Samper acknowledged taking a cautious approach "because it had the words 'climate change,' which is a politically sensitive issue."

In May of this year, Robert Sullivan, the Natural History Museum's former associate director for public programs, told the Associated Press that the purpose of the delay was to tone down the Arctic exhibit for fear of political backlash.

The Smithsonian issued a news release saying that Samper "denounced" Sullivan's allegations, noting that Sullivan "is neither a scientist nor a curator." In the release, Samper said, "We would never alter an exhibition on global climate change that would contradict our own knowledge and research, and that of other leading scientists around the world."

An e-mail exchange obtained by The Post and not previously made public shows that Samper told the exhibit's developer, Barbara Stauffer, to add a discussion of uncertainty in the science behind climate-change modeling.

He also asked her to change the "order of the questions in the introductory panel." He suggested that the exhibit begin with the earlier history of climate changes in the Artic. He asked that the more dramatic temperature changes in the past 50 years be moved farther back in the exhibit.