A climate exhibition without the lecturing How are we doing in the fight against climate change? Berne’s Natural History Museum will attempt to keep tabs on this over the next ten to 20 years in a fascinating exhibition that also has a message of hope. fuels.” The burning of coal, oil and gas still accounts for 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions. “Climate change is not politics, but physics.” The exhibition takes visitors far back in time but always keeps the connection to the present. Strahm: “We also want the exhibition to appeal to people who have zero scientific knowledge.” Walking with dinosaurs Nevertheless, anyone with existing knowledge will also learn plenty. For example, there is another cube structure, this time devoted to an event dating back 66 million years: the 14-km-diameter asteroid that slammed into what is today south-east Mexico. The impact spewed sulphur into the atmosphere, turning the Earth into an inhospitable place within seconds and sending the dinosaurs into extinction. But not all life was wiped out. Some birds that lived on the ground instead of in trees survived the catastrophe – probably because they relied less on habitats (trees) that were destroyed, say scientists. These birds are the dinosaurs that are still among us today. The new exhibition will run for an unusual length of time: it is scheduled to remain in situ for the next ten to 20 years. Some elements – including 12 short videos of people from different walks of life saying how they currently view climate change – will be continually updated during this period. The same 12 people will each record a new video every year. What we can or could still do The exhibition will also keep tabs on whether humanity is making progress or otherwise in the fight against climate change. A big diagram hangs on one display wall, with numerous columns depicting greenhouse gas emissions and the extent of global warming until 2050 – the year by which most countries aim to have delivered on their net-zero goal of no longer producing more CO2 emissions than they can offset. Every year, the next column will be updated. The data for the 2025 entry will soon be available. It is already safe to say that CO2 emissions JÜRG STEINER Slobbering, croaking and splashing all around. You find yourself in a dripping swamp as a monstrous dragonfly hurtles through the air. Beside a rotting tree stump, a white, eyeless thing – possibly a worm or a caterpillar – drags itself forward, its feelers outstretched. You automatically look down to make sure that your feet are not sinking into the quagmire. This is a rainforest scene from a new exhibition at Berne’s Natural History Museum called “Earth, folks! – The changing climate”. The tropical swamp sits within a wooden cube that shows the world as it looked 300 million years ago. Long before humans. Twenty years ago, during the excavation of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, evidence came to light that the region now forming the mountainous canton of Berne was once a hot, swampy environment. Workers not only found granite but also came across a layer of rock containing the carbonised remnants of prehistoric plants. What has this got to do with climate change? The answer is that the remnants are a fossilised reminder of the vast quantities of carbon that intact wetlands were able to capture over centuries. By burning fossil fuels, modern civilisation has released this trapped carbon as CO2 within a matter of decades and driven climate change. Fanning the flames This is how the Natural History Museum uses visual language to powerful effect, underscoring that climate change and natural disasters have been constant factors throughout the Earth’s history. But humans, relative newcomers on this planet, are now setting immense forces in motion. Still, unlike meteorite strikes or volcanic eruptions, we can (or could) still do quite a lot to avert catastrophe. Dora Strahm, the exhibition curator, explains this accessible approach to the subject matter: “We want to return to the underlying facts that often fade into the background but are far less complicated than people make out.” Strahm condenses Earth’s underlying problem into one succinct sentence: “We are still burning fossil Three hundred million years ago, Switzerland was a marshland where the fossil fuels we burn today were formed. Photos: Danielle Liniger Swiss Review / February 2026 / No.1 17
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