Cooler Heads Prevail at the Smithsonian

The multi-dimensional debate over political correctness at The Smithsonian (everything from exactly how many children Thomas Jefferson fathered to the proper display of the Enola Gay) has another entry: climate science at the Museum of Natural History. From today’s Inside the Beltway:

Suffice it to say, the Smithsonian Institution is not buying into the “global warming” hysteria being spread by Al Gore.

While in the District in recent days, professor Jeff Bennett of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at Australian National University toured the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where he snapped photographs, since forwarded to Inside the Beltway, of two displays that caught his eye — both dealing with climate change and “the Future.”

“Initiation of glacial conditions may be triggered by surprisingly rapid climate changes,” reads one display. “Therefore, the minor global-cooling trend of recent decades … is being carefully watched and studied.”

Global-cooling trend?

Explains the next display: “the period 1890-1945 A.D. was abnormally warm, and there have been signs of cooling in the last few decades.”

Perhaps we should organize a field trip to celebrate this unexpected evenhandedness. While we’re on the Mall, we can even pick up a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys and score a double victory against the PC enforcers.