For my community event trip, I attended the opening of the American Museum of Natural History’s new exhibition, “Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future.” The even took place on Saturday, October 18th. In accordance with the museum’s mission, the exhibition was aimed at educating the general public about climate change and its affects. Entry to the exhibition cost $18.00 for student admission.
Similar to the overall feel of the AMNH, The Climate Change exhibition is like a textbook come to life. Upon entry, the visitor is immersed into a colorful yet somber space. An educational journey through all aspects of climate change is guided by a series of glowing, interactive stations. The visitor is greeted with an introduction to the history of fossil fuels; the history of coal is accompanied by a glowing red line that traces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since the year 1660. The line jumps from the knees to far above the head around the year 1950. This luminescent timeline accurately forebodes what’s to come for the exhibition’s visitor: the ominous depiction of an Earth in crisis, suffocated by greenhouse gasses, rising temperature, and looming disaster.
If the goal of the exhibition was the inspire people to change their ways, it was certainly effective for me. Although much of the scientific information was not new to me, the format it was presented in made me think even more critically about the Earth’s climate crisis. One way that the exhibition was effective at inspiring critical thinking regarding the climate crisis was allowing visitors to interact with the information. For instance, one of the first things you could do was examine a board listing things people can do to reduce their impact on climate change, such as riding their bike and using less paper. After you saw something that you could plausibly do, you pushed a button, adding a number to the LCD display of how many other people had pledged to do the same thing. This was particularly encouraging and clever on the part of the museum because the interactive format provoked many children to shout out things they could do – eat more vegetables, unplug their cable boxes. The child-friendly atmosphere of the exhibit was great because I got to see the Earth’s future generations learning about how their actions really do impact the world they live in.
One of the most interesting parts of the exhibition was the section devoted to draughts. Out of all the effects of climate change, the museum really stressed how draughts pose an immediate threat to humanity. Upon entering the drought section, the lighting became warm. Images of burning trees and starving people lined the walls. The exhibition chronicled how because of draught, the threat of wildfires is increased, as well as the spread of disease and destruction of ecosystems. What made draught so scary was that there are no easy solutions. We could recycle water, harvest water from sand, and produce draught resistant seeds. The exhibition stressed that although these “solutions” exist, they are incredibly expensive, and will not benefit the major population to be affected by drought: the poor.
The journey ends with the future of energy. Comprehensive information is provided about solar, hydropower, nuclear, geothermal, and wind energies. However, the main thesis of the exhibition seemed to be that while these alternative, cleaner energies to exist, humans still have to do their part in reducing consumption and making the Earth a cleaner, cooler place. The exhibition was informative and fun, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about climate change.