in 2025 will have been higher than what is compatible with net zero by 2050. However, the exhibition – in its own words – “stands for hope rather than powerlessness, and for celebrating the flourishing life on planet Earth rather than lamenting its loss”. For instance, visitors will learn that China cut its greenhouse gas emissions in the first quarter of 2025 despite the continued operation of countless coal-fired power plants. This is because China is rapidly installing more solar capacity. Strahm cites one key difference between present-day climate change and cataclysmic events like an asteroid impact: “We can still do something to protect the Earth as we know it.” Visitors to the exhibition can help to decide how the Natural History Museum can do its own bit. By submitting their votes, they will determine Palaeontologist Ursula Menkveld (pictured here) created “Earth, folks!” – an exhibition that refuses to moralise – in collaboration with curator Dora Strahm. Photos: Danielle Liniger Igniting the flames – fossil fuels continue to be the main cause of anthropogenic climate change. The human brain – the crucial tool for fighting global warming. www.revue.link/earthfolks over a number of stages which sustainability projects the exhibition should showcase and support in future with a small donation. “Every little helps,” says Strahm. No moralising If ”Earth, folks” has a message, it is that we must act – even though museum-goers may be forgiven for thinking that it is all too little too late, based on what they see in the exhibition. Yet the tone is anything but preachy. Before you walk in through the entrance, you are taken on a one-minute whistle-stop video journey through 4.5 billion years of the planet’s history. Humans only appear on screen at the very last moment. Later, there is a display cabinet containing the model of a human brain. Just a human brain and nothing else – the crucial tool for bringing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. The exhibition underscores that climate change and natural disasters have been constant factors throughout the Earth’s history. 18 Images
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